Nostalgia During Bulldogs' Move to A-10

What I'll Miss about Butler in the Horizon League

While I am excited that the Butler Bulldogs will be challenged by better in-league competition by moving to the A-10, there are still several reasons why I wish they would have stayed in the Horizon League:

1. HLN: How great was it knowing that you could watch every league game and all non-conference home games on the Horizon League Network, especially for someone who doesn't live in Indiana and could see the games on my-INDY TV.  In the A-10, the Bulldogs will have some games on ESPN3, but the quality there is much worse than the quality of the games on HLN with UStream.

2. Full Game archives on Butler's UStream Channel: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/hlnbutler

3. Travel Partner System: It was nice knowing that if you saw the Bulldogs playing at UIC on a Thursday, they would be at Loyola that Saturday.  Or if they were at Green Bay on a Friday, they would be at Milwaukee on Sunday.  Or if they were playing Valpo, that would likely be their only league game that week.  The Travel Partner System provided structure to the schedule, structure that the A-10 schedule is really lacking.

4. Playing each league team the same number of times: That is the only way for each team to have a fair conference schedule, playing each team twice, once home and once away.  With the proposed A-10 schedule for 2012-13, Butler could be playing only Saint Louis twice (arguably one of the best teams in the league), and also draw some of the tougher teams on the road and not at home.

5. Will Haskett's Horizon League Rundown: He always covered the top stories in the HL on Rundown each Tuesday.