Just a second.....I need to check my notes before we start today's offering.
Yes, Green, Gold and Bold has learned that USF is still in the American Conference. There was a rumor the Bulls had joined the Atlantic 10 after Wednesday's announcement that they have scheduled a home-and-home basketball series with George Mason, but that was fake news.
Obviously I'm just kidding. But it is true that the non-conference portion of the men's basketball schedule has heavy doses of A-10 teams.
Headed to the DMV this year đź‘€
— USF Men's Basketball (@USFMBB) July 1, 2026
Return game in the YC in 2027 🔜 pic.twitter.com/z64tRbbjYH
New head coach Chris Mack previously announced games against Dayton, St. Joseph's, and St. Louis -- all members of the A-10. This makes four of the league's 14 teams on USF's schedule. George Mason and Dayton are home-and-home contracts while the St. Joseph's is part of the four-team Veteran's Classic at the U.S. Naval Academy.
The St. Louis game is part of the Amercan Conference-Atlantic 10 Challenge, which also includes Memphis and Dayton. The games will be played at a neutral site.
The Atlantic 10 is a solid mid-major conference and those four opponents occupied four of the league's top five spots in last season's standings. St. Louis was the regular-season champion while VCU won the conference tournament.
WarrenNolan.com rated the A-10 as the seventh best Division I conference last season while the American was ranked 10th. USF got the American's only NCAA tournament bid.
A tougher non-conference schedule could be a factor if USF needs an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. USF also is at DePaul and has a home game against Alabama.
It's all about trying to get as many Quad 1 and Quad 2 games as possible. Those are key components of the NCAA's NET system used to measure tournament seedings and which teams get at-large bids in the expanded field.
"We wanted to make sure that we had enough opportunitiest between Quad 1 and Quad 2, both home and away," Mack told Green, Gold and Bold during a recent interview.
"If we take care of business in the non-conference, and obviously, we get a little bit of help from some other teams in our league because they have to be able to hit their mark as well, it could be OK. I think the expansion (of the tournament) will help. This historically -- outside of the last two years -- has been a league that's gotten multiple bids. 
I think that you can do it if you put together a really good non-conference schedule, it helps you in the end."
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