The A10 had some meager years in the early 2000s, too. 1 bid in 2001, then a 1-2-2 bid stretch between 2005-2007. Including 2006 which would have also been a 1 bid year if not for the upset of GW in the A10 tourney. 1 loss in the A10 tourney knocked a 26-2 GW team down to an 8 seed. Say what you will about the current A10, but a 2020 A10 tourney loss definitely wasnt knocking Dayton down that low.
A critical difference between then, and now, that Rothstein and so many others seem to miss is the perception of having a team or two in the top 15-20. For such a long time, we had Temple, or Xavier, or both flirting in that range of top 5 seed/national recognition. Even if only sending 2-3 teams, having one or two of them be at that level raised what the perception of the league was. A league with 3 tournament teams and one of them being a 2 or 3 seed turns the page a lot more than, say, 2018- when it was 3 teams seeded 7, 11 play-in, and 12.
We've seen 0 A10 teams with better than a 7 seed since 2014. And no advancement to the second weekend since that time, either. Top to bottom, the number of teams in the tournament/NIT/on the bubble down the stretch hasnt changed that much, nor has the number of teams in the top 75, 100, etc. 2019 was abysmal, to be sure- and 2020 was underwhelming too. I agree with 03, last year we were a sniff and some better fortunes away from being 3-4 teams vs 2. Next year could be as low as 2 again, but I expect up to 5 to be in the discussion.
A much more succinct way to say it is the top to bottom hasn't changed all that much, only the ceiling has. The fact that we have a huge opportunity to be the type of team to raise the ceiling for the league this year is pretty fuckin' awesome.