Horizon attempts to block Butler from tourney; Butler splits

In a response to the Horizon League blocking Butler from the conference postseason in 2012-13, those same Butler Bulldogs have decided to pack up and leave early for the Atlantic 10, making that block worthless.

It's a situation that, unfortunately, makes no one look good. Butler looks like they're slinking out the back door, ignoring the conference that made them what they are today. They're dropping another year of all the shares that they gained through two Final Fours, but the Bulldogs are willing to sacrifice that and aren't worried about saving face because, let's face it, they had no choice.

The Horizon League and its decision-makers, on the other hand, look like jilted lovers. The move they pulled was extremely petty, and it ultimately hurt its conference members. Instead of the luxury of time, now the Horizon League needs to find a sixth baseball member by the 2014 season - just two years from now. Most teams would not leave their conference immediately this late in the game, so you're really looking at 11 months the conference has to replace Butler or lose their automatic bid. Continuing on, Butler was the largest gate for every Horizon League team. They had the best traveling fan base, and their existence led to a better (albeit still awful) television deal with ESPN. Now that they're leaving early, schools are going to lose tens of thousands of dollars in money at the gate - whether or not you like Butler, you can't deny that the Bulldogs filled arenas across the conference better than any in the Horizon.

So what are we left with? Scrambled eggs. The Horizon League has two major problems - a quick deadline to replenish the baseball conference and a need to replace the best men's basketball program in conference history - and it needs to solve them fast.

By May 2013, if the Horizon League doesn't have an immediate replacement for Butler, the conference will lose its automatic bid in baseball.

Jon LeCrone has said multiple times that this is going to be about the student-athletes. That we're not going to listen to the bloggers. Well, cheap shot at me aside, aggressive expansion and the benefit of our student-athletes are not mutually exclusive.

Let's hope they've got a party coming to save the day.