How much $ does it take to buy a quality home game?

[BirdofParadise]

There is a difference in playing home and home and bringing in a guarantee. And, to an extent I think that fact is being clouded here based on some of the comments I see.

First of all, UL isn't going to pay $100k to buy anyone. UCLA and Kansas don't pay that kind of money.

The teams you CAN get to come to the Dome for a GUARANTEE are probably limited to the SWAC, SLC and maybe Atlantic Sun and MEAC. No one else is coming for a guarantee.

In order to play home and home non conference as we are doing with Tech, McNeese and next year, Pepperdine,

1. Someone has to agree to play you non conference home and home.
2. The dates need to work out (more on that in a minute)
3. You have do come to an agreement when the series will start...home or road. (The possibility of playing twice in the same season exists, but doesn't happen often.) And, obviously, both coaches are trying to balance their home and away schedule..
4. Because of budget, it's preferable the home and home be against a team that you can bus to (this has changed in the last few years because of (more) budget cuts.) That's not in stone.
5. In a perfect world, your home plus neutral site games is greater than or equal to your pure road games. (Balancing the schedule.)

Now, let me address the date situation and we really don't talk about this a lot.

UL is the only school in the Sun Belt and the only one in Louisiana that I can think of that doesn't have total control over their playing dates. Because the Cajundome is a multi=purpose facility, there are only so many dates available. Those dates have to be turned into the Dome well ahead of time and once they are, there's no changing them because the Dome is going to schedule other events. That makes matching up dates with potential opponents even harder and makes it harder to get home games in non conference. Of course, we all know what happened last year with the unavailability of the Cajundome for the CIT.

All of that goes into scheduling.

Most teams will play home and home if they believe they have a reasonable chance of winning at your place. Marlin does have a reputation of being a good coach and that does, in part, make it tougher. Schools in leagues considered better than the Sun Belt really don't want to take a loss against a Sun Belt School, especially in the power six (I add the Big East).

Teams not wanting to play us at the Cajundome isn't new. Jessie had a helluva time trying to get non conference home games as well.

Marty's philosophy was he would play anyone who was willing to return the visit. Most of those series started on the road. Of course, Marty was able to buy games back then as well.

[CajunRebel]

Hopefully BOP can come in with the real stats here, but it seems like every OOC team we've played this year had insanely good home records over the past few years. Like 30-1 type records. In fact, it seems like damn near every basketball team you look at has insanely good home records. Yes, those teams were all really good. And yes, playing at home has always been a huge advantage in college basketball. But I promise all these teams didn't get those records by scheduling great, competitive basketball teams.

These weak OOC Home schedules are obviously a huge problem in college basketball. It doesn't surprise me at all that no one wants to play us home/home. I know Marlin hasn't achieved a lot of the goals we wanted to see, but on average, Coach Marlin puts good teams on the court. Teams that would be a threat to any decent mid major program. It seems like in 2015 coaches are going out of their way to avoid that sort of matchup.

[BirdofParadise]

Hopefully BOP can come in with the real stats here, but it seems like every OOC team we've played this year had insanely good home records over the past few years. Like 30-1 type records. In fact, it seems like damn near every basketball team you look at has insanely good home records. Yes, those teams were all really good. And yes, playing at home has always been a huge advantage in college basketball. But I promise all these teams didn't get those records by scheduling great, competitive basketball teams.

These weak OOC Home schedules are obviously a huge problem in college basketball. It doesn't surprise me at all that no one wants to play us home/home. I know Marlin hasn't achieved a lot of the goals we wanted to see, but on average, Coach Marlin puts good teams on the court. Teams that would be a threat to any decent mid major program. It seems like in 2015 coaches are going out of their way to avoid that sort of matchup.

I don't know what happened last week, but until then, our non conference road opponents were 54-5 combined at home this year.

[CajunRebel]

I don't know what happened last week, but until then, our non conference road opponents were 54-5 combined at home this year.

Thanks.

[BirdofParadise]

Concerning guarantee games:

Each year, coach Marlin is given a figure he's asked to bring in. Usually two guarantee games will cover it. Coach Marlin has the option to bring in a bigger number if there's something special he wants to do. For instance, the trip to Spain a couple of years ago.

The figure he is given that must be brought in goes into the general fund for athletics. Now, to be fair, that is true of football as well. But since the vast percentage of your athletic budget goes to football, it stands to reason most of the guarantee money goes to football as well.

To answer another question, while you say our fans understand how nearly impossible it is to get an at large berth, some people on this board still bring that up...which was why I did.

As far as the NIT is concerned, you get an auto berth by winning your regular season in conference. You can go oh-fer in non conference and still get an NIT bid if you win your league.

The at-large bid for the NIT is pretty few and far between for mid-majors. If my memory serves me right, there were three given out last year. The bulk of the NIT goes to high major and nearly high major (Atlantic 10, Missouri VAlley, WCC, etc.) teams and auto qualifiers.

It's very difficult to get into the NIT as a mid major at large nowadays. Since the NCAA took it over, it's been an extension of the NCAA tournament. If you are a mid major from the Sun Belt, you probably need 24+ wins.

Ive said more than once the closest thing to the NIT that we remember is the CIT....primarily for mid majors....and I remember when the majority of NIT teams fit in that category. No more.

[Turbine]

... more money game. Use that money to help buy a decent 1A game. Problem solved.

I would look at the current buy a game budget and lock it in. Even if it is currently zero.

Then I suggest taking 30% of every money game and dedicating it to buy future games.

Either hold each 30% for a while and use it to buy a big draw, or sparse it out for several small draws, or some long term version of both.

If they can afford to save more than 30%, do it.

[ManAboutTown]

So, our venue is now putting a strain on how we schedule our home games? The deeper we dig into this, the more ridiculous it gets. If the venue hamstrings scheduling, why not take the money we're kicking into the CajunDome reno, and give blackham a makeover? I know this has been brought up before, but this reason, more than any other gives much more credence to the idea.

[MelRock]

Everyone needs to stop thinking about Blackham, that ain't happening. It is the future site of the Heymann Performing Arts Center. The Cajundome has always been a problem with not just scheduling but practice as well. I made the comment that I would not support the Ice Gators because it takes away time from the basketball team and I was chastised and called stupid.

[Cajunsmike]

Everyone needs to stop thinking about Blackham, that ain't happening. It is the future site of the Heymann Performing Arts Center. The Cajundome has always been a problem with not just scheduling but practice as well. I made the comment that I would not support the Ice Gators because it takes away time from the basketball team and I was chastised and called stupid.

I certainly did not chastise you for that view as mine is the same.

[duggie85]

Everyone needs to stop thinking about Blackham, that ain't happening. It is the future site of the Heymann Performing Arts Center. The Cajundome has always been a problem with not just scheduling but practice as well. I made the comment that I would not support the Ice Gators because it takes away time from the basketball team and I was chastised and called stupid.

Mel, it would certainly add to the list of things to complain about.

Imagine the first game when it's raining and the only option for non RCAF parking is in a grass field that is flooded?!

[Cajunsmike]

I would look at the current buy a game budget and lock it in. Even if it is currently zero.

Then I suggest taking 30% of every money game and dedicating it to buy future games.

Either hold each 30% for a while and use it to buy a big draw, or sparse it out for several small draws, or some long term version of both.

If they can afford to save more than 30%, do it.

As Jay explained, big draws do not come to schools like us much. A few smaller draws would work.

[Cajunsmike]

As Jay explained, big draws do not come to schools like us much. A few smaller draws would work.

One more comment about this. Non conference games are over. It is not the fault of the team or staff that McNeese is so weak this year or that the UNO game was on the night of a Saints game. Team seems to have improved and I know staff is encouraged. We now have several conference games at home coming up. If what we saw in Georgia is any indication, those could be fun. Let's focus on those now and worry about the pre conference schedule after the season. When that time arrives next year, best way to impact that is for you guys with concerns to attend the Pepperdine and Tech games. That may give encouragement that buying a D1 game is worth it. That is for later. Right now, jags are the issue. This has been an informative debate however.