Basketball Scheduling Changes

[Cajun Troll]

With the mirror scheduling starting this season. Is this going to put the women's team in EKL Gym instead of the Cajundome for home games.
The other thing to note is that the Cajundome will have to avoid scheduling anything else during the conference basketball tourneys as they have to have dates available for the on campus site games.

[Cajun90]

Jay strongly advocated they be done away with on his show today. Note the scheduling changes don’t go into effect this season so we may have one or two again this coming year. Perhaps they disappear in 2019-2020.

Getting rid of them isn't the big part of the equation however. Who do you replace them with? If you can't replace them with a Div 1 team that historically has a good win/lose record (approx top 150 rpi) you do more harm than good.

[CajunNation]

Getting rid of them isn't the big part of the equation however. Who do you replace them with? If you can't replace them with a Div 1 team that historically has a good win/lose record (approx top 150 rpi) you do more harm than good.

We can kitty foot around this for as long as we want, but mid majors will no longer be able to get at-larges with just wins. We will have to schedule tougher to get more opportunities for quality RPI wins. That will mean going on the road a few more times each season, a couple less home games each season. What we do with those opportunities is up to us.

There are no guarantees. We might schedule tough and they turn out to be low RPI schools that season, but not trying is inexcusable.

I can't imagine one player who would rather play Delta State at home than go on the road at a big time college basketball school.

[talktomewillis]

The days of at-large bids for mid majors is over, unless you win 30 games and even then it's not a given. Unless you beat Kansas or something.

The strengthening of schedule can, however, help in a seeding if you make the tournament as an automatic, as will this new scheduling philosophy.

But in my opinion, the at-large thing ain't happenin any more.

[CajunNation]

The days of at-large bids for mid majors is over, unless you win 30 games and even then it's not a given. Unless you beat Kansas or something.

The strengthening of schedule can, however, help in a seeding if you make the tournament as an automatic, as will this new scheduling philosophy.

But in my opinion, the at-large thing ain't happenin any more.

IF there is an at-large for a mid-major, this is the only way it will come. However, like you said, the benefits of scheduling much tougher will be felt conference wide.

We are not re-inventing the wheel here. This has been done before by the MVC.

[cajun_lannister]

The days of at-large bids for mid majors is over, unless you win 30 games and even then it's not a given. Unless you beat Kansas or something.

The strengthening of schedule can, however, help in a seeding if you make the tournament as an automatic, as will this new scheduling philosophy.

But in my opinion, the at-large thing ain't happenin any more.

Take out the At-large stuff I still prefer a Strong SOS even if we don't win 20 games. Iron Sharpens Iron, and with an improved OCS we maybe won't be skull dragged by any team with a pulse

[ULvictory]

The days of at-large bids for mid majors is over, unless you win 30 games and even then it's not a given. Unless you beat Kansas or something.

The strengthening of schedule can, however, help in a seeding if you make the tournament as an automatic, as will this new scheduling philosophy.

But in my opinion, the at-large thing ain't happenin any more.

And THIS, my friend, is why basketball is dying on a vine. If these morons want to take away the exact reason of why people watch the tournament in the first place (Cinderella mid-majors), then so be it.

Now at the same time, I would STILL rather schedule a little tougher OOC. Yes, it would be a burden to lose to the likes of Ole Miss and Clemson; but it's almost like the St. Peter's argument in baseball. Winning two/three games against NAIA and Divison II competition doesn't do as much as losing to an SEC opponent. If anything, we need to a better job PREPARING to beat those teams.

[Cajun90]

Yes, it would be a burden to lose to the likes of Ole Miss and Clemson; but it's almost like the St. Peter's argument in baseball.

Keep in mind the St. Peter's argument had to do with the number of losses we were saddled with. IN basketball last season we played four teams OOC that had a winning record. Seven OOC teams had a losing record. Keep in mind 50% of the rpi calculation is your opponents record. It's great to add a good SEC team to the mix but just as important or more important is to try and schedule teams that typically have a winning record at any level. A game against FGCU this past year would, more than likely, have been worth more than the Ole Miss game.

I'm glad to see the scheduling change as well. The conference was ranked 20th in RPI this past season. That is pathetic and hurts our cause. Eight of the twelve teams in the league were in group #4 of the RPI calcs. As a league we played a total of twenty-one games against group #1 opponents and came away with two wins. Ironically nine of those twenty-one games came from the fact the Cajuns were group #1 for road games in conference and account for one of the wins against group #1 opponents.

Our non-conference SOS was 156 and our overall was 210. Obviously we need to do better in OOC scheduling and this appears like it could help but unless the SBC picks it up across the board I don't think it matters what we do for OOC scheduling because it won't overcome the SBC schedule.

[ULvictory]

Keep in mind the St. Peter's argument had to do with the number of losses we were saddled with. IN basketball last season we played four teams OOC that had a winning record. Seven OOC teams had a losing record. Keep in mind 50% of the rpi calculation is your opponents record. It's great to add a good SEC team to the mix but just as important or more important is to try and schedule teams that typically have a winning record at any level. A game against FGCU this past year would, more than likely, have been worth more than the Ole Miss game.

I'm glad to see the scheduling change as well. The conference was ranked 20th in RPI this past season. That is pathetic and hurts our cause. Eight of the twelve teams in the league were in group #4 of the RPI calcs. As a league we played a total of twenty-one games against group #1 opponents and came away with two wins. Ironically nine of those twenty-one games came from the fact the Cajuns were group #1 for road games in conference and account for one of the wins against group #1 opponents.

Our non-conference SOS was 156 and our overall was 210. Obviously we need to do better in OOC scheduling and this appears like it could help but unless the SBC picks it up across the board I don't think it matters what we do for OOC scheduling because it won't overcome the SBC schedule.

I used the St. Peter's argument because even though we swept them, our RPI took a MASSIVE hit with the fact that they went winless. And yes, we lost more games than we would've liked; but we still would've been in a better position for a regional berth without playing them even with those losses.

As far as basketball, I like the proposal that the conference is putting forth. But what it also tells me is that they're desperate. Obviously, our conference isn't that great. We all know that. But one thing that has always bothered me about our conference is that we do not know how to think ahead. This proposal should've been implemented at least 5-7 years ago after the last conference realignment. Knowing that P5 schools would try to create their little monopoly, the likes of the Sun Belt, CUSA, Horizon League, etc. should have known that this was bound to happen. It wasn't until this year where we saw that the Sun Belt and CUSA are obviously one-bid leagues where they decided to do something about it. The P5 schools didn't think of all of this in just one year. This was years in the making. What the mid-major conferences should've done was come up with this type of business model early on and evolve from it. Instead, we are starting from step 1 when it already may be too late.

[CajunNation]

I don't know if the scheduling alliance will include CUSA. They are fussing pretty hard on their BBS Board about this. Of course, they think they are above us and the Horizon.

[ULvictory]

I don't know if the scheduling alliance will include CUSA. They are fussing pretty hard on their BBS Board about this. Of course, they think they are above us and the Horizon.

BBS forgets that the last time their beloved team made the dance, the public hadn’t found out that Mili Vanilli were lip synchers.

Edit: I thought you were talking about Rustonia. I’m sure with their inflated egos, they aren’t happy about this either.

[Cajun90]

I don't know if the scheduling alliance will include CUSA. They are fussing pretty hard on their BBS Board about this. Of course, they think they are above us and the Horizon.

They are according to the conference RPI data I could find. Anywhere from 4 to 6 slots higher. But before they protest too much they might want to take note that in 2017 SBC was a full 10 slots higher than CUSA.