Basketball Scheduling Changes

[ULvictory]

Desperate or progressive?

The idea itself is progressive but the reason behind actually doing it is desperate

[Turbine]

The idea itself is progressive but the reason behind actually doing it is desperate

Desperate is the mother of progressive.

[Balanced_view]

I don't like this alliance thing.

I've always been one to balk at the idea that your conference defines you. The CUSA guys don't want to do this. They would rather align with the MVC and the Colonial. Suppose they do that. Who replaces them in our alliance? The SLC?

What if the Horizon finds a better grouping for them? Now we get the A-Sun?

Where do these alliances stop? Suppose the AAC and MWC hook up for football? Then the MAC and CUSA align. What do we do?

CUSA leadership doesn't ask what the few fans on BBS think when they make these types of decision. lets not base what will happen off what they feel they are and should be.

[Balanced_view]

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.

completely agree with all of this. so the question for Louisiana, is it worth it to us, as we try to build a consistent at-large bubble level program,( just start by trying to make it to the bubble year in and year out) to lose a couple low to no rpi home games for high rpi road games?

[Duggie35]

Anything that helps not having to pay to see games against Loyola, Millsaps, Panhandle State, West Florida, etc. is a plus!

[talktomewillis]

Anything that helps not having to pay to see games against Loyola, Millsaps, Panhandle State, West Florida, etc. is a plus!

The new scheduling criteria does not ban non-D1 games.

[Cajunsmike]

The new scheduling criteria does not ban non-D1 games.

It does not, but it gives you 22 games. You will now have 20 conference games and 2 alliance games. You are allowed 29 unless you play in an exempt tournaments which can get you to 31. It should allow fewer non D1 games. Right now you are allowed 2 non D1 games, I would hope most schools reduce it to 1 with the scheduling help they are now receiving. On another matter, the league is keeping Mark Adams on as a scheduling facilitator according to what Commissioner Benson said yesterday. He probably will be the one deciding which alliance games are played within the three leagues. My hope is that he can get us more D1 games against other leagues besides those in the alliance.

[Cajunsmike]

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.

Commissioner Benson in his interview yesterday with Jay indicated the Horizon and CUSA are the alliance leagues. AD Bryan Maggard did the same this morning in his interview with Steve and Cody. It appears that the presidents have put economics ahead of the egos of some fans. They don't have much choice in the world of today. I think fans are overreacting. You will probably play one game against each of the alliance leagues. That means CUSA teams will likely have to play one SBC team per year and it will be at home every other year. That won't kill any of their programs.

[CajunNation]

Commissioner Benson just finished an interview with Jay. He "virtually" confirmed that CUSA and the Horizon are the peer conferences in the alliance. Another positive development is that Mark Adams will stay employed by the conference as a scheduling facilitator. A part of that job will be to get more league teams into exempt tournaments. We are likely to play in one this coming season. It is not your normal tourney format. We will go to a couple of the big schools and have a couple of mid major schools come here. We did that two years ago.

Awesome. Thanks for the info.

Sounds like a few schools are finally starting to "get it" and bury some egos.

[Duggie35]

The new scheduling criteria does not ban non-D1 games.

I realize that, but as Jay Walker mentioned on his broadcast yesterday, these extra guaranteed games should eliminate any excused for scheduling non-D1's in the future! These two new Alliance games could simply replace the 2 non-D1's we have been seeing each year even if everything else just remains the same.

[CajunRebel]

This is a positive step, but I feel like people are forgetting the fact that these are still reallly crappy basketball leagues. There are more teams we don’t want to play in those conferences than teams we do want to play. Only 4 of 14 C-USA teams were in the top 150 in RPI. Only 2 of 10 Horizon teams were in the top 150.

I’d be curious to know how secheduling will work for this.

[CajunNation]

This is a positive step, but I feel like people are forgetting the fact that these are still reallly crappy basketball leagues. There are more teams we don't want to play in those conferences than teams we do want to play. Only 4 of 14 C-USA teams were in the top 150 in RPI. Only 2 of 10 Horizon teams were in the top 150.

I'd be curious to know how secheduling will work for this.

Basically, top top RPI teams from your league will play the top RPI teams from the other leagues. Subsequently, the middle plays the middle and the worst RPI plays the worst RPI.

The idea is to protect your good RPI teams while making non-conference scheduling a liitle easier for everyone.