A Conversation With Dr. Maggard

[CajunVic]

I’m sure you can find one here and one there but generally that does not happen. And most often than not, when it does, there are special circumstances why it happened that are not in play for us. Folks, you heard it from her mouth of the one WE TRUST. Do we trust Dr. Maggard or do we not?

[Cajunsmike]

Yes really. I’ve seen better teams visiting GSU, stAte, USA and others. Not every year for those teams, but every year from what are considered mid majors vs objectively better teams. Marlin is zero for his tenure here. It’s an unfortunate truth about where we are.

We played Houston here in December of 2013. That may be the last time we had a well known out of conference opponent come to the Dome. Granted that was before the Cougars made such a big move up. It has been fueled by the Rockets owner putting lots of money into their program. Still, that is at least one school from a higher level conference that has come here which is more than zero. La. Tech has been here several times but I get that is a peer and not from a higher level league. Auburn did go to South Alabama but that was a 2 for 1 deal. Dr. Maggard said in the interview that we are very unlikely to enter into one of those.

[Turbine]

Schedules are worked on years in advance and the first thing opponents will look at is your RPI now and what it has been for the last few years.

The school that can give an ROE will attract road teams.

An unused model does not make it the wrong model.

[CajunVic]

Schedules are worked on years in advance and the first thing opponents will look at is your RPI now and what it has been for the last few years.

The school that can give an ROE will attract road teams.

An unused model does not make it the wrong model.

If you have it figured out, you could probably make a bundle assisting the hundreds of teams that have not. Might be a great business venture for you.

Or maybe you could send it to Dr. Maggard, I’m quite sure he is always interested in being a better AD.

[Cajunsmike]

Schedules are worked on years in advance and the first thing opponents will look at is your RPI now and what it has been for the last few years.

The school that can give an ROE will attract road teams.

An unused model does not make it the wrong model.

Basketball schedules are not like football. They generally are finalized a few months before the season begins. The MTE we are playing in was not finalized until August. That is why Jackson State is playing here and not Yale as was the original plan. A third non D1 game was set after a well known mid major backed out of a verbal agreement to play in order to play a fourth non D1 game. Jay Walker said that in a recent Scott Prather interview. There are some series that are 2 to 4 year agreements but they don't cover the bulk of the non conference schedule. We have those with La Tech, McNeese, USM, and UNO at this time but that is it. Tech and USM come here next year. Our road schedule makes our RPI OK. This year we play a blueblood Big 10 team in Indiana, a 2021 Final Four team in Houston, and two strong CUSA teams in Tech and Marshall. What has been missing is success in those road games. That is what is needed to improve the RPI or NET. Coach Marlin did admit that we need to improve the non conference home schedule in a recent interview. Finished his comments by saying we have to find a way to raise/allocate money for that to happen.

[Big Buds]

Basketball schedules are wrapped up 12-6 months before the season. Louisiana needs to do a better job on OOC home games.

[Turbine]

Basketball schedules are not like football. They generally are finalized a few months before the season begins. The MTE we are playing in was not finalized until August. That is why Jackson State is playing here and not Yale as was the original plan. A third non D1 game was set after a well known mid major backed out of a verbal agreement to play in order to play a fourth non D1 game. Jay Walker said that in a recent Scott Prather interview. There are some series that are 2 to 4 year agreements but they don't cover the bulk of the non conference schedule. We have those with La Tech, McNeese, USM, and UNO at this time but that is it. Tech and USM come here next year. Our road schedule makes our RPI OK. This year we play a blueblood Big 10 team in Indiana, a 2021 Final Four team in Houston, and two strong CUSA teams in Tech and Marshall. What has been missing is success in those road games. That is what is needed to improve the RPI or NET. Coach Marlin did admit that we need to improve the non conference home schedule in a recent interview. Finished his comments by saying we have to find a way to raise/allocate money for that to happen.

"finalized"

[Turbine]

If you have it figured out, you could probably make a bundle assisting the hundreds of teams that have not. Might be a great business venture for you.

Or maybe you could send it to Dr. Maggard, I’m quite sure he is always interested in being a better AD.

Don't be a fool.

The current model is not working.

[CajunVic]

Don't be a fool.

The current model is not working.

Like I tell my Lab when she barks . . . Be nice . . .

And I’m sure if you have $80,000 to $100,000 hanging around for each home game you would like them to schedule, he would be happy to take it . . .

[JMV JustMyView]

Don't be a fool.

The current model is not working.

Scheduling has been weak for a long time.

[Cajunsmike]

Don't be a fool.

The current model is not working.

Current model is not working for anyone at our level. To show you the imbalance, LSU only has one true non conference road game prior to the SEC season starting. P5 teams simply refuse to go on the road and buy home games instead. They play neutral court tournaments against the better competition to supposedly prepare for conference play. In order to change things, conference commissioners need to get involved. We could play more pay day road games to get our RPI up but we are required by Learfield to have so many home games and we don't want to miss too much class time either. It is not true that basketball schedules are finalized 12 to 16 months in advance. Coach Marlin and Coach Brodhead were on with Jay tonight in the Louisiana Athletics Live show. Coach Marlin said that as of late August, 8 of the 12 teams in the league had not finalized their schedules for this year. There was also a comment made that the SBC limits basketball teams to 3 non D1 games (It used to be 2 but the pandemic pushed it back up due to finances). Some teams may be playing 4 and just paying the fine for breaking the rule. There is a simple partial solution going forward once the league expands. That is to play 20 conference games assuring you of 10 home games. That will still result in a variety of opponents being played with 14 teams in the league. We may have 16 for a year or two in fact. I would also do 2 for 1 deals but the AD does not think those are wise moves. I do agree the status quo is not a favorable situation for any team in the SBC but I don't know what the answer is.

[CajunVic]

"finalized"

Or maybe not . . . Don’t be a fool