Scheduling

[mj]

Here's the non-conference home schedule for the last 4 years. Excluding exhibition and Bracketbuster games. 

10-11: IU Northwest, PNC, Purdue, IPFW, Ball State
09-10: IU South Bend, Toledo, Concordia WI
08-09: Elmhurst, Marian, UCF, IPFW, North Park
07-08: Grace, Western Michigan, Ball State, Evansville, Chicago State, Indiana Wesleyan

Out of 19 home games, 9 are against non Division 1 teams. What exactly are we giving up if we schedule road games instead of those home games?

[valpo84]

There is constantly complaining about the quality of the schedule. Yes, it's bad but here are some considerations.

1. The games against non-D1 teams have no effect on RPI and are in essence preseason games. It's nice once in awhile to have a game that you can work on things without the pressures of it counting against your RPI or that "you have to win". Fans like blow outs and dunks and showtime. Everyone gets their work in and you (hopefully) have a win. Everyone schedules these including BCS schools.

2. Competitive mid-majors should want home and homes with Valpos, UWMs, Cleveland States, etc. but they also need wins and are concerned about their RPIs. What some mid-majors have learned is that playing other good mid-majors can actually help you. They also need a few good games at home for their fan base to get excited. Hence the idea of certain high-level mid-major conferences banding together to play each other is a great idea. But, what happens when you have a down year and you're playing a down Drake or Georgia State. Not everyone gets the top 3 teams in the other conference. Your RPI isn't any better than playing Toledo or Chicago State.

3. BCS schools don't have any interest in playing competitive mid-majors. Some do because of relationships or that their coaches do understand that it can help later. But those coaches are rare (the late Skip Prosser would always schedule away games to help his team prepare for road ACC venues and Dino picked that up -- it led to them breaking BYU's home winning streak, playing Bucknell (Skip's son was an assistant, and a couple recent games against CAA opponents at their venues.) Those programs also need wins at home to please the fan base and they need home games to pay for the program. Hence, the BigLeast rarely goes on the road. Syracuse has to fill the Carrier Dome and does so against cupcakes, occasionally one of those rise up and bite them. By the way, when the whole conference plays cupcakes and starts 12-0, 11-1, 13-2 then the conference season starts with high RPIs playing high RPIs. And ultimately leads to a bunch of mediocre BigLeast teams in the Dance each year only to lose in the first or second round. But good mid-majors also don't mind the paydays from taking games at these locations. It's serious money and there can be a tension there between the ADs budget concerns and the coach's W-L % concerns.

4. With Bracketbuster, every other year you should have a good mid-major in town in you had a good opponent the year before. We will go on the road to Mo St this year or next. That actually may work for us because with Cuonzo gone, there may be a couple year adjustment period. 

5. Tournaments help your schedule because you may get some good games on neutral floors and some of them may not count against your # of game requirements. Remember with the Horizon, we only have about 9-10 non-conference games without exempted games. This year we had two tourneys -- one that included the Kansas road game, and then two good neutral court games, and the Oakland tourney which gave us two good games. These help your battle toughness, prepare you for conference tourney and give the kids a road trip hopefully to a fun and sunny place. So check off a couple games there and you are down to about 7-8 non-conference games. Now, add in a couple previously scheduled home and homes or 2 for 1s and you see the dilemma created in scheduling. 

This year's non-conf schedule was one of the better ones especially when you add in Missouri State and Iona. If we could get that every year, we should be content. This year there should be a BB return game from Bowling Green which is a MAC. Maybe a return game from Ohio (another MAC), That leaves about 1-2 home games to fill. But to get the teams you want is not going to happen until you can offer serious dollars to them to come to the ARC or there is TV money on the table. The alternative is to rise up to Butler's level in order to get the neutral sites match ups you want or the middle and bottom feeders of BCS conferences are not fearful that a loss will destroy their RPIs. Look we had a home and home scheduled with NC State a few years ago. We unfortunately didn't take advantage and win that game there. NC State was slightly down, the RBC Center was half empty and we had a decent team. NC State then delayed and eventually cancelled the return game. Huggybear for all his issues has always scheduled some home and homes, including one with Valpo and recently with Cleveland State. Coaches have to want to be fair to mid-majors remembering when they were mid-major coaches, or want to really prepare their teams for hostile environs. The good news is our home conference schedule is pretty good now with the Horizon and as the conference continues to get stronger top to bottom, the home schedule gets tougher, what coach wants a really tough non-conf when he needs to show 20 wins a year?