2015-2016 Opponents

[VULB#62]

I don't envy the coaches trying to put together a decent schedule next year but I would not mind having their salary .

[/quote]

I fixed it for you.

[StlVUFan]

Oakland has been criticized often for (and should stop) scheduling so many unwinnable payday games against high major schools. Yet I understand the challenge; how often will high majors actually give a good mid major team a game in a situation where they could win. There is just no incentive. If the high major wins they're supposed to. No gain.  If they should lose it goes down as a bad so-called "bad" loss and hurts their RPI boosts their RPI (for having played a team with a better record or, at the very least, on the road), demonstrates their weakness, harms their ranking, and diminishes their TV exposure. Big loss for them. Probably for us only the best of the high majors will play us as even though we were good this year and will be better next year they still don't consider us a threat. But they will play us only at their place and never give us a return game. Middling high majors won't want to play us even at home as there will be a decent chance that we could win.

So I wonder if next year we won't have to should, given that we're a much better team, take some of the same type games that Oakland was criticized for and shouldn't have been taking if we want the team to get the kind of invaluable experience against high major competition that is most constructive when there is a better-than-laughable chance of winning. Otherwise we are left with trying to schedule games with the best mid-majors we can with little chance of improving our RPI much next year over this year.

I don't envy the coaches trying to put together a decent schedule next year but I would mind having their salary .

No, it hurts their RPI -- "their" being the high major team that loses to the mid-major.  I think you misunderstood "their" in that sentence.

[Valpower]

No, it hurts their RPI -- "their" being the high major team that loses to the mid-major.  I think you misunderstood "their" in that sentence.

I'm alluding to the fact that scheduling a bad RPI team is the first thing that hurts your RPI, but losing to them hurts the same as losing to any other team (except for the home vs road difference).  Remember, if you play Duke and Chicago State, both home games, and you lose one and win the other, your RPI will be the same regardless of whom you beat.

[StlVUFan]

No, it hurts their RPI -- "their" being the high major team that loses to the mid-major.  I think you misunderstood "their" in that sentence.

I'm alluding to the fact that scheduling a bad RPI team is the first thing that hurts your RPI, but losing to them hurts the same as losing to any other team (except for the home vs road difference).  Remember, if you play Duke and Chicago State, both home games, and you lose one and win the other, your RPI will be the same regardless of whom you beat.

But that's not what nkvu meant by "hurts their RPI".  He was explaining the reasons why the high major refuses to schedule you.

[a3uge]

No, it hurts their RPI -- "their" being the high major team that loses to the mid-major.  I think you misunderstood "their" in that sentence.

I'm alluding to the fact that scheduling a bad RPI team is the first thing that hurts your RPI, but losing to them hurts the same as losing to any other team (except for the home vs road difference).  Remember, if you play Duke and Chicago State, both home games, and you lose one and win the other, your RPI will be the same regardless of whom you beat.

But that's not what nkvu meant by "hurts their RPI".  He was explaining the reasons why the high major refuses to schedule you.

Actually a 50 RPI Valpo team that finishes 25-5 is substantially better for a direct opponent's RPI and SOS than a 48 RPI UCLA team that finishes 20-13.

Its not the threat of a bad RPI they're afraid of, its the unneeded threat of losing at home. Power Conference teams can schedule 200+ RPI cupcakes with no repercussions because their conference will carry their RPI and SOS load.

[historyman]

I meant it as a joke

It's called a smiley ( )


Would it be better if I took it as a joke when you were serious?


I'm being serious about the use of smileys(sp?).   

[HC]

I'm seriously not using smileys.

[historyman]

I'm seriously not using smileys.

I can't tell if you're serious or not.

[HC]

That's part of what makes me great, and also very difficult to live with (I'm told).

[bbtds]

That's part of what makes me great, and also very difficult to live with (I'm told).

[agibson]

I meant it as a joke

I'm being serious about the use of smileys(sp?).   

This is starting to sound like an argument about vermouth.  HC can't stand the stuff.

I like a _glass_ of vermouth, on ice, just fine as a summer apertif (in France it's what you get when you order a martini - a glass of Martini and Rossi!). 

Humor might sometimes be best when it's not dripping with the stuff.

But, surely it's a matter of taste.

[agibson]

I'm alluding to the fact that scheduling a bad RPI team is the first thing that hurts your RPI, but losing to them hurts the same as losing to any other team (except for the home vs road difference).  Remember, if you play Duke and Chicago State, both home games, and you lose one and win the other, your RPI will be the same regardless of whom you beat.

For a single "major" team in isolation, what you're saying makes some sense.  If you only schedule low RPI patsies you're not going to wind up with a good RPI.

But, don't forget about the special sauce of conference play.  If _everybody_ plays patsies OOC, and comes in to conference play with a nice, shiny W-L record (even if it _shouldn't_ mean much) it's going to help boost all of their conference mates' RPI with the big, fat, 0.5*(opponents' W-L record) contribution to RPI.  And, everybody (in the conference) wins (and plays in the NCAA at-large or NIT) in the end.

Granted, that strategy works better when they play half-decent teams OOC.  But, probably only if they can win the games.

I've not run the numbers, but that seems to be about how it goes...

[valpopal]

Word seems to be that the Crusaders will make an international exhibition trip later this summer.

[valpo64]

Maybe the West Coast??

[agibson]

[tweet]603228754899513345[/tweet]

[valpopal]

It's Canada.

[bbtds]

It's Canada.

Could it be maybe around the Montreal area? That would be a good move for Max and Tevonn.

[valpo64]

Watch for a game or 2 on the West Coast.

[usc4valpo]

USC - Valpo?

[vu72]

Or could it be UCLA??  You know, one Indiana Mr. Basketball doing a favor for another??

[covufan]

It could also be the Canadian West Coast, after the Montreal area, in this preseason trip.

[a3uge]

Pepperdine, St Mary's.

[covufan]

Pepperdine, St Mary's.

Cal, UC Irvine, UC Davis, and Santa Barbara would be nice as well.  SD State might be a nice test, with a possible return trip to the ARC? 

[vu72]

Could this be part of a Horizon-West Coast Challenge?

[a3uge]

Could this be part of a Horizon-West Coast Challenge?

Mid major challenges don't work and don't exist.