scine20 wrote:Mike,
Thanks for all your insight. One thing I never understood when it comes to college basketball scheduling for schools in conferences like the Atlantic 10 who normally get multiple bids but in the end lose a bid or two because of a weaker non-conference schedule (i.e St. Bonaventure 2015-2016): Why don't schools (such as URI) go the route that Temple went under John Chaney and play anyone anywhere? I guess I don't see the downside. #1 it's a buy game so the school makes money on it (and even it's not a buy game it can help your resume which will help the school get to the tournament to recoup any money lost in travel expenses). #2 it can only improve the resume and the RPI. If you lose it doesn't hurt your RPI as much because road loss I believe count in your overall win/loss 70% but if you win it counts I believe 130%. #3 there's the chance that you build a rivalry with the other school and they agree to visit your place in the future. #4 nothing can prepare a school for conference play like a road game against a top 25 caliber opponent on the road. Playing at Houston is all fine and well but I'd rather see the school forget the home and home and travel to play a top end opponent on the road regardless of the school's location (go to the west coast if need be).
Maybe you guys have been trying to do just as I suggested without success (you did mention that the staff called all of the top 150 RPI schools) but wouldn't it be more beneficial for the top schools as well to host a school such as URI rather than to host a high 100/low 200 level, or worse, RPI team? In the same manner that it would be better for URI to host, say, Syracuse (I'm speaking hypothetically as I know Syracuse isn't coming to URI) than it would for them to host Dartmouth.
Thank you.
The John Chaney approach to non-conference scheduling is unique. So much so that nobody has really ever duplicated it. It comes down to individual scheduling philosophies and those can't be evaluated in a vacuum. Buy games do provide you the chance to play an opponent from another league and pick up a check, but, very few programs will buy a game they have a reasonable chance to lose. Not saying I agree with the principle, but it's a reality. And ultimately, we were not a team that others were looking to buy.
Very rarely does a buy game lead to a series. We did have an opportunity to begin a series with a team - Holy Cross - that we had played in a guarantee, but that is a rarity. As for getting bought, like any game we'd schedule, it would have to make sense within our scheduling needs for any particular need.
For us, having the opportunity to play three very difficult true road games (at Valpo, at Houston, at Providence) plus two high-level games as part of the MTE serve as great prep for conference play.