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How will scheduling be done next season?...will there be 2 divisions or just one like this year?

You're timing is bad. Lots of butt hurt football fans around here. I'd like to know the answer as well.

It hasn't been announced yet.

They haven't used divisions in basketball, other than for scheduling in several years. I doubt they return to it.

(01-27-2014 10:00 PM)BlazerGold09 Wrote:  You're timing is bad. Lots of butt hurt football fans around here. I'd like to know the answer as well.

Yeah timing. How dare someone ask a basketball question during basketball season. This is the state of Alabama dammit

The only rumor I've seen from Banowsky was a suggestion for 19 conference games; 2 games against each team in your division and 1 game against opposite division.

(01-28-2014 12:01 AM)BeliefBlazer Wrote:  The only rumor I've seen from Banowsky was a suggestion for 19 conference games; 2 games against each team in your division and 1 game against opposite division.

Thus ensuring that no team will ever get an at large bid.

In order to get a shot at an at large bid, CUSA teams have to play a tough OOC schedule. Having only 11 or 12 OOC games does not give much flexibility.

I don't completely buy that. Most are playing a couple of D2 teams now. Drop them.

More conference games means a weaker RPI & more guaranteed losses for at least 1 of the 2 teams playing.

What he said. The smart conferences do what they can to game the system and build the RPI of conference teams. Ours is bad enough as it is.

(01-28-2014 09:08 AM)BeliefBlazer Wrote:  I don't completely buy that. Most are playing a couple of D2 teams now. Drop them.

I'm with you here. I think the 19 game schedule could work if we set up some kind of league OOC scheduling mandate.

We all need to take a look at what Southern Miss did this year and kind of follow suit. They played a lot of road games OOC and found a way to win most of them. It really helps your RPI to pick up road wins, regardless of who you are playing. Even with a couple of "bad" losses their RPI is still strong. If we could get 3 or 4 teams to get RPI's in the top 60-70 most years, our odds of getting an at large increase dramatically. The biggest problem in conference right now is the dead weight. We have so many teams 200+, and they offer nothing but the possibility of terrible losses. I don't know what exactly the answer is, but whatever happened this year didn't work out so well.

I'm betting the conference sticks with a 16-game schedule. Play 10 teams alternating home and away, then play the other three teams both home and away. I'm hoping the conference sticks with a permanent rivalry series for one of those three.

Rivalry Series:
UAB-Charlotte
Southern Miss-La Tech
North Texas-Rice
UTEP-UTSA
Western Kentucky-MTSU
Old Dominion-Marshall
FIU-FAU

Some UAB fans might prefer Southern Miss or MTSU as the rival, but it doesn't really work out that way geographically. Plus Western and Middle have too much history to split them up.

(01-28-2014 10:14 AM)blazers9911 Wrote:  

(01-28-2014 09:08 AM)BeliefBlazer Wrote:  I don't completely buy that. Most are playing a couple of D2 teams now. Drop them.

I'm with you here. I think the 19 game schedule could work if we set up some kind of league OOC scheduling mandate.

We all need to take a look at what Southern Miss did this year and kind of follow suit. They played a lot of road games OOC and found a way to win most of them. It really helps your RPI to pick up road wins, regardless of who you are playing. Even with a couple of "bad" losses their RPI is still strong. If we could get 3 or 4 teams to get RPI's in the top 60-70 most years, our odds of getting an at large increase dramatically. The biggest problem in conference right now is the dead weight. We have so many teams 200+, and they offer nothing but the possibility of terrible losses. I don't know what exactly the answer is, but whatever happened this year didn't work out so well.

I thought East Carolina and Tulane leaving next year would help. Western Kentucky replaces Tulsa, which evens out. But if you look at the conference RPI right now with those changes, it only moves C-USA up one spot over the Horizon.

I don't think Marshall will stay nearly this bad. There might not be much help for UTSA, Rice, and the F_Us, but at least that will only be 4 of 14 that are 200+ instead of the 7 of 16 that we have now.

I agree about Marshall. It sounds like they are just in need of a new coach, because they have some really good players there. UTSA is a train wreck. Rice might be okay in a few years after whatever the hell happened to them is finally offset. I have no clue on the F_U's. Our biggest issue right now is we are likely to have a bunch of good teams(RPI 75-150) but not a lot of great teams(top 50 RPI) most years. We have to improve the OOC RPI if we want to get teams in the dance.

If Marshall were just as good as FIU, which isn't saying much, then C-USA would move up a spot in conference RPI.

(01-28-2014 12:26 AM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  

(01-28-2014 12:01 AM)BeliefBlazer Wrote:  The only rumor I've seen from Banowsky was a suggestion for 19 conference games; 2 games against each team in your division and 1 game against opposite division.

Thus ensuring that no team will ever get an at large bid.

In order to get a shot at an at large bid, CUSA teams have to play a tough OOC schedule. Having only 11 or 12 OOC games does not give much flexibility.

That factor PLUS the fact that most OOC games are played early in the season while the BBHC may be experimenting with his lineup getting ready for conference play. It is a system that favors the established teams who largely "reload" rather than "rebuild" on a yearly basis.

I imagine CUSA will be its usual efficient self and post the conference schedule sometime in late August, after every other conference in the country has had its posted for weeks or months.