Not trying to stir everyone up. Just sharing some of the recent news reporting about CUSA Men's Basketball scheduling and the current conference RPI standing as this has been discussed a bit on the C-USA boards. Hope the link works to take anyone interested to the newspaper article. Thoughts?

http://www.pilotonline.com/sports/colleg...7fa54.html

I saw that the MWC is only going to allow the top 8 in the conference tournament starting next year. I wonder if C-USA would benefit from following a similar structure. Under this format we would leave 6 programs with an RPI of 250+ at home. Beating such a low ranked team doesn't help anyone. There is always the chance of the lower team upsetting the higher ranked team.

I am not a fan of the top four getting a bye. Sometimes it works against you. The lowered seeded team already has a game under their belt and can continue their momentum into the semifinals.

I think it could work better for us than it would for the MW.

I hope CUSA follows the MWC move. It makes sense and increases the importance of the regular season.

(01-02-2016 07:15 PM)monarchman Wrote:  I hope CUSA follows the MWC move. It makes sense and increases the importance of the regular season.

I agree we should do the same at least until the bottom half get their act together.

Well, Marshall's SOS is the best in the conference and ranked 145 spots in front of ODU's, so I know the article wasn't talking about The Herd.

(01-02-2016 07:20 PM)JCMiner Wrote:  

(01-02-2016 07:15 PM)monarchman Wrote:  I hope CUSA follows the MWC move. It makes sense and increases the importance of the regular season.

I agree we should do the same at least until the bottom half get their act together.

Agreed. It is a no-brainer to me. It would eliminate the need to have the men's and women's tournaments at separate sites before the semifinals.

If the schedule is going to stay the same with women's semifinals starting Friday morning, then play the women's quarterfinals on Wednesday, the men's quarterfinals on Thursday, both sets of semifinals on Friday, and the finals Saturday all in one building.

(01-02-2016 08:46 PM)FriscoDawg Wrote:  

(01-02-2016 07:20 PM)JCMiner Wrote:  

(01-02-2016 07:15 PM)monarchman Wrote:  I hope CUSA follows the MWC move. It makes sense and increases the importance of the regular season.

I agree we should do the same at least until the bottom half get their act together.

Agreed. It is a no-brainer to me. It would eliminate the need to have the men's and women's tournaments at separate sites before the semifinals.

If the schedule is going to stay the same with women's semifinals starting Friday morning, then play the women's quarterfinals on Wednesday, the men's quarterfinals on Thursday, both sets of semifinals on Friday, and the finals Saturday all in one building.

That seems simple enough. Probably too simple for the powers-that-be.

Ouch, had no idea you guys were struggling that bad this year. Keep on working. Every league has good and bad years.

(01-02-2016 07:09 PM)JCMiner Wrote:  I saw that the MWC is only going to allow the top 8 in the conference tournament starting next year. I wonder if C-USA would benefit from following a similar structure. Under this format we would leave 6 programs with an RPI of 250+ at home. Beating such a low ranked team doesn't help anyone. There is always the chance of the lower team upsetting the higher ranked team.

Using that same logic, it would make sense to totally get rid of the conference tourney.

The main points of the article to me were -

* Why are conference teams scheduling those kinds of Division 2 & 3 teams?

* What are the goals of conference teams that schedule teams like that?

Like many of us that post here, I don't see any tangible benefit for the conference (or for the individual conference teams) for scheduling teams such as those that were pointed out in the article.

(01-02-2016 08:46 PM)FriscoDawg Wrote:  

(01-02-2016 07:20 PM)JCMiner Wrote:  

(01-02-2016 07:15 PM)monarchman Wrote:  I hope CUSA follows the MWC move. It makes sense and increases the importance of the regular season.

I agree we should do the same at least until the bottom half get their act together.

Agreed. It is a no-brainer to me. It would eliminate the need to have the men's and women's tournaments at separate sites before the semifinals.

If the schedule is going to stay the same with women's semifinals starting Friday morning, then play the women's quarterfinals on Wednesday, the men's quarterfinals on Thursday, both sets of semifinals on Friday, and the finals Saturday all in one building.

Definitely. Good move by MWC.

(01-03-2016 10:04 AM)ODU BBALL Wrote:  The main points of the article to me were -

* Why are conference teams scheduling those kinds of Division 2 & 3 teams?

* What are the goals of conference teams that schedule teams like that?

Like many of us that post here, I don't see any tangible benefit for the conference (or for the individual conference teams) for scheduling teams such as those that were pointed out in the article.

Someone else can correct me if I'm wrong, however I think that WKU had some D1 opponents drop us from the schedule at the last min and we had to fill in the schedule with what was available. Hard to control that.

I'm also all for the MWC format where only the Top 8 make the tourney. Another consideration to that is from a budget standpoint. What's the point of the lower teams spending the money on travelling to tourney when they aren't playing well and don't have much of a chance to win it all? I know low RPI/conference standing teams can get hot, but the odds aren't great to win the whole thing.

We also need to limit "body bag" games in both football and bball as a conference. I understand why we can't eliminate them (making budgets), however we do need to limit them.

How can a team drop another team off of the schedule at the last minute? Aren't they under contract to play your team?

If you are meaning that your team thought that the contract would be renewed and the series extended into the next season but during the off season it didn't come together then I understand that as it happens to teams frequently. That said, it should never be assumed until both parties have agreed in full, and both teams should have a reasonable contingency if the game is important to have in order to fill a schedule.

(01-03-2016 02:40 PM)ODU BBALL Wrote:  How can a team drop another team off of the schedule at the last minute? Aren't they under contract to play your team?

Ask Charlotte's football coach, as they have some expertise in this area....

I believe the C-USA guidance to its school about a decade ago was to try to schedule the best you could OOC but do so in such a way that you would win 75% of your OOC games. RPI is heavily based on opponents record and opponent's opponents record, so they wanted everyone in the league to win 75% of the OOC games to inflate the RPI.

Fine with me. Take only the top 8 for the Conference Tourney. Rice might be on the outside looking in this season, but I fully believe in merit earning rewards rather than quotas, handouts and participation awards. Make teams earn it or sit home (Kind of like no non-winning teams in bowls unless they win conference in football, but greed prevents that from happening.)

(01-03-2016 07:40 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  Fine with me. Take only the top 8 for the Conference Tourney. Rice might be on the outside looking in this season, but I fully believe in merit earning rewards rather than quotas, handouts and participation awards. Make teams earn it or sit home (Kind of like no non-winning teams in bowls unless they win conference in football, but greed prevents that from happening.)

While I get the idea of not liking byes for 1st round teams, it's still a a perceived advantage... (Ask UConn how much that extra game helped them in one of the last Big East Tourneys, when they pretty much took out 3 of the 4 teams that all had one extra game of rest)...

I do think we should limit the conference tourney's to top teams.. I'd say just go with the 12 team limit. 1-4 with byes for the game one and everyone else plays through.

Again I get why conferences don't do it.. as the tourneys are a way to make money and you can't make money if you don't have teams to root for, even the bad teams.

I doubt the 13th and 14th place teams will bring very many fans to Birmingham. The opening games are played on ASN which pays nothing for the broadcast rights. I think going to 8 is a decent idea.

Should always be top 8 only make the tournament....To me we have 8 or 9 programs that care about basketball and about 5 that really could care less, so reward the programs who will always be in top 8, only right to do that...

(01-04-2016 10:22 AM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  Should always be top 8 only make the tournament....To me we have 8 or 9 programs that care about basketball and about 5 that really could care less, so reward the programs who will always be in top 8, only right to do that...

I'm good with that suggestion. I'd be okay with the top two from each division, then the next four from the best four teams remaining on rpi, regardless of conference finish.