The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

Some of it is kind of out there, but still an interesting read.

http://americansportsnet.com/mark-adams-...heres-how/

Interesting article. You guys who talk about scheduling need to take note of this bit, because it talks about why it is hard for a team like us to get a home and home. It's hard for a G5 team in general to get one, but if you add in our home record over the last couple of years you can see why they refuse to schedule us on the road instead of a more certain win.

"SCHEDULING

For starters, consider:

The Power 5 conferences and the Big East play more than 86% of their out-of-conference (OOC) games at home or at a neutral site.
The Power 5 and Big East collectively play over 62% of their OOC games at home.
The Power 5 and Big East play just over 13% of their OOC games as legitimate road games.
More than half of their legitimate road games are against other Power 5 or Big East opponents.
Only 6.5% of the Power 5/Big East schedules combined are on the road versus teams from outside the Power 5/Big East.

Also consider:

Computer rankings for teams and conferences are first based on out-of-conference (OOC) performance. The more games a team wins in the OOC portion of their schedule the more favorable the ranking for their team and their conference.

A majority of Power 5/Big East OOC games are played at home (62%).

The reason they play more than 62% home games is because they pay teams to play in their arena with no promise of a return game at the opponent’s home site. They literally buy that opponent for one game. Example: Ohio State could pay UT Arlington $80,000 to play one game in Columbus, Ohio.

According to several mid-major coaches, the going rate for “guarantee games” is anywhere from $60,000 to $120,000 (if teams hold out late in the scheduling process).

What do those numbers mean to programs that play on the road for money?

“At UT Arlington, we are required to bring in $300,000 in guarantee revenue each year to help support our athletic budget,” Cross said. “The average guarantee is somewhere in the neighborhood of $75,000 to $85,000; therefore, it will take us four games in order to meet this requirement. You will have at least 7-8 road games with only 2-3 home games, unless you play non-Division I games (which don’t count in RPI).

“It is almost impossible to have a high RPI with all of these road games against ‘high major’ opponents. You have to have a magical year, like we did this year, and upset teams like Ohio State, Memphis and UTEP on the road in a hostile environment."