(02-27-2018 09:34 AM)APPrising Wrote:  I think when they lose to App in the championship game, that will kill any shot at an at-large bid.

There's a fairly decent shot you'll face the Cajuns in the Quarterfinals given the way seeds currently look.

(02-27-2018 04:19 AM)Florida RedWolf Wrote:  

(02-26-2018 11:08 PM)Vobserver Wrote:  

(02-26-2018 10:22 PM)Usajags Wrote:  The SBC schools should schedule nothing but Big XII, ACC and Big East schools for our non conference games. If you win, it's huge, if not then who cares, you win the conference tourney you're in.

If every school in the conference played just 4 top tier ACC, AAC, Big East, Big 10 or Big 12 teams, and 8 mid level or higher teams from non power conferences, and went .500 OOC, we would be a multi bid conference within 5 years. Avoid scheduling teams who are perennially 200+ in RPI and schedule only mid majors who generally reside in the RPI range of 50-150 for those non power conference games.

Next thing you know, we have 5 teams in the conference with RPI from 25-100 and 5 more from 101-200, and our conference games actually help our RPI, or at least most would.

Would be nice to have improve scheduling but our coaches would never go for it. Wins against 200+ teams are still wins which look good on paper and helps the coach get promoted. Its at this point that we need strong AD's and a conference commissioner which we decidedly do not have in Benson.

Want to force coaches to schedule better? Here is one way to guarantee it:

6 team conference tournament: Teams that get in are the regular season champion plus the 5 highest RPI that are not the champs. Regular season champ and best RPI non champion get byes to semis. No team with RPI of 201+ gets in. If you have only 5 qualifying teams, #3 seed also gets a bye. If only 4 qualify, there are no byes. If only 3, the regular season champ gets a bye.

All of a sudden, those 300 RPI games you play OOC look a whole lot less attractive.

When the season is over, I'll be writing a piece giving all the reasons why we should do away with the conference tournament.

And, I have several.

(03-02-2018 11:06 AM)BirdofParadise Wrote:  When the season is over, I'll be writing a piece giving all the reasons why we should do away with the conference tournament.

And, I have several.

Then we can be like the Ivy League. The end result is, just like football, as a conference we have to win better out of conference games. We have won games in the "Big Dance", but that hype only last a couple weeks the goes away.

For reference - UL-L's OOC schedule

@ MISS L94-76
vs LA W113-58
vs SAV W115-82
vs IOWA W80-71
vs WYO L70-61
vs RICH W82-76
vs MCNS W89-78
@ NICH W105-80
vs L-LA W98-56
@ LT W75-71
vs UNO W87-65
vs SELA W82-74
@ CLEM L89-60


1-2 vs P6 (with two big losses)
2 Division II
4 Southland
1 MEAC

(03-02-2018 01:25 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  For reference - UL-L's OOC schedule

@ MISS L94-76
vs LA W113-58
vs SAV W115-82
vs IOWA W80-71
vs WYO L70-61
vs RICH W82-76
vs MCNS W89-78
@ NICH W105-80
vs L-LA W98-56
@ LT W75-71
vs UNO W87-65
vs SELA W82-74
@ CLEM L89-60


1-2 vs P6 (with two big losses)
2 Division II
4 Southland
1 MEAC

It doesn't really matter. If you're outside the top eight or nine conferences you need not apply for an at large.

If your RPI is worthy, they'll talk about your strength of schedule.
If your strength of schedule is solid, you don't have enough marquee wins.
If you have marquis wins, they'll point at your bad losses...and they consider ANY conference loss to be a bad loss.

WKU beat Purdue for Christ's sake. But it doesn't matter.

(03-02-2018 02:32 PM)BirdofParadise Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 01:25 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  For reference - UL-L's OOC schedule

@ MISS L94-76
vs LA W113-58
vs SAV W115-82
vs IOWA W80-71
vs WYO L70-61
vs RICH W82-76
vs MCNS W89-78
@ NICH W105-80
vs L-LA W98-56
@ LT W75-71
vs UNO W87-65
vs SELA W82-74
@ CLEM L89-60


1-2 vs P6 (with two big losses)
2 Division II
4 Southland
1 MEAC

It doesn't really matter. If you're outside the top eight or nine conferences you need not apply for an at large.

If your RPI is worthy, they'll talk about your strength of schedule.
If your strength of schedule is solid, you don't have enough marquee wins.
If you have marquis wins, they'll point at your bad losses...and they consider ANY conference loss to be a bad loss.

WKU beat Purdue for Christ's sake. But it doesn't matter.

Then the teams in our conference, all of them, need to quit playing MEAC and SWAC schools, and do their very best to avoid playing teams in the lowest 40% of RPI. Win or lose, we are better off playing better teams OOC. Do that successfully enough to become a top 10 conference nearly every year, and every conference loss is NOT a bad loss, even to the committee.

You just want to schedule down and pretend we can do nothing to change our status.

Middle Tennesee will get an at-large bid if they lose the conference tournament. They didn't even have to schedule up too much, just scheduled a bunch of solid teams to go along with very few bad ones. Also another reason to keep the conference tournament. The belt or C-USA will never get two bids with an at-large coming second in the conference. The best chance is for the best team to lose in the finals

(03-02-2018 08:15 PM)Warhawkman Wrote:  Middle Tennesee will get an at-large bid if they lose the conference tournament. They didn't even have to schedule up too much, just scheduled a bunch of solid teams to go along with very few bad ones. Also another reason to keep the conference tournament. The belt or C-USA will never get two bids with an at-large coming second in the conference. The best chance is for the best team to lose in the finals

Never is a very long time.

That being said, if we keep the tournament, we need to make sure that our best teams don't play games against bad teams in the tournament.

(03-02-2018 09:04 PM)Vobserver Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 08:15 PM)Warhawkman Wrote:  Middle Tennesee will get an at-large bid if they lose the conference tournament. They didn't even have to schedule up too much, just scheduled a bunch of solid teams to go along with very few bad ones. Also another reason to keep the conference tournament. The belt or C-USA will never get two bids with an at-large coming second in the conference. The best chance is for the best team to lose in the finals

Never is a very long time.

That being said, if we keep the tournament, we need to make sure that our best teams don't play games against bad teams in the tournament.

The double bye was good enough for that, you usually only played someone in the top 6 if you were the 1 or 2. I don't like the 12 team tournament. I think we need to go back to 8

(03-02-2018 08:15 PM)Warhawkman Wrote:  Middle Tennesee will get an at-large bid if they lose the conference tournament. They didn't even have to schedule up too much, just scheduled a bunch of solid teams to go along with very few bad ones. Also another reason to keep the conference tournament. The belt or C-USA will never get two bids with an at-large coming second in the conference. The best chance is for the best team to lose in the finals

This is exactly correct. Schedule a bunch of Belmonts and Murray States and New Mexico States and don't schedule any McNeese States or Bethune Cookmans or Alcorn States.

(03-02-2018 08:15 PM)Warhawkman Wrote:  Middle Tennesee will get an at-large bid if they lose the conference tournament. They didn't even have to schedule up too much, just scheduled a bunch of solid teams to go along with very few bad ones. Also another reason to keep the conference tournament. The belt or C-USA will never get two bids with an at-large coming second in the conference. The best chance is for the best team to lose in the finals

Just so we're clear. MTSU getting an At Large is not a sure thing. There's still the distinct possibility the selection committee might keep them out for a P5 team that's gone 17-12 and under .500 in the conference.

Not that I see MTSU losing it's league tourney.

Chances just died.

LMAO.....well....we blew this thread into low orbit...,

I'd say any Mid Major with a loss to a team ranked 301 in the RPI has ruined its chances for an at large bid.

(03-05-2018 01:55 PM)APPrising Wrote:  I'd say any Mid Major with a loss to a team ranked 301 in the RPI has ruined its chances for an at large bid.

That said, App fans will celebrate wins against 301 RPI teams.

Haha

The OOC dilemma is not helped by the need to schedule enough OOC home games to keep season ticket holders happy. Getting even one OOC home game against a team worthy in the eyes of the NCAA committee is almost impossible. In 2014-15, GSU scheduled a same season home and away against UW-Green Bay, which had been in the NCAA tournament the year before. Not sure why GSU has not done this again, but this kind of scheduling cuts in half the OOC scheduling task for each 2 game set and gets a better opponent in your house than a DII or NAIA or very weak DI. It also gets your team in the mode of making second game adjustments from the first game, which is critical to success in conference play. I would love to see GSU do this 3 times each OOC season, say against the likes of VCU, Davidson, and South Florida.

(03-05-2018 06:45 PM)troutbummike Wrote:  

(03-05-2018 01:55 PM)APPrising Wrote:  I'd say any Mid Major with a loss to a team ranked 301 in the RPI has ruined its chances for an at large bid.

That said, App fans will celebrate wins against 301 RPI teams.

And call for an extension for Fox!

(03-05-2018 07:48 PM)Fanther Wrote:  The OOC dilemma is not helped by the need to schedule enough OOC home games to keep season ticket holders happy. Getting even one OOC home game against a team worthy in the eyes of the NCAA committee is almost impossible. In 2014-15, GSU scheduled a same season home and away against UW-Green Bay, which had been in the NCAA tournament the year before. Not sure why GSU has not done this again, but this kind of scheduling cuts in half the OOC scheduling task for each 2 game set and gets a better opponent in your house than a DII or NAIA or very weak DI. It also gets your team in the mode of making second game adjustments from the first game, which is critical to success in conference play. I would love to see GSU do this 3 times each OOC season, say against the likes of VCU, Davidson, and South Florida.

The Same South Florida that finished last in the AAC this year? (Yes, I know they beat us, but so has everyone else not named App State)