(03-14-2019 03:16 PM)johnbragg Wrote: What the WCC and Conference USA do are different. I don't know if the two teams Gonzaga faced once were chosen as teams expected to be bad, but quality can't always be predicted. I also don't know if it's a rotation or if the schools each team plays once will be the same every season. If the opponent frequency is the same every season, two schools would get to host Gonzaga half as much as the other seven. With nine opponents, a rotation would need nine seasons to play every opponent the same amount of times, which would be 16. Conference USA having near-equal teams play each other a second time is done after it is known how good the teams are. It's not done to favor any specific school(s). If I had to guess, I would think Conference USA schools would be happier with what Conference USA does than WCC teams other than Gonzaga would be happy with what the WCC does.
The criteria to determine the 16-game WCC schedule include multi-year RPI, last year's WCC tournament seeding, and a spring survey of the conference's coaches. My hunch is they will eventually replace the multi-year RPI with multi-year NET rankings. This is why Gonzaga only played Portland and Pepperdine once during the regular season - they were the #9 and #10 teams last year (they finished #8 and #10 this year).
The changes also include a requirement that each team play in at least one multiteam event, more home games than road games, no more than 2 non-Div 1 opponents, and teams must receive conference approval for any guarantee "pay day" games.
The new 16-team WCC schedule format allows teams to schedule as they see fit to improve their win-loss records, which helps the entire conference. Gonzaga, BYU and St. Mary's had more quality OOC games in December. Could be coincidence, but this is the first time that the WCC had 5 teams ranked in the top-100 and 6 teams ranked in the top-150.
(03-14-2019 03:16 PM)johnbragg Wrote: 18 conference games is the most common amount. Making Gonzaga play 18 conference games rather than 16 wouldn't be an unfair restriction on how many out of conference games they play.
WCC conference play used to start in late December, which limited some OOC opportunities. Instead, this year, Gonzaga was able to play Texas A&M, Illinois, Arizona, Duke, Washington, Tennessee, North Carolina in December. BYU had the opportunity to play Mississippi St., Nevada, Houston, Utah, Utah St., SDSU, and UNLV. Even St. Mary's umped up its OOC schedule and actually left the state of California in OOC play, with Mississippi St., Cal, LSU, New Mexico, NMSU, Utah St., and Western Kentucky.