(05-08-2017 10:05 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote: Just a question about the sudden interest in 11 member all sports leagues:
Don't they create more trouble than they are worth? Each week one school is left out and doesn't have any conference games to play and has to scramble to find OOC games to fill the dates. It also means splitting you NCAA credits with an extra school.
I'm okay with 12 if it gets you solid divisions and saves on travel money--even better if the 12 schools get you an occasional at-large berth. 11 just seems weird. Can a pro-11 person help me out here?
The Horizon looks like this for team sports
Currently:
10 MBB, WBB, MS (Belmont is the 10th, but leaving after '17-18)
9 WVB, SB, WS, MS (after Belmont leaves)
7 BB
Note: Detroit doesn't have WVB, Milwaukee doesn't have SB, UIC doesn't have MS, YSU doesn't have WS
Detroit, Green Bay, and Cleveland State don't have Baseball
After Valpo leaves
9 MBB, WBB
8 WVB, SB, WS, MS (after '17-18 season)
6 BB
If the Horizon adds one school to get back to 10 in Basketball all the other team sports go odd creating byes. A problem the league has to deal with now and is part of the push for 11 from members.
Adding two schools, provided they sponsor almost all the other team sports, should make those sports even, greatly helping scheduling. While for Basketball 11 schools would allow everyone to have 10 conference home games (full round robin), an important incremental increase in revenue.
The Horizon is a bit unusual in that the team sports other than Baseball are "odd" when there are an even number of Basketball schools, and "even" when there are an odd number of Basketball schools.