Saw this the other day and thought it was very interesting. For those that don't want to read the article, here is an excerpt that describes what they are doing to the conference schedule in quick detail:

Quote:Instead of releasing a hard-set regular season conference schedule, C-USA will seed its teams after the opening 14 games of the conference slate. The conference will then face its best teams off against one another over the next four games, with the end goal of placing multiple teams in the NCAA tournament and securing higher seeds for those teams.

Personally, I think its a great idea, but I'm sure are some cons that could come from it

https://deadspin.com/conference-usa-is-c...1826386373

That won't work with a conference like the SoCon. At our RPI peak last season, we were not good enough to get an at-large bid. It didn't matter who we played down the stretch, everyone else was going to have a lower RPI than us and thus there is no way to move up. It may help move a high 14 seed to a low 13 seed, but the SoCon is never going to get 2 teams in the NCAA tournament regardless of a move like this. I think this would work better for a conference in the 10th place RPI range.

For there to be more mids bids in the NCAA, the P5s have to give up slots. Wishful thinking.

I was surprised to see that the SoCon finished as close to C-USA in RPI as we did. 16th for the SoCon and 15th for C-USA. I had always assumed they were closer to 10 or less

http://www.rpiforecast.com/live-conf-rpi.html

Edit: Adding conference rpi link

Applause for effort but this is a pipe dream for CUSA. They just had MTSU go 24-7 with a regular season title, 2 wins over P5 teams, 3 close losses to P5s an RPI of somewhere between 27 & 33 depending on which one you use - and they didn’t get in. The only other team in the league with an RPI under 80 was WKY who was also in the high 30s and didn’t make it. The bottom 2/3 of this league is terrible & until they fix that they’re a one bid pony.

As little as a chance as this may have in more NCAA tournament bids for the C-USA, I applaud the effort and intuitiveness. It'd be nice to see such thinking from the SoCon.

If it was a computer picking the teams then this would make sense to try and game the system, but it is still a committee picking the teams and they are going to favor the power 5.

Manipulating the conf schedule in these one bid leagues will not help get at large bids. The only way they’re getting at larges is to play 5 or 6 games against the Big 6 and win at least a majority of them. MTSU played 5 last year and went 2-3 with an RPI in low 30s. Had they gone 3-2 they MIGHT have made it. Losing in conf quarterfinals crushed them though. Have to remember that the lowest RPI to ever get an at large (non big6) is 50. The window is very narrow and playing conf games against RPIs >100 does nothing. One improvement would be for these leagues to give auto bid to regular season champ. Eliminates a less than stellar team from stealing bid from more deserving team.

If a team like us doesn't schedule 2 Division II teams, we have room in the schedule for 5-6 good teams. But nope, we would rather "win" against these teams than to improve our team, get a paycheck, and have a chance at a decent RPI by playing the big boys more often.

(06-01-2018 01:51 PM)etsubuc Wrote:  If a team like us doesn't schedule 2 Division II teams, we have room in the schedule for 5-6 good teams. But nope, we would rather "win" against these teams than to improve our team, get a paycheck, and have a chance at a decent RPI by playing the big boys more often.

Nope, we would rather have home games so that fans can see the team before January.

Seems like this could cut the other way, too. The scheduling could get another loss or two on your best teams and your best chance at an at-large bid.

I gotta give 'em credit for trying something. I suppose if you keep doing what you been doing, you're going to keep getting what you've been getting.

Outside of the Power 7 conferences and a couple of other mid major conferences here and there, such as the Atlantic 10(with 14 teams of course), this seems more like moving deck chairs on the titanic as far as the regular season goes. Fact of the matter is, regardless of whatever happens in the regular season, most lower level mid major conferences aren't going to get more then one team in the NCAA barring the odd fluke season, or barring something catastrophically bad happening to one or more power programs.

TBH, if I was going to improve the quality and success rates of the one bid wonder conferences at all, the conference tournaments are where I would shift my focus on. Take the Southern Conference, 10 teams. Keep the regular season generally about how it is now. Move to the tournament in Asheville, have it set up so that only the best 8 teams would be allowed to play. This has the benefit of streamlining the conference tournament, and it would add a degree of value to the regular season knowing that for two teams, their performance or lack thereof may determine whether or not they can even go to Asheville to begin with.

(06-22-2018 11:23 PM)ETSUfan#2 Wrote:  Outside of the Power 7 conferences and a couple of other mid major conferences here and there, such as the Atlantic 10(with 14 teams of course), this seems more like moving deck chairs on the titanic as far as the regular season goes. Fact of the matter is, regardless of whatever happens in the regular season, most lower level mid major conferences aren't going to get more then one team in the NCAA barring the odd fluke season, or barring something catastrophically bad happening to one or more power programs.

TBH, if I was going to improve the quality and success rates of the one bid wonder conferences at all, the conference tournaments are where I would shift my focus on. Take the Southern Conference, 10 teams. Keep the regular season generally about how it is now. Move to the tournament in Asheville, have it set up so that only the best 8 teams would be allowed to play. This has the benefit of streamlining the conference tournament, and it would add a degree of value to the regular season knowing that for two teams, their performance or lack thereof may determine whether or not they can even go to Asheville to begin with.

Don't know how the conference tourney $$ works, but I doubt anyone is in favor of reducing revenue opportunities.

As others have said, even if this ultimately doesn't ever work, what's the harm? With each NCAA tourney game worth the money they are, and not a ton of other great scheduling opportunities for non-P5 leagues, it can pay off once and be well worth it.

I feel everyone should make the conference tournament. Hold the "play-in" rounds on campus. 7 at 10 and 9 at 8.

(06-28-2018 07:10 PM)Buc Island Wrote:  

(06-22-2018 11:23 PM)ETSUfan#2 Wrote:  Outside of the Power 7 conferences and a couple of other mid major conferences here and there, such as the Atlantic 10(with 14 teams of course), this seems more like moving deck chairs on the titanic as far as the regular season goes. Fact of the matter is, regardless of whatever happens in the regular season, most lower level mid major conferences aren't going to get more then one team in the NCAA barring the odd fluke season, or barring something catastrophically bad happening to one or more power programs.

TBH, if I was going to improve the quality and success rates of the one bid wonder conferences at all, the conference tournaments are where I would shift my focus on. Take the Southern Conference, 10 teams. Keep the regular season generally about how it is now. Move to the tournament in Asheville, have it set up so that only the best 8 teams would be allowed to play. This has the benefit of streamlining the conference tournament, and it would add a degree of value to the regular season knowing that for two teams, their performance or lack thereof may determine whether or not they can even go to Asheville to begin with.

Don't know how the conference tourney $$ works, but I doubt anyone is in favor of reducing revenue opportunities.

As others have said, even if this ultimately doesn't ever work, what's the harm? With each NCAA tourney game worth the money they are, and not a ton of other great scheduling opportunities for non-P5 leagues, it can pay off once and be well worth it.

Eh, depends. For the bigger conferences that get multiple bids to both the NCAA and NIT, I can understand that, especially as every single game is televised.

On the other hand, it's not unheard of in the smaller conferences. Conference USA, despite having 14 members, only allows 12 to play in the conference tournament. The Southland Conference(13 schools) and Ohio Valley(12 schools) only allow the top 8 teams into their respective tournaments. There's also the Ivy League that only takes 4 of the 8 schools, but I wouldn't necessarily count them as they only started a tournament within the last decade, can't recall which year.

I don't know if it would be good for the SoCon or not but such a setup is hardly unheard of. If at some point now or in the future the Socon takes on one or more additional schools, such a move might need to be looked into. As we saw this past season and a lot of people say, the 3 or 4 days in March are often all that matters regardless of the regular season, I think a move that sees some of the bottom teams excluded from Asheville could give more meaning to regular season performance.

(06-30-2018 02:24 PM)ETSUfan#2 Wrote:  As we saw this past season and a lot of people say, the 3 or 4 days in March are often all that matters regardless of the regular season, I think a move that sees some of the bottom teams excluded from Asheville could give more meaning to regular season performance.

Well, remember (and I suspect you might be too young to - no offense), they used to do that. Some wags on the old board used to call it the "Duggar Baucom Invitational", as I recall?? (Meaning those teams who would *not* be participating in the tournament. It might have been the coach's name from some other perennial cellar dweller, but I think it was Baucom.) But also that might have been the Chatt board; can't remember. For many years, 1 or more teams were excluded for being at the bottom of the pile.