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I like the schedule overall, but VWC as a regular season game is gross. Honestly, I'd rather have an open date and play fewer games.

(06-23-2020 12:26 PM)EverRespect Wrote:  

(06-23-2020 12:21 PM)CalODUFan Wrote:  

(06-23-2020 12:18 PM)EverRespect Wrote:  Virginia Wesleyan as a regular season game?

Looks like this schedule was motivated to save travel costs and not pay teams to come play. Saves a lot of money.

That makes some sense.

Next question... not that I see an at-large as anything we are likely to accomplish this year... but do D3 games count toward our NET rating? I know they didn't back in the RPI days.

It is, for NET purposes, an ungame. One of the flaws of the NET and the RPI before it: since non-D1s don't get rated, their games have no impact on your rating, but playing a Q4 game almost always has a bad one. ODU would be hurt more (at least in the metrics) by a win against, say, UMES or Longwood than it would a loss to Virginia Wesleyan. That's a warped logic.

But the taboo has been shattered all around us. I guess it was inevitable that ODU would follow suit.

(06-23-2020 12:28 PM)Blue_Trombone Wrote:  If I were a betting person I'd say that was supposed to be an exhibition game, but due to uncertainty around COVID they decided for an in season DIII game cause that would be the most flexible game to work with if schedules have to change

That's a valid point. It's already a non-game for NET purposes, if circumstances forced ODU to drop it, nothing lost. I was going to also complain about no exempt tournament but this is the year to not go to one of those.

Some more ODU schedule tidbits from D1Docket (tl;dr or if the tweets don't show up: first non-D1 game since Shawnee State in 2004, Elon's a home-and-home and CUSA appears to be playing 18 conference games):

The Elon game is a 2-yr H/H according to D1 Docket

https://twitter.com/TheD1Docket/status/1...86784?s=20
Old Dominion’s game against Virginia Wesleyan is first home game against non-D1 opponent this century. Only other non-D1 game was against Shawnee State in event at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in November 2004. Surely a sign of anticipated budget constraints.

2020-21 Old Dominion Men's Basketball Non-Conference Schedule
Date Opponent
Nov. 10 vs. Penn
Nov. 13 at George Mason
Nov. 18 at Richmond
Nov. 21 vs. Northeastern
Nov. 27 vs. William & Mary
Dec. 1 at East Carolina
Dec. 4 vs. Elon
Dec. 7 at James Madison
Dec. 12 vs. VCU
Dec. 19 vs. Arkansas (game will be played in Little Rock, Ark.)
Dec. 22 vs. Virginia Wesleyan

(06-23-2020 12:37 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(06-23-2020 12:26 PM)EverRespect Wrote:  

(06-23-2020 12:21 PM)CalODUFan Wrote:  

(06-23-2020 12:18 PM)EverRespect Wrote:  Virginia Wesleyan as a regular season game?

Looks like this schedule was motivated to save travel costs and not pay teams to come play. Saves a lot of money.

That makes some sense.

Next question... not that I see an at-large as anything we are likely to accomplish this year... but do D3 games count toward our NET rating? I know they didn't back in the RPI days.

It is, for NET purposes, an ungame. One of the flaws of the NET and the RPI before it: since non-D1s don't get rated, their games have no impact on your rating, but playing a Q4 game almost always has a bad one. ODU would be hurt more (at least in the metrics) by a win against, say, UMES or Longwood than it would a loss to Virginia Wesleyan. That's a warped logic.

But the taboo has been shattered all around us. I guess it was inevitable that ODU would follow suit.

Got it, in that case I really don't have a big problem with the game. Overall the schedule looks decent. As usual, a lot of CAA and A10 games, in which the quality of them are a bit unpredictable. On paper they should be good, but W&M, GMU, VCU, Northeastern, Penn and Richmond could just as easily be top 100 games as mediocre in a given year. Assume ECU and JMU won't amount to much. I know nothing about Elon... haven't followed the CAA since they joined.

Terrible idea playing VWC as a regular season game. What were they thinking? I don't mind it as an exhibition, but we're a freaking D1 basketball program. It was only a decade ago when we refused to play any buy games. Home and homes or tournaments and thats it. C'mon Wood.

(06-23-2020 12:47 PM)EverRespect Wrote:  

(06-23-2020 12:37 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(06-23-2020 12:26 PM)EverRespect Wrote:  

(06-23-2020 12:21 PM)CalODUFan Wrote:  

(06-23-2020 12:18 PM)EverRespect Wrote:  Virginia Wesleyan as a regular season game?

Looks like this schedule was motivated to save travel costs and not pay teams to come play. Saves a lot of money.

That makes some sense.

Next question... not that I see an at-large as anything we are likely to accomplish this year... but do D3 games count toward our NET rating? I know they didn't back in the RPI days.

It is, for NET purposes, an ungame. One of the flaws of the NET and the RPI before it: since non-D1s don't get rated, their games have no impact on your rating, but playing a Q4 game almost always has a bad one. ODU would be hurt more (at least in the metrics) by a win against, say, UMES or Longwood than it would a loss to Virginia Wesleyan. That's a warped logic.

But the taboo has been shattered all around us. I guess it was inevitable that ODU would follow suit.

Got it, in that case I really don't have a big problem with the game. Overall the schedule looks decent. As usual, a lot of CAA and A10 games, in which the quality of them are a bit unpredictable. On paper they should be good, but W&M, GMU, VCU, Northeastern, Penn and Richmond could just as easily be top 100 games as mediocre in a given year. Assume ECU and JMU won't amount to much. I know nothing about Elon... haven't followed the CAA since they joined.

I think Delaware was probably the preseason favorite in the CAA but their best player transferred, so it might be Hofstra again. Richmond and Arkansas are showing up in preseason top 25s, so at least there's opportunity for a signature win.

If a game against UMES hurts us and costs a bunch of money and a game against VWC does not, then I say play VWC. It is not ideal, and kind of embarrassing, but you have to play the NET game.

(06-23-2020 12:59 PM)Monarchblue Wrote:  If a game against UMES hurts us and costs a bunch of money and a game against VWC does not, then I say play VWC. It is not ideal, and kind of embarrassing, but you have to play the NET game.

Agree with this...have to bend the rules to your favor regardless of the look.

(06-23-2020 12:59 PM)Monarchblue Wrote:  If a game against UMES hurts us and costs a bunch of money and a game against VWC does not, then I say play VWC. It is not ideal, and kind of embarrassing, but you have to play the NET game.

It’s also on Dec. 22. We’re not gonna draw flies against a meac team on that date, so may as well save on the buy cost.

Really don't care about playing WVC or not. They probably wont be much worse than UMES but I would rather play VWC than them, who do nothing for me.

Penn should be a pretty solid team. They may push to be in the top 100.

Mason should be close to top 100-125 as well. They have a lot of talent returning.

Richmond- really good

Northeastern loses a lot but has a really good returning freshman. Maybe top 150ish

Arkansas will obviously be really tough. Top 25 at least

VCU- who knows

Thats a solid slate. Very competitive schedule that shouldn't have many blowouts either way. The kids get a nice break before the holiday with VWC.

(06-23-2020 01:05 PM)ODUDrunkard13 Wrote:  

(06-23-2020 12:59 PM)Monarchblue Wrote:  If a game against UMES hurts us and costs a bunch of money and a game against VWC does not, then I say play VWC. It is not ideal, and kind of embarrassing, but you have to play the NET game.

It’s also on Dec. 22. We’re not gonna draw flies against a meac team on that date, so may as well save on the buy cost.

Thats actually a good point. I usually have friends in town for the hollidays and we typically go to the nonconference game before Xmas and its a morgue.

(06-23-2020 01:13 PM)Gilesfan Wrote:  

(06-23-2020 01:05 PM)ODUDrunkard13 Wrote:  

(06-23-2020 12:59 PM)Monarchblue Wrote:  If a game against UMES hurts us and costs a bunch of money and a game against VWC does not, then I say play VWC. It is not ideal, and kind of embarrassing, but you have to play the NET game.

It’s also on Dec. 22. We’re not gonna draw flies against a meac team on that date, so may as well save on the buy cost.

Thats actually a good point. I usually have friends in town for the hollidays and we typically go to the nonconference game before Xmas and its a morgue.

Plus who knows how many fans will be allowed in ... if any ... if it's even played.

(06-23-2020 01:31 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(06-23-2020 01:13 PM)Gilesfan Wrote:  

(06-23-2020 01:05 PM)ODUDrunkard13 Wrote:  

(06-23-2020 12:59 PM)Monarchblue Wrote:  If a game against UMES hurts us and costs a bunch of money and a game against VWC does not, then I say play VWC. It is not ideal, and kind of embarrassing, but you have to play the NET game.

It’s also on Dec. 22. We’re not gonna draw flies against a meac team on that date, so may as well save on the buy cost.

Thats actually a good point. I usually have friends in town for the hollidays and we typically go to the nonconference game before Xmas and its a morgue.

Plus who knows how many fans will be allowed in ... if any ... if it's even played.

I am sure the motivation is that we save at least $200,000 by not paying for UMES to come here. We are probably paying nothing to Wesleyan.

(06-23-2020 02:32 PM)CalODUFan Wrote:  

(06-23-2020 01:31 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(06-23-2020 01:13 PM)Gilesfan Wrote:  

(06-23-2020 01:05 PM)ODUDrunkard13 Wrote:  

(06-23-2020 12:59 PM)Monarchblue Wrote:  If a game against UMES hurts us and costs a bunch of money and a game against VWC does not, then I say play VWC. It is not ideal, and kind of embarrassing, but you have to play the NET game.

It’s also on Dec. 22. We’re not gonna draw flies against a meac team on that date, so may as well save on the buy cost.

Thats actually a good point. I usually have friends in town for the hollidays and we typically go to the nonconference game before Xmas and its a morgue.

Plus who knows how many fans will be allowed in ... if any ... if it's even played.

I am sure the motivation is that we save at least $200,000 by not paying for UMES to come here. We are probably paying nothing to Wesleyan.

And with the possibility of having no-to-few fans, it makes sense.

(06-23-2020 02:32 PM)CalODUFan Wrote:  

(06-23-2020 01:31 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(06-23-2020 01:13 PM)Gilesfan Wrote:  

(06-23-2020 01:05 PM)ODUDrunkard13 Wrote:  

(06-23-2020 12:59 PM)Monarchblue Wrote:  If a game against UMES hurts us and costs a bunch of money and a game against VWC does not, then I say play VWC. It is not ideal, and kind of embarrassing, but you have to play the NET game.

It’s also on Dec. 22. We’re not gonna draw flies against a meac team on that date, so may as well save on the buy cost.

Thats actually a good point. I usually have friends in town for the hollidays and we typically go to the nonconference game before Xmas and its a morgue.

Plus who knows how many fans will be allowed in ... if any ... if it's even played.

I am sure the motivation is that we save at least $200,000 by not paying for UMES to come here. We are probably paying nothing to Wesleyan.

Last year, we paid UMES $70k, JMU $75K (a two for one) and got paid $80k by 'Cuse in 2018, per the Pilot (which I found on Google first from one of their Tribune sister papers). Wesleyan should be in the low 5 figures (sub $20k).

I actually think I'm more bothered with playing Elon home-and-home than VWC, though in a perfect world neither would happen. Which this very much is not.

(06-24-2020 06:41 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  I actually think I'm more bothered with playing Elon home-and-home than VWC, though in a perfect world neither would happen. Which this very much is not.

Why? It is a 3 to 31/2 hour drive, they have a brand new arena that is probably the best in the CAA, they have a new coach in his second year that came from Ohio State and just signed a class that was rated better than Wake's. They also beat JMU twice last year and if I remember ODU did not. To me it is a win win. Fans can travel very easily and if the schedule to Elon falls on the right day of the week maybe fans can catch one of The Big 4's games. It sure is better than Philly or Delaware or Northeastern.

I’m excited about the Elon return game. A good friend of mine (and ODU alum) is a professor there, so I’ll definitely make the trip down.