SOS and Quads 1 & 2 wins matter so much, and there will be some dregs at the bottom of this new conference. I'd like to see the AAC be creative with scheduling. The COVID year proved that - contrary to tradition - conferences can schedule games and work out logistics quickly, in season.

I'd like to see the last 2 weeks of the regular season left open on the conference schedules. Then at some cutoff date (maybe 1 week earlier) the AAC schedules the top 5 in standings to play each other down the stretch. These would be the last 4 games on each team's schedule. The remaining 9 teams can also play each other in some seeded fashion.

It would work pretty well in a 14-team conference. Have everyone play everyone 1x through the season. 13 games. Conference tourney seeding locks at this point. Then add these last 4 seeded games for a 17-game conference schedule. Then, of course, play the tourney after a 17-game schedule using the prior seeding.

That would insure maximum SOS for teams trying to make the postseason.
A few conferences did something similar last year, with makeup games.

Based on last year's KenPom ratings, our SOS in the new AAC would be...
for the first 13 games:
Quad 1 games - 2x
Quad 2 games - 2x
other games - 9x
for the last 4 reseeded games (we would be the top seed):
Quad 1 - 2x
Quad 2 - 2x

We would double our Quads 1 and 2 opportunities with flex scheduling, to 4 and 4 of each.

For comparison, last year we played a shortened 15-game AAC schedule. We had 2 quad 1 games, and 4 quad 2 games. So flex scheduling could absolutely mitigate the SOS damage from the weak bottom of the new AAC.

(10-19-2021 03:18 PM)Tiger87 Wrote:  SOS and Quads 1 & 2 wins matter so much, and there will be some dregs at the bottom of this new conference. I'd like to see the AAC be creative with scheduling. The COVID year proved that - contrary to tradition - conferences can schedule games and work out logistics quickly, in season.

I'd like to see the last 2 weeks of the regular season left open on the conference schedules. Then at some cutoff date (maybe 1 week earlier) the AAC schedules the top 5 in standings to play each other down the stretch. These would be the last 4 games on each team's schedule. The remaining 9 teams can also play each other in some seeded fashion.

It would work pretty well in a 14-team conference. Have everyone play everyone 1x through the season. 13 games. Conference tourney seeding locks at this point. Then add these last 4 seeded games for a 17-game conference schedule. Then, of course, play the tourney after a 17-game schedule using the prior seeding.

That would insure maximum SOS for teams trying to make the postseason.
A few conferences did something similar last year, with makeup games.

Based on last year's KenPom ratings, our SOS in the new AAC would be...
for the first 13 games:
Quad 1 games - 2x
Quad 2 games - 2x
other games - 9x
for the last 4 reseeded games (we would be the top seed):
Quad 1 - 2x
Quad 2 - 2x

We would double our Quads 1 and 2 opportunities with flex scheduling, to 4 and 4 of each.

For comparison, last year we played a shortened 15-game AAC schedule. We had 2 quad 1 games, and 4 quad 2 games. So flex scheduling could absolutely mitigate the SOS damage from the weak bottom of the new AAC.

If the conference can force schools to do it it would help...

But just like last year you are going to have schools hoping there have already done enough and not want to risk a loss by playing a tough game.

Ex. Why would a top 10ish Memphis want to go on the road to play a 50ish ranked Wichita.

Ideally (if we don't get called up) we can have a great year this year...And schedule like Gonzaga going forward. Much easier to schedule tough teams when you have a high profile.

(10-19-2021 04:08 PM)macgar32 Wrote:  

(10-19-2021 03:18 PM)Tiger87 Wrote:  SOS and Quads 1 & 2 wins matter so much, and there will be some dregs at the bottom of this new conference. I'd like to see the AAC be creative with scheduling. The COVID year proved that - contrary to tradition - conferences can schedule games and work out logistics quickly, in season.

I'd like to see the last 2 weeks of the regular season left open on the conference schedules. Then at some cutoff date (maybe 1 week earlier) the AAC schedules the top 5 in standings to play each other down the stretch. These would be the last 4 games on each team's schedule. The remaining 9 teams can also play each other in some seeded fashion.

It would work pretty well in a 14-team conference. Have everyone play everyone 1x through the season. 13 games. Conference tourney seeding locks at this point. Then add these last 4 seeded games for a 17-game conference schedule. Then, of course, play the tourney after a 17-game schedule using the prior seeding.

That would insure maximum SOS for teams trying to make the postseason.
A few conferences did something similar last year, with makeup games.

Based on last year's KenPom ratings, our SOS in the new AAC would be...
for the first 13 games:
Quad 1 games - 2x
Quad 2 games - 2x
other games - 9x
for the last 4 reseeded games (we would be the top seed):
Quad 1 - 2x
Quad 2 - 2x

We would double our Quads 1 and 2 opportunities with flex scheduling, to 4 and 4 of each.

For comparison, last year we played a shortened 15-game AAC schedule. We had 2 quad 1 games, and 4 quad 2 games. So flex scheduling could absolutely mitigate the SOS damage from the weak bottom of the new AAC.

If the conference can force schools to do it it would help...

But just like last year you are going to have schools hoping there have already done enough and not want to risk a loss by playing a tough game.

Ex. Why would a top 10ish Memphis want to go on the road to play a 50ish ranked Wichita.

Ideally (if we don't get called up) we can have a great year this year...And schedule like Gonzaga going forward. Much easier to schedule tough teams when you have a high profile.

It would benefit the conference to maximize tourney teams with the highest possible seeding, post-season. But, yeah, it would have to be in the annual agreement or conference charter. Before season. You can't give coaches the option of backing out late season, thinking they had done enough (aka, pulling a Sampson).

You might put 1 team that was locked at risk for slipping 1 seed. But the reward is you might sneak 1 additional bubble team in.

The other option is that you do a 1x round robin through the conference for 13 games. For the other 5 games you have "annual rivals" that you play 2x, to get to 18 games. Your rival games could be teams with comparable historic ratings. For Memphis, this could be Wichita, SMU, UAB, Tulsa, Tulane. In most years, that accomplishes the same thing.

FOOTNOTE: Surprisingly, North Texas had a good bb season last year. Their KenPom was ahead of both Cincy and UCF. I know nothing about their bb program.

Espn is calling the shots on conf realignment. They took our 3 best equals in the AAC, leaving us behind and backfilling with CUSA garbage. With said garbage coming into the basketball side of the league, espn will hopefully throw us a few bones and do some made for TV non-conf games. Then again, who can’t wait to watch us play Rice, FAU and UTSA on the hardwood?!!

(10-19-2021 06:47 PM)MemTigers1998 Wrote:  Espn is calling the shots on conf realignment. They took our 3 best equals in the AAC, leaving us behind and backfilling with CUSA garbage. With said garbage coming into the basketball side of the league, espn will hopefully throw us a few bones and do some made for TV non-conf games. Then again, who can’t wait to watch us play Rice, FAU and UTSA on the hardwood?!!

(10-19-2021 05:00 PM)Tiger87 Wrote:  

(10-19-2021 04:08 PM)macgar32 Wrote:  

(10-19-2021 03:18 PM)Tiger87 Wrote:  SOS and Quads 1 & 2 wins matter so much, and there will be some dregs at the bottom of this new conference. I'd like to see the AAC be creative with scheduling. The COVID year proved that - contrary to tradition - conferences can schedule games and work out logistics quickly, in season.

I'd like to see the last 2 weeks of the regular season left open on the conference schedules. Then at some cutoff date (maybe 1 week earlier) the AAC schedules the top 5 in standings to play each other down the stretch. These would be the last 4 games on each team's schedule. The remaining 9 teams can also play each other in some seeded fashion.

It would work pretty well in a 14-team conference. Have everyone play everyone 1x through the season. 13 games. Conference tourney seeding locks at this point. Then add these last 4 seeded games for a 17-game conference schedule. Then, of course, play the tourney after a 17-game schedule using the prior seeding.

That would insure maximum SOS for teams trying to make the postseason.
A few conferences did something similar last year, with makeup games.

Based on last year's KenPom ratings, our SOS in the new AAC would be...
for the first 13 games:
Quad 1 games - 2x
Quad 2 games - 2x
other games - 9x
for the last 4 reseeded games (we would be the top seed):
Quad 1 - 2x
Quad 2 - 2x

We would double our Quads 1 and 2 opportunities with flex scheduling, to 4 and 4 of each.

For comparison, last year we played a shortened 15-game AAC schedule. We had 2 quad 1 games, and 4 quad 2 games. So flex scheduling could absolutely mitigate the SOS damage from the weak bottom of the new AAC.

If the conference can force schools to do it it would help...

But just like last year you are going to have schools hoping there have already done enough and not want to risk a loss by playing a tough game.

Ex. Why would a top 10ish Memphis want to go on the road to play a 50ish ranked Wichita.

Ideally (if we don't get called up) we can have a great year this year...And schedule like Gonzaga going forward. Much easier to schedule tough teams when you have a high profile.

It would benefit the conference to maximize tourney teams with the highest possible seeding, post-season. But, yeah, it would have to be in the annual agreement or conference charter. Before season. You can't give coaches the option of backing out late season, thinking they had done enough (aka, pulling a Sampson).

You might put 1 team that was locked at risk for slipping 1 seed. But the reward is you might sneak 1 additional bubble team in.

The other option is that you do a 1x round robin through the conference for 13 games. For the other 5 games you have "annual rivals" that you play 2x, to get to 18 games. Your rival games could be teams with comparable historic ratings. For Memphis, this could be Wichita, SMU, UAB, Tulsa, Tulane. In most years, that accomplishes the same thing.

FOOTNOTE: Surprisingly, North Texas had a good bb season last year. Their KenPom was ahead of both Cincy and UCF. I know nothing about their bb program.

100% agree...

But the whole pulling a Sampson is not telling the whole story, we pulled out of a game as well...So we cant really look down our nose at Houston because we didn't want to go to WSU and play that game...Hindsight says we definitely should have done it.

(10-20-2021 09:37 AM)macgar32 Wrote:  

(10-19-2021 05:00 PM)Tiger87 Wrote:  

(10-19-2021 04:08 PM)macgar32 Wrote:  

(10-19-2021 03:18 PM)Tiger87 Wrote:  SOS and Quads 1 & 2 wins matter so much, and there will be some dregs at the bottom of this new conference. I'd like to see the AAC be creative with scheduling. The COVID year proved that - contrary to tradition - conferences can schedule games and work out logistics quickly, in season.

I'd like to see the last 2 weeks of the regular season left open on the conference schedules. Then at some cutoff date (maybe 1 week earlier) the AAC schedules the top 5 in standings to play each other down the stretch. These would be the last 4 games on each team's schedule. The remaining 9 teams can also play each other in some seeded fashion.

It would work pretty well in a 14-team conference. Have everyone play everyone 1x through the season. 13 games. Conference tourney seeding locks at this point. Then add these last 4 seeded games for a 17-game conference schedule. Then, of course, play the tourney after a 17-game schedule using the prior seeding.

That would insure maximum SOS for teams trying to make the postseason.
A few conferences did something similar last year, with makeup games.

Based on last year's KenPom ratings, our SOS in the new AAC would be...
for the first 13 games:
Quad 1 games - 2x
Quad 2 games - 2x
other games - 9x
for the last 4 reseeded games (we would be the top seed):
Quad 1 - 2x
Quad 2 - 2x

We would double our Quads 1 and 2 opportunities with flex scheduling, to 4 and 4 of each.

For comparison, last year we played a shortened 15-game AAC schedule. We had 2 quad 1 games, and 4 quad 2 games. So flex scheduling could absolutely mitigate the SOS damage from the weak bottom of the new AAC.

If the conference can force schools to do it it would help...

But just like last year you are going to have schools hoping there have already done enough and not want to risk a loss by playing a tough game.

Ex. Why would a top 10ish Memphis want to go on the road to play a 50ish ranked Wichita.

Ideally (if we don't get called up) we can have a great year this year...And schedule like Gonzaga going forward. Much easier to schedule tough teams when you have a high profile.

It would benefit the conference to maximize tourney teams with the highest possible seeding, post-season. But, yeah, it would have to be in the annual agreement or conference charter. Before season. You can't give coaches the option of backing out late season, thinking they had done enough (aka, pulling a Sampson).

You might put 1 team that was locked at risk for slipping 1 seed. But the reward is you might sneak 1 additional bubble team in.

The other option is that you do a 1x round robin through the conference for 13 games. For the other 5 games you have "annual rivals" that you play 2x, to get to 18 games. Your rival games could be teams with comparable historic ratings. For Memphis, this could be Wichita, SMU, UAB, Tulsa, Tulane. In most years, that accomplishes the same thing.

FOOTNOTE: Surprisingly, North Texas had a good bb season last year. Their KenPom was ahead of both Cincy and UCF. I know nothing about their bb program.

100% agree...

But the whole pulling a Sampson is not telling the whole story, we pulled out of a game as well...So we cant really look down our nose at Houston because we didn't want to go to WSU and play that game...Hindsight says we definitely should have done it.

And that's not telling the whole story either.
We were trying to get the game with Houston that was on the original schedule and that was in accordance to the preseason agreement - if a game can be made up it will be.
The conference wasn't offering that game, but wanted us to go to Wichita - which was NOT on the original schedule.

(10-20-2021 11:31 AM)Tiger87 Wrote:  

(10-20-2021 09:37 AM)macgar32 Wrote:  

(10-19-2021 05:00 PM)Tiger87 Wrote:  

(10-19-2021 04:08 PM)macgar32 Wrote:  

(10-19-2021 03:18 PM)Tiger87 Wrote:  SOS and Quads 1 & 2 wins matter so much, and there will be some dregs at the bottom of this new conference. I'd like to see the AAC be creative with scheduling. The COVID year proved that - contrary to tradition - conferences can schedule games and work out logistics quickly, in season.

I'd like to see the last 2 weeks of the regular season left open on the conference schedules. Then at some cutoff date (maybe 1 week earlier) the AAC schedules the top 5 in standings to play each other down the stretch. These would be the last 4 games on each team's schedule. The remaining 9 teams can also play each other in some seeded fashion.

It would work pretty well in a 14-team conference. Have everyone play everyone 1x through the season. 13 games. Conference tourney seeding locks at this point. Then add these last 4 seeded games for a 17-game conference schedule. Then, of course, play the tourney after a 17-game schedule using the prior seeding.

That would insure maximum SOS for teams trying to make the postseason.
A few conferences did something similar last year, with makeup games.

Based on last year's KenPom ratings, our SOS in the new AAC would be...
for the first 13 games:
Quad 1 games - 2x
Quad 2 games - 2x
other games - 9x
for the last 4 reseeded games (we would be the top seed):
Quad 1 - 2x
Quad 2 - 2x

We would double our Quads 1 and 2 opportunities with flex scheduling, to 4 and 4 of each.

For comparison, last year we played a shortened 15-game AAC schedule. We had 2 quad 1 games, and 4 quad 2 games. So flex scheduling could absolutely mitigate the SOS damage from the weak bottom of the new AAC.

If the conference can force schools to do it it would help...

But just like last year you are going to have schools hoping there have already done enough and not want to risk a loss by playing a tough game.

Ex. Why would a top 10ish Memphis want to go on the road to play a 50ish ranked Wichita.

Ideally (if we don't get called up) we can have a great year this year...And schedule like Gonzaga going forward. Much easier to schedule tough teams when you have a high profile.

It would benefit the conference to maximize tourney teams with the highest possible seeding, post-season. But, yeah, it would have to be in the annual agreement or conference charter. Before season. You can't give coaches the option of backing out late season, thinking they had done enough (aka, pulling a Sampson).

You might put 1 team that was locked at risk for slipping 1 seed. But the reward is you might sneak 1 additional bubble team in.

The other option is that you do a 1x round robin through the conference for 13 games. For the other 5 games you have "annual rivals" that you play 2x, to get to 18 games. Your rival games could be teams with comparable historic ratings. For Memphis, this could be Wichita, SMU, UAB, Tulsa, Tulane. In most years, that accomplishes the same thing.

FOOTNOTE: Surprisingly, North Texas had a good bb season last year. Their KenPom was ahead of both Cincy and UCF. I know nothing about their bb program.

100% agree...

But the whole pulling a Sampson is not telling the whole story, we pulled out of a game as well...So we cant really look down our nose at Houston because we didn't want to go to WSU and play that game...Hindsight says we definitely should have done it.

And that's not telling the whole story either.
We were trying to get the game with Houston that was on the original schedule and that was in accordance to the preseason agreement - if a game can be made up it will be.
The conference wasn't offering that game, but wanted us to go to Wichita - which was NOT on the original schedule.

Are you sure...

I thought we were to play a true round robin last year. Seems like we were scheduled to play everyone twice. If that is true where did you hear your version?

https://www.actionnews5.com/2020/10/08/a...asketball/

(10-20-2021 02:31 PM)macgar32 Wrote:  

(10-20-2021 11:31 AM)Tiger87 Wrote:  

(10-20-2021 09:37 AM)macgar32 Wrote:  

(10-19-2021 05:00 PM)Tiger87 Wrote:  

(10-19-2021 04:08 PM)macgar32 Wrote:  If the conference can force schools to do it it would help...

But just like last year you are going to have schools hoping there have already done enough and not want to risk a loss by playing a tough game.

Ex. Why would a top 10ish Memphis want to go on the road to play a 50ish ranked Wichita.

Ideally (if we don't get called up) we can have a great year this year...And schedule like Gonzaga going forward. Much easier to schedule tough teams when you have a high profile.

It would benefit the conference to maximize tourney teams with the highest possible seeding, post-season. But, yeah, it would have to be in the annual agreement or conference charter. Before season. You can't give coaches the option of backing out late season, thinking they had done enough (aka, pulling a Sampson).

You might put 1 team that was locked at risk for slipping 1 seed. But the reward is you might sneak 1 additional bubble team in.

The other option is that you do a 1x round robin through the conference for 13 games. For the other 5 games you have "annual rivals" that you play 2x, to get to 18 games. Your rival games could be teams with comparable historic ratings. For Memphis, this could be Wichita, SMU, UAB, Tulsa, Tulane. In most years, that accomplishes the same thing.

FOOTNOTE: Surprisingly, North Texas had a good bb season last year. Their KenPom was ahead of both Cincy and UCF. I know nothing about their bb program.

100% agree...

But the whole pulling a Sampson is not telling the whole story, we pulled out of a game as well...So we cant really look down our nose at Houston because we didn't want to go to WSU and play that game...Hindsight says we definitely should have done it.

And that's not telling the whole story either.
We were trying to get the game with Houston that was on the original schedule and that was in accordance to the preseason agreement - if a game can be made up it will be.
The conference wasn't offering that game, but wanted us to go to Wichita - which was NOT on the original schedule.

Are you sure...

I thought we were to play a true round robin last year. Seems like we were scheduled to play everyone twice. If that is true where did you hear your version?

https://www.actionnews5.com/2020/10/08/a...asketball/

Yeah, you're right. I was trying to use my memory (unreliable) and the ESPN schedule from last year (missing games).

But there was something about the Wichita game that was different, as I recall. I think maybe it was that Penny said we would go there if Houston would come here. Then Houston balked, and so we did as well.

I may not have all facts right, but at the time, it was pretty clear to everyone that Sampson pulled a Sampson first.

Regardless, flex scheduling would mostly help the conference as a whole. And the conference would need an agreement up front, with no wiggle room for coaches.