View Full Version : A10 considers 18-game conference schedule
BMoreX
02-11-2012, 02:05 PM
John O’Conner of the Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote an interesting story about the A-10 considering an expansion of the league schedule.
Per the story, commissioner Bernadette McGlade confirmed this week that the conference is exploring a possible change from 16 annual league games to 18.
Wrote O’Conner: League and school officials are “discussing the pros and cons of an 18-game conference schedule, (and) the decision will be made by the May spring meeting,” McGlade said.
http://cincinnati.com/blogs/xavier/2012/02/11/a-10-considers-18-game-conference-schedule/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/sports/2012/feb/11/tdsport01-a-10-considers-expanding-league-schedule-ar-1680503/?referer=http://t.co/8D0mVp0h&shorturl=http://bit.ly/yRyaHg
No thank you.
danaandvictory
02-11-2012, 02:11 PM
If the dregs of this league can't fill their schedules, they can schedule each other in nonconference games.
I wish the league would just go to 14. I'd rather see a broad mix of teams and give Mario some wide latitude in tailoring the schedule year-to-year. Home-and-home with Dayton, one game with everyone else.
XMuskieFTW
02-11-2012, 02:42 PM
Hell no.
coasterville95
02-11-2012, 03:00 PM
Disclaimer: I haven't read either article yet.
But, at first blush I'm sure we will the the biggest loser in this. Mario has done a fantastic job the last few years putting a schedule together. Now, he is essentially being told "Drop two games"
Sure, this may help those A10 schools that aren't exactly at the top of other schools lists in scheduling games, but for us, what do we lose. More league games means the February non-con game that has really helped us in the past few years, most likely will be lost.
I'm guessing we can lose one of the pastry cart games to make up for RPI hit losing the February high major non con game.
MHettel
02-11-2012, 03:17 PM
Bad RPI implications here. real bad.
Masterofreality
02-11-2012, 04:19 PM
Bad RPI implications here. real bad.
I'm not so sure.
What will probably happen is that the best like Temple and Xavier will play each other home and home. You'd still have the X-dump home and home, probably X -StL H&H, I would say X- Dooks H&H and X- Temple H&H. That's 8 games vs 4 teams then you play a mix of the other 10. These match-ups could change depending on each team's preseason outlook, with the exception that we'd always play the Cryers twice.
The dregs would play each other more. What you would get, rather than a total RPI kill is some very screwy League Standings because the LaSucks of the world would get to play the UMesses mpre often.
Would you rather see a game against Oral Roberts or guarantee a home game against Temple every year?
GoMuskies
02-11-2012, 04:40 PM
Temple most years I suppose...although ORU might be better than Temple this year.
MHettel
02-12-2012, 12:10 PM
I'm not so sure.
What will probably happen is that the best like Temple and Xavier will play each other home and home. You'd still have the X-dump home and home, probably X -StL H&H, I would say X- Dooks H&H and X- Temple H&H. That's 8 games vs 4 teams then you play a mix of the other 10. These match-ups could change depending on each team's preseason outlook, with the exception that we'd always play the Cryers twice.
The dregs would play each other more. What you would get, rather than a total RPI kill is some very screwy League Standings because the LaSucks of the world would get to play the UMesses mpre often.
Would you rather see a game against Oral Roberts or guarantee a home game against Temple every year?
It's bad. There will be 28 more conference games, and 28 less non-conference games. the combined record of all the conference games will be 28-28, which flows into the RPI of the league and just circulates among the teams as as they play each other. It impacts 2/3 of the RPI components (opponents records and opponents-opponents records). Alternatively, the non-con games can have any number of outcomes, hopefully much better than .500 which flows into the RPi instead.
Imagine if there were no non-conference games in college basketball. No team plays anyone outside their conference. Think about what the RPI would look like. the opponents and opponents-opponents portion of every team would be almost identical for every team.
The nonn-con IS the RPI.
BMoreX
02-13-2012, 01:37 PM
Shannon Russell had another blog entry this morning about the possibility of an 18 game conference schedule.
http://cincinnati.com/blogs/xavier/2012/02/13/a-10-coaches-talk-potential-expansion/
From the A10 coaches' conference call, it appears that Mack, Miller, Majerus, and Pecora are against 18. Dunphy and Kellogg leaned towards keeping it at 16, but hadn't given much thought to an expanded conference schedule. Shannon only mentions Ron Everhart as a supporter of the change.
When almost 50% of your coaches say they would not support a change, I'm not really sure how the A10 league officials can justify doing this.
Cheesehead
02-13-2012, 09:45 PM
Mack was asked about this during his show tonight and does not like it one bit. It hurts a program like X that goes out and looks for those OOC games to boost their schedule.
WCWIII
02-13-2012, 10:07 PM
How about allow those schools who want to schedule additional A10 games, do so as OOC games? Maybe Xavier would do a Temple home and home with one of those games being a non-A10 game. Does anyone know if any league has allowed anything like this? Have same-league teams competed in any exempt tournaments - I know it's generally not done, but is it an absolute requirement?
bigdiggins
02-13-2012, 10:33 PM
How about allow those schools who want to schedule additional A10 games, do so as OOC games? Maybe Xavier would do a Temple home and home with one of those games being a non-A10 game. Does anyone know if any league has allowed anything like this? Have same-league teams competed in any exempt tournaments - I know it's generally not done, but is it an absolute requirement?
I believe Purdue and Indiana played a non-conf game a few years ago. The Big 10 schedule only had them playong once and they wanted a home and home as they usually have.
danaandvictory
02-13-2012, 10:40 PM
How about allow those schools who want to schedule additional A10 games, do so as OOC games?
I don't believe there's any rule against it.
As I've mentioned on here before I'd almost rather have the league add one more team (say, Siena, Iona, or similar) and go to a 14-game schedule. If you can't play a full double round-robin then why try? At least a single round robin would be balanced from an opponents perspective, even if the home-road splits could skew things.
cheeba
02-13-2012, 10:45 PM
If they did move to the 18 game schedule, would it be possible to have the top tier teams play eachother more often that seaon and let the dregs of the conference play against eachother multiple times that season. Maybe base the schedule on the projected pre-season rankings. Have the top teams only play one of the 4 celler dwellers so it doesn't kill your RPI. Have the top teams play eachother twice during the sewaon and sprinkle in one of the bad teams.
WCWIII
02-13-2012, 10:52 PM
I believe Purdue and Indiana played a non-conf game a few years ago. The Big 10 schedule only had them playong once and they wanted a home and home as they usually have.
That was a good hint ... (from kenpom to find it and then Wikipedia to describe it)
The Big Ten had featured an imbalanced conference schedule since increasing to 11 members in 1993, and it finally reached the Indiana–Purdue rivalry as the two were only scheduled for one meeting in each of the 2001–02 and 2002-03 seasons. However, the two schools planned a non-conference game for December 14, 2002, at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. The game was nicknamed the "Duel in the Dome" and a total of 32,055 Hoosier and Boiler fans filled into the Dome to see the game.
bleedXblue
02-15-2012, 11:11 AM
This is a big deal.
If the A-10 pushes this against the will of the likes of X and Temple, could this be enough reason for X to start looking for a new home ?
This conference (although somehwhat better this year) has the typical cellar dwellers almost every year. Is the A-10 really going to potentially hurt it's flagship programs for the sake of Fordham, St Bonnie and GW ?
Mack was adamant about this not being a popular idea from Xavier's perspective.
phaleslu
02-15-2012, 04:26 PM
From what I've read so far, most A10 coaches have come out against this proposal, including Mack and Majerus.
bigdiggins
02-15-2012, 04:28 PM
That was a good hint ... (from kenpom to find it and then Wikipedia to describe it)
The Big Ten had featured an imbalanced conference schedule since increasing to 11 members in 1993, and it finally reached the Indiana–Purdue rivalry as the two were only scheduled for one meeting in each of the 2001–02 and 2002-03 seasons. However, the two schools planned a non-conference game for December 14, 2002, at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. The game was nicknamed the "Duel in the Dome" and a total of 32,055 Hoosier and Boiler fans filled into the Dome to see the game.
Yet no rep points? :(
I know that was shameless of me.
CinciX12
02-19-2012, 04:29 AM
If that happens I hope that we send back a fax saying, 'Don't bother adding us to the schedule the year after next, we'll find all new teams to play.'
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