B1G moves to 20-game conference schedule in 2018-19

[AuroranHusker]

 

[throwback]

Mixed feelings on this - 

 

Completely understand the desire to play more conference games, especially with conference expansion. Not to mention TV partners want more high-end content - ie, conference games - instead of non-power 5 teams in the non-conference. Now we'll have 7 double-plays and 6 single-plays each year.

 

They can really balance the conference schedule nicely now if they want - have 1 team designated as a rival that you double-play every year. Then with the other 12 teams, you can have 6 double-plays and 6 single-plays, switching them each year. So you'd play your 'rival' 8 times every four years, and everyone else 6 times every four years, which would be nice balance. 

 

Unfortunately, that's going to change the way non-con schedules will be put together. If we want 17 home games like we have this season, that means we need 7 home games out of the non-con. We're locked in to H/H with the Bluebirds. Throw in a 3-gm neutral site tourney and that leaves 8-9 games  to get to the 30-31 max, and 6-7 of them would have to be at home, depending on whether the bluebird game is in Omaha or Lincoln. And that doesn't even figure in the BE/B1G challenge when we play in that or the B1G/ACC game.

 

So you probably end up either giving up H/H series with teams like Kansas or giving up the 3-gm neutral site tourneys because we need X number of one-game series home games vs non-power 5 teams to get to 17 home games. Or you back off and go with 15-16 home games. which doesn't seem likely.

 

Makes it really tough to schedule H/H series vs name schools, especially when we don't know for sure that we'll have any home games in the B1G/ACc and B1G/BE challenges until several months before the games are played.

Edited October 16, 2017 by throwback

[ajb5856]

Remind me again what the max number of scheduling events is for a season???

 

Remember, the advantage of the neutral site preseason tournament is that it counts only as 1 scheduling event even though you are getting 3 games in most cases. 

[throwback]

I believe you're limited to 29 without the neutral site tourney. With that tourney you can go to 31, but 4 of the games have to be in the tourney.

 

Now that 4th game doesn't have to be at the tourney site, it just has to be against a team in the tourney field. So most years, teams play 30 as the neutral site tourney consists of 3 games, and they just don't schedule that 4th game. This year we are at 31, because we're counting the game with St John's as the 4th game of our neutral site tourney, since St John's is in the tourney.

 

There's also those 4-game tourneys where you play 2 non-power 5 teams at home that are "in" the tourney, and then you play 2 neutral site games later against name schools, like we did in the Barclays tourney in 2015-16. Then you can get to 31 and take care of a couple of home games vs non-power 5 teams in the process.

 

With a 20-gm conference schedule, playing more of the 4-gm tourneys with 2 at home and 2 at a neutral site may be the easier way to go going forward, rather than playing in the 3-gm neutral-site tourneys, although you lose the TV exposure when you're not in the ESPN-sponsored 3-gm neutral site tourneys.

Edited October 16, 2017 by throwback

[Dead Dog Alley]

15 minutes ago, ajb5856 said:

Remind me again what the max number of scheduling events is for a season???

 

Remember, the advantage of the neutral site preseason tournament is that it counts only as 1 scheduling even even though you are getting 3 games in most cases. 

 

I'm not going to state this as a certainty, but I think the limit of regular season games is 29, but if you play in a tournament those games only count as one game.

 

(I see that right before I posted this, Throwback explained the scheduling rules perfectly and in detail.)

Edited October 16, 2017 by Dead Dog Alley

[throwback]

Also will be interesting to see if other conference follow suit and how this affects RPI. (Does anyone play 20 games right now?) A lower number of cross-conference games - especially if Power 5 teams sacrifice high-end games vs each other to schedule more home games against non-Power 5 teams - has to skew the accuracy of RPI a bit, I would think.

 

I mean you're now having 2 of your 32-33 games against repeat opponents, rather than playing someone new - that's roughly 6% of your schedule, which could affect RPI quite a bit if enough conferences go to 20.

 

Or maybe not. The math there is a bit above my pay grade. 

 

[AuroranHusker]

1 hour ago, throwback said:

Also will be interesting to see if other conference follow suit and how this affects RPI. (Does anyone play 20 games right now?) A lower number of cross-conference games - especially if Power 5 teams sacrifice high-end games vs each other to schedule more home games against non-Power 5 teams - has to skew the accuracy of RPI a bit, I would think.

 

I mean you're now having 2 of your 32-33 games against repeat opponents, rather than playing someone new - that's roughly 6% of your schedule, which could affect RPI quite a bit if enough conferences go to 20.

 

Or maybe not. The math there is a bit above my pay grade. 

 

 

The ACC is going the 20-game conference scheduling route. They have 15 teams in hoops.

 

[Handy Johnson]

Needless to say that's gonna be a "Meat Grinder" so we better man up, bow the neck, GATA, & send a card home to Momma...

[49r]

The good news is all the other B1G teams will have to play a 20 game conference schedule too.

[Jacob Padilla]

3 hours ago, AuroranHusker said:

 

The ACC is going the 20-game conference scheduling route. They have 15 teams in hoops.

 

 

They're not starting that until 2019-20, though. The Big Ten is starting next season.

 

I'm not a big fan of this as I really like games between big-time teams from different conferences. The extra conference games aren't going to take the place of the cupcakes, they're going to replace the home-and-home games like throwback spelled out. And it's not like a game is guaranteed to be a good one just because it's a conference game. There are bad teams at the bottom of every conference and those teams have to play someone. So I don't buy the "strengthening scheduling" as a real reason behind this move.

[throwback]

4 hours ago, Jacob Padilla said:

 

They're not starting that until 2019-20, though. The Big Ten is starting next season.

 

I'm not a big fan of this as I really like games between big-time teams from different conferences. The extra conference games aren't going to take the place of the cupcakes, they're going to replace the home-and-home games like throwback spelled out. And it's not like a game is guaranteed to be a good one just because it's a conference game. There are bad teams at the bottom of every conference and those teams have to play someone. So I don't buy the "strengthening scheduling" as a real reason behind this move.

Agreed - I think we'll still get the Kansas-Kentucky type games, as ESPN will pay for them for some December programming. But NU-Cincinnati type H/H series are all but gone, which is unfortunate. Or you'll have to have a couple years in a row where you stop playing in the in-season tournaments, which is also unfortunate.

 

I imagine this could push the start of conference season to just before Xmas, rather than just before New Year's as it is now - (at least in seasons where we aren't moving the B1G tournament up a week ) - so that would add another 2 games with no students and listless arenas, which also would be unfortunate. 

 

Perhaps they'll stick to this year's model and play the first two conference games in early December so students will be there? That would be better than starting B1G play Dec. 20/21/22. 

Edited October 17, 2017 by throwback

[Donkey]

The new schedule really screws the mid-majors.  I guarantee you will see more P5 v. P5 conference match ups (BIG/BigE or ACC type) with a sprinkling of big name games (MSU v. Duke, etc.).  However, you will see the mid/lower tier P5 schools try to schedule more guaranteed win games against mid/small conference schools.  The result will be schools like SDSU, UNLV, VCU, Memphis, etc ( I would exclude Gonzaga because they are viewed as a good loss for a P5 school) will struggle to get good match ups to build their SOS.  Best case scenario for them will be the early season tournaments.

[49r]

Pac 12 will join the 20-game schedule party in 2020-21

 

 

[jayschool]

22 hours ago, 49r said:

Pac 12 will join the 20-game schedule party in 2020-21

 

 

That's gonna kill their SOS.