Next Year's Out Of Conference Schedule

[Green to the Bone]

With a strong, mature squad returning next year, perhaps it would behoove us to schedule some tougher OOC games, both to boost the ratings and challenge the team.

We played 12 OOC games this year: 9 D-I, 2 D-II, 1 NAIA. Against the D-I's, we went 6-3. Most of those victories turned out to be against pretty weak teams, based on rankings; even then, we had to squeak by against three inferior opponents (UTA, Rice, Tx Southern) and got beat by one (Boise State, although that was with a very bad travel schedule).

Here, in rank order, are the NCAA RPI rankings of our D-I OOCs, as of yesterday's games, and the outcomes of our games against them:

Texas A&M: 12 (L, 75-65)

Okie State: 29 (L, 82-68)

Southeastern Louisiana: 194 (W, 71-61)

Jackson State: 196 (W, 68-58)

Boise State: 203 (L, 79-73)

Texas Southern: 226 (W, 71-69)

UTA: 235 (W, 101-99, 2OT)

Rice: 311 (W, 64-62)

Houston Baptist: 329 (W, 107-87)

There appears to be a huge dropoff in opponent quality between the top two and the rest. There's nobody in this list with a ranking close to ours, which is 101; they're either way higher or way lower. Might we benefit by testing ourselves a bit more before conference play begins next fall?

Edited March 12, 2010 by Green to the Bone

[AJR2010OX]

It'd be nice. Time for us to earn some respect nationally.

With a strong, mature squad returning next year, perhaps it would behoove us to schedule some tougher OOC games, both to boost the ratings and challenge the team.

We played 12 OOC games this year: 9 D-I, 2 D-II, 1 NAIA. Against the D-I's, we went 6-3. Most of those victories turned out to be against pretty weak teams, based on rankings; even then, we had to squeak by against three inferior opponents (UTA, Rice, Tx Southern) and got beat by one (Boise State, although that was with a very bad travel schedule).

Here, in rank order, are the NCAA RPI rankings of our D-I OOCs, as of yesterday's games, and the outcomes of our games against them:

Texas A&M: 12 (L, 75-65)

Okie State: 29 (L, 82-68)

Southeastern Louisiana: 194 (W, 71-61)

Jackson State: 196 (W, 68-58)

Boise State: 203 (L, 79-73)

Texas Southern: 226 (W, 71-69)

UTA: 235 (W, 101-99, 2OT)

Rice: 311 (W, 64-62)

Houston Baptist: 329 (W, 107-87)

There appears to be a huge dropoff in opponent quality between the top two and the rest. There's nobody in this list with a ranking close to ours, which is 101; they're either way higher or way lower. Might we benefit by testing ourselves a bit more before conference play begins next fall?

[foutsrouts]

Definitely. It would be really nice if we could get schools like Tulsa, Houston, TT, Tulane, UTEP, and the three locals among others to schedule us with a home and home on a regular basis. We already play UTA regularly, so if we could get the bozos who are holding up a four team Metroplex tourney to come on board, we would have a bit of the problem licked right there. Two Camerons a year should be enough.

[TheTastyGreek]

If we had played last year's OOC D1 schedule this year, here's what the RPI situation would look like:

Oklahoma State - 29

Sam Houston State - 79

Indiana State - 88

Jackson State - 196

Houston - 145

Sam Houston State - 79

New Mexico State - 63

Houston Baptist - 329

UT-Arlington - 234

Arkansas - 154

5 games against RPI top 100 teams. 2 against teams around 150. Only two games against teams with RPI 200+.

Problem number one is catching a lot of opponents during bad years. Problem number two is the difficulty in scheduling decent games against decent opponents. People don't want to risk losing to us, because we're a legitimate threat in a home-and-home.

[FirefightnRick]

With a strong, mature squad returning next year, perhaps it would behoove us to schedule some tougher OOC games, both to boost the ratings and challenge the team.

We played 12 OOC games this year: 9 D-I, 2 D-II, 1 NAIA. Against the D-I's, we went 6-3. Most of those victories turned out to be against pretty weak teams, based on rankings; even then, we had to squeak by against three inferior opponents (UTA, Rice, Tx Southern) and got beat by one (Boise State, although that was with a very bad travel schedule).

Here, in rank order, are the NCAA RPI rankings of our D-I OOCs, as of yesterday's games, and the outcomes of our games against them:

Texas A&M: 12 (L, 75-65)

Okie State: 29 (L, 82-68)

Southeastern Louisiana: 194 (W, 71-61)

Jackson State: 196 (W, 68-58)

Boise State: 203 (L, 79-73)

Texas Southern: 226 (W, 71-69)

UTA: 235 (W, 101-99, 2OT)

Rice: 311 (W, 64-62)

Houston Baptist: 329 (W, 107-87)

There appears to be a huge dropoff in opponent quality between the top two and the rest. There's nobody in this list with a ranking close to ours, which is 101; they're either way higher or way lower. Might we benefit by testing ourselves a bit more before conference play begins next fall?

-sarcasm alert-

Are you complaining? Because if you are, this crowd is going to be all over you for hoping we raise the bar around here.

Rick