I have a feeling to get a "power conference" team to come to The Convo, Ohio would have to pay them a lot of money. I realize Ohio would stand to make more money by increased attendance, but I suspect those teams are looking for so much that those increased revenues wouldn't even come close to making up for the extra cost. The athletic department and basketball program probably feel better about putting the money into other things. It's a tough call.

Cal Poly dropped out and a non D1 team was needed for the exemption for the tourney, thus Heidelberg. Of the 7 non-conf home games vs D1 schools, 5 are teams that played in the post season last year. 

An angle naming specific teams would not be necessary, but I would be very interested in reading an Arkley piece about basketball scheduling strategy.

(sighs...smiles...scratches head) Great attitude, and mixed message.  First you seem to say that our staff tries harder than I think, but then you indicate that we shouldn't even bother because we couldn't get a name team to come to Athens under circumstances you deem acceptable.  And I'm the guy who in another thread told people not to get their hopes up about Athens HS QB Joey Burrow coming to Ohio!  Where's The Optimist when I need him LOL...

I dunno, maybe you're right (personally, I don't think so).  But if you are, it's certainly a wake up call to everyone on this board who believes this team can rise to the "next level"  We'll never do so by simply bringing in the same mid level no-names year after year.  They may be good teams, but they're no-names.  

I continue to think that Schaus, with all the contacts made over decades in this business must have some favors he can call in.  Christian should too.  Home scheduling is basically sales, and the best sales people always seem to find a way to close even the toughest transactions.  Perhaps I should have said "be more imaginative" than work harder in my previous comments.  

So you wanna take my money?  I was speaking rhetorically, but fine, name your stakes.  However, I'll determine what the proof is.  No offense, but some guy on the Internet saying he "knows" they've called s particular coach or athletic director is not proof by any stretch of the imagination. 

Recall Kentucky @ Robert Morris last March. I'm quite sure every major-program head coach and AD watching that simply reaffirmed that playing such road games has absolutely zero upside for those with enough money that they don't have to play them.

The ONLY way to fix this is NCAA involvement requiring equal home/away scheduling (which still may not fix it, and would kill a lot of programs that rely on money-game cash), or to find a way to heavily factor such scheduling into NCAA at large bids and seeding.

Would make scheduling even more of a tremendous puzzle than it already is, especially if a few return teams you were counting on to be in one category end up in the other. I know basketball isn't scheduled as far out as football, but that kind of hard cutoff seems tough to do. I'd be in favor of tweaking some formulas to make it advantageous to play on the road a bit more, and let the market figure out the individual games. Gotta have something to counter-balance the $$ advantage of just staying home.

I agree that it would be logistically difficult. I just get would up come at-large time when I hear about "mid-majors" getting left out for Big East/Big Ten schools that they could, and would beat on their home floor or a neutral floor more often than not.  Because the big boys have no incentive to travel, they don't.  But it all boils down to the fact that the NCAA cares less about competition than they do about dollars.

An alternative idea could be to use a 3 or 5 year average RPI in my original idea of the required road games.  That might allow for easier scheduling logistics.  I know it's a pipe dream, but it still fires me up.  Ohio (and Akron, and Kent, etc.) could beat a number of "power conference" schools inside The Convo if given the chance. 

My look at this is more micro.  I look at what we have some control over.  Let's build a totally solid program such that we are a very attractive team for 'the bigs' to play.

Yes, to start, that will mean more away games vs. bigs than home games vs. bigs.  But hopefully that would turn around, leading to a nice slate at home.


As I write this, I think of kents's run.  Did that allow them to attract 'bigs' at home.  Then again, kents's facility is much smaller than the Convo (right?) and kents is not a residential school with a history of fine hoops...but we are.

You just had a 2nd round NCAA Appearance and a Sweet 16 Appearance. We built it, they didn't show.

The department at the time considered the UC game a failure. Dec. 30 wasn't the best day to have the game, though.

Why should we give Dayton a 2-for-1? Their program's not better than ours.



Cleveland State plays an annual series with Kent and Akron. Why would they do a 2-for-1 with us?



1-for-1 with WVU, Butler? You drunk?

Now that NKU is a D1 team, I wouldn't mind a 2-for-1 or even 3-for-1 in our favor with them. Bank of Kentucky Center is a pretty nice arena, a lot of alums in the Cincinnati/NKY area, and it helps the recruiting in that area.