And with JS being a Morgantown native and realizing WVU was going to enter this season "trying to figure it all out" early in the season, I hope he called Oliver Luck and told him, "we'll play you anywhere you want this season."  They had Kent State and Akron in Morgantown last year, we should've asked for a shot this year.  We'd beat this bunch.

Do you mean his one of two road games OOC before conference season starts?  Sorry but unless they are willing to reciprocate I say no thanks. 

	Jason Arkley @JasonAmessenger	9h
	@The_Singman Ohio will need a ton of wins, no bad losses, and at least one win national pundits will take notice of. Rankings also help

Jason Arkley @JasonAmessenger	9h
IMO, to get in as an at-large a MAC team will need: 28-ish wins, 15-1 conference mark, spot in tourney final.

Jason Arkley @JasonAmessenger	9h
@Ryan_Molnar @The_Singman NCAA committee has shown before it's not impressed with 25 wins/excellent MAC record

Jason Arkley @JasonAmessenger	9h
@east_coastbias Since 2007, MAC reg-season champ has had 23, 24,25, 25 and 22 wins. None got an at-large.

Reading these threads from Arkley and watching ESPN showcase/preview all the upcoming early season  tournament games just brought up the feelings I had when our schedule was first announced.  You have EVERY single significant player back from a Sweet 16 team; you can hit the ground running to start the season; very rarely will OHIO have this kind of team returning; Arkley reiterated what we all know---dominating the MAC regular season won't necessarily get the job done; these same guys ended the season showing they could compete against the best of them and the best you can do is schedule Mercyhurst, Portland, UNC-Wilmington, Wofford, Hampton, Richmond, St Bonnie, Maryland Eastern Shore, etc...  And the responses I get is:

1.  Nobody wanted to play us?  My response:  Really?  Look at all these tournaments and they let all those other teams in, but were too afraid of OHIO to let them in?  Really?
2.  We have some really good teams on our schedule that have made the NCAA in the past.  My response:  We're looking for signature wins and I'm sorry but Richmond, Robert Morris, Oakland and UMASS probably aren't good enough.  Maybe UMASS would be listed as a quality win, but nobody else would catch anyone's attention.
3.  We have signature win opportunities vs Memphis & Oklahoma:  My response:  I agree, but you had nothing to lose by adding a couple more to give the guys more than a 2 game opportunity.  For example, if we could've got into say the Old Spice Classic there would've been a chance to potentially hook up vs. Gonzaga, WVU, Clemson, Oklahoma, Vandy on a neutral court thus giving the team a couple more chances on a neutral court to get a couple signature wins.  Okl and Memphis were two excellent last minute additions but we needed a couple more to give these guys the opportunities I think they deserved.  I don't know even one of our players personally, but I'd bet you a chicken sandwich they all wished the OOC Schedule had a little more beef.  Just a hunch.

Hate to bring this up again, but I really think we dropped the ball with this schedule and are asking our guys to win 28-29 of their 32 games to have any At-Large opportunities.

Richmond could be a top 40 team.

Look, scheduling isn't a tenth as easy as people think it is. First of all, people have to want to play you. I was told by someone on the coaching staff they called all around the place but got a "no" from almost everyone. And even if they want to play you, you have to have dates that work. It's not easy to put together. It wouldn't matter if, say, Michigan State was willing to play us if we didn't have a date that would work for both parties. Nobody's going to re-arrange their calendar just for us. And how is it going to work? 1-for-1? No major team is coming to Athens. And I find it unlikely many teams are willing to give us a couple hundred thousand dollars to beat them in their own gym. It's a buyer's market out there, and we're sellers.

I understand we want more shots at the bigger teams, but a lot of people are only looking at this from one standpoint when there's a few.

My Junior year, OHIO had the opportunity to play in a tournament in Hawaii with Gary Trent and upset UCONN to win the thing! Administration must of forgot how to get those type of deals done, especially when we see KRON playing in the PUERTO RICO tip-off!!

Isn't there a scheduling elephant in the room that no one's noticing?



It's the winning/TV elephant.


If we keep performing like we did last year...tough goal...maybe not always the 16...but at least powerful regular season records...then ranking/notice, then TV, then more attractive as an opponent,...and scheduling opps.

Right?  Isn't that how it always works?  Hello Gonzaga and Butler ??

Monroe and JSF are correct.  It's not like Schaus went out and got a relatively weak schedule on purpose.  We (especially me, Chicken George and other WV residents) need to get over the WVU game option.  They will not play us.  We ask every year, they say no every year. 

Those holiday tournaments are exciting, but planned out in advance.  They are also called invitationals for a reason.  We went to Vegas two seasons ago, so it's not like we're never playing in one of these. 

I actually think the scheduling is a bigger problem in football than basketball.  At least in basketball everyone has a chance as long as they keep winning in March. 

I fully expect the team to be undefeated as they head to Memphis.  That trip will determine if we are wasting our breath talking about anyone from our conference as a possible at-large team.

I'm still not seeing why this is so impressive?  They play two true road games compared to our 6. One of those true road games is less than an hour from their campus against a so-so team.  Richmond may not have the name recognition of most of the teams you list above but they are better than most. Our true road game at Memphis is as tough as any game they play.  Two of the teams listed above we already play (@Oklahoma, Marshall). 

BOBCAT 695 - WVU  did come to Athens in 95' and left with a loss in front of a full convocation center during the holiday break, they must still be angry!!

I was there.  I went to all 5 of the most recent games in the series, home and away.  I love reminding WVU fans about it on a regular basis.

Van has the drill down in spades.

We are a couple years behind Butler who still has problems getting folks to come to Hinkle. State played up there in the Oden era and we have seen some other teams but they are relagated to nuetral sites. I oft find the term nuetral site to be somewhat farcical as getting 200 seats in the SPrint center for Bobcat fans to play Kansas in KC is documented history and is ridiculous. Neutral would imply that there may be a division between the two school that is somewhat equitable when it comes to obtaining tix and filling the stands. KU let 200 go in an 18K stadium. 

I have long contended that the 68 team format needs to address this inequity if it is to stay legitimate as the power schools will either be on their own or people will tire of the monopoly and move on in their viewing habits. Sounds crazy but I do think the magic of the tourney dissapears when the same schools dominate and the chance of a small school being present diminishes. America still loves that little guy and the NCAA will see that love affair if theonly schools making the tourney or advancing are big 6 schools.. . If the power conferences want to keep this tourney stable in numbers they need to mandate bigger school going on the road and playing out of their friendly confines a % of their games on the road and in TRUE neutral sites. If they do not want to do this then expand to 128 so that the regular season champs make it in as well as the toruney champs in those conferences that do not get the chance to break out of that scheduling conundrum created by being a program on the rise.

In any case, I predict that OHIO will have an opportunity in the near future to be part of a conference realignment should the revenue producing sports be able to maintain the level that will sustain a national identity. Vern Alden was right and the myopia that held back the forward progress left the U 4 decades later still scrambling for an indentity and that fanbase looking past the hills toward greener pastures. I think that JS should fix his sights on excellence and delivering a great product. They will come knocking just as they did for Butler.

St. Bonaventure looked tough. I think we have a "sneaky good" schedule. Not a lot of big names, but most of these teams have ad some tournament/postseason success. We'll see where the RPI comes out...