Let me be clear on this ... I HATE having three non-D1 opponents on the schedule. And yes ... I know one is an exhibition so I'll let that slide.

But the other two are awful.

But if you dig a little deeper, the rest of the schedule is actually pretty decent.

You have two winnable games at home vs OVC teams (better than MEAC/SWAC cellar-dwellers)

You have a Campbell team coming in that was one win from the NCAAs (not a great game ... but another winnable home game)

You do get Purdue at home ... one of three guaranteed P6 games. Let me remind everyone, Saul only played 8 P6 games the last five years TOTAL. This tells me that Boals will NOT take the same approach and will try to schedule some major-conference opponents, especially once his kids get some more experience.

The road games at Iona and St. Bonnie are solid road games.

Throw in the Myrtle Beach Invite and the game at Villanova ... I think this is the best schedule Ohio hoops has had since Christian.

Saul's scheduling was pretty bad. One year he had a decent one littered with above-average mid-majors. But the year he actually had a team that could've maybe competed for an at-large ... his one P6 game was at Georgia Tech.

Buffalo was great last year ... but they also played at Marquette, at Syracuse and at WVU. Those are the type of schedules Ohio should be playing. And this at least is on the right track this year.

I think you'll see the multi-D2 games off the schedule going forward. I would have liked to see them gone NOW and replaced with a MVC/SBC/Horizon games or maybe an AAC/CUSA game. But I can understand trying to build some confidence with a young team.

I think we can let it slide this year ... but let's hope it's not a trend going forward.

Really? Who do we have on our schedule that compares with San Francisco, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Clemson and North Carolina?

San Francisco? They haven’t been relevant since the 1950s.

You seem quite preoccupied with Coach Boals' salary. This comes up in one way or another in many of your posts.

But relating it to the schedule doesn't seem to hold much weight. There is a chance this year that we will play Villanova twice, a team that has won two of the last four national championships. We have Purdue at home. When was the last time a Big Ten school came to the Convo? It's probably the first time this century. Campbell is pretty decent as well. It's also unknown when all of these games materialized. They may have occurred after Saul was non-renewed, thus giving Coach Boals little time to scramble with the schedule.

He looks like he put together a powerful recruiting class in an incredibly short window. That earns him more kudos than anything related to the schedule in my book. I'm excited to see this team and think that it'll have a completely different look than previous years.

It is literally all he'll talk about. He's like Monroe with Frank. We really need to bring back the emoticons.

I don’t know what kinds of business you are all in, but if you hire a president and pay that person more than your competitors, you have a plan to make more money than them. In our case elevating the schedule, even if we have to go on the road, is a must and a pathway to elevating the program. It is good that we have Purdue at home and will play Villanova this year. If you want to attract better players do you think they would rather play NC State on the road or Ohio Dominican at home?

This seems contradictory to previous posts. If the schedule is made in advance, then this shouldn't be a reflection (good or bad) on our newest head coach.

I actually believe the answer is likely somewhere in between. Unlike football, the schedule is made closer to the actual time and not years into the future. However, I believe that tournaments and some pay games are scheduled much further out.