Conference Schedule

[YoDeFoe]

Found this in a recent article about the WCC's attempt to placate Gonzaga through conference scheduling that favors the top of the conference. Thought it was interesting as we consider an expansion to a 20 game conference slate or a full 22 game round robin...

The solutions the league came up with include: cutting the WCC regular-season schedule from 18 to 16 games, with the upper division teams (as determined by multiyear RPI numbers, the previous year’s conference tournament results and a spring head coaches’ survey) playing each other more often; giving the top two teams a double-bye into the semifinals of the conference tournament, to avoid more matchups and potential upsets against bottom-feeders; and beginning in 2019-20, requiring every team to play annually in an in-season exempt tournament.

“It all has momentum toward the same thing, and that’s for teams to try and improve their schedule and obviously qualify for the NCAA Tournament,” says BYU coach Dave Rose, who chaired the coaches’ working committee. “And when you do get in, maybe your seeding could be a little better.”

Moving forward, the struggling teams in the WCC can add two more winnable home games as opposed to conference contests. Gonzaga and other schools aiming higher can play one or two more attractive opponents that will goose strength-of-schedule numbers. “It puts us back where we were a few years ago, where if we chose to and the opportunity was there, we could play a nationally relevant game in the middle of league season,” Few says.

I've previously advocated for a similar approach in the Pac-12 given our fall from top five conference to "somewhere between a mid major and the big boys." Give the bottom of the Pac-12 a chance to schedule against teams they can actually beat. Give the top of the Pac-12 more freedom to schedule out of conference games or tournament games (like say a mid-season home and home with Kansas or Kentucky or a Texas school). Also make sure the top programs are playing each other twice a year in conference and most likely again in the tournament.

I prefer this results based approach against the purist approach of a full round robin.

[YoDeFoe]

More here

Just a few weeks removed from the league meetings in Phoenix, the conference is exploring matching up the best teams in the Pac-12 on a year-by-year basis rather than sticking to the pre-existing league schedules that was put in place on a 10-year plan prior to the 2011-12 season.

This is similar to the model used by the Atlantic 10, where the conference office regularly attempts to schedule its best teams multiple times in league play prior to each season in an effort to have the best possible metrics for the NCAA Tournament selection committee.

[84Cat]

I thought this was an interesting twist

Conference USA changing its conference scheduling method in effort to land more teams in NCAA Tournament

Instead of releasing the full slate of conference games months in advance — like every other conference in the country has done for years — C-USA will just schedule out the first 14 conference games.

Then, they’ll seed the teams and match up the best teams against one another for the final four games of the season.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/conferen ... 25226.html" target="_blank

[Spaceman Spiff]

I thought this was an interesting twist

Conference USA changing its conference scheduling method in effort to land more teams in NCAA Tournament

Instead of releasing the full slate of conference games months in advance — like every other conference in the country has done for years — C-USA will just schedule out the first 14 conference games.

Then, they’ll seed the teams and match up the best teams against one another for the final four games of the season.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/conferen ... 25226.html" target="_blank

I'm surprised it took this long for a legue to experiment with that. The issue with conference play is the RPI drag when your competition sucks.

It's one reason I don't get why some love the idea of the round robin Pac. Too many teams are bad and playing them offers no benefits.

[catgrad97]

Plus, the Pac is the perennial leader among Power 5 conferences in bad losses, as defined by the selection committee--whether that is road games at cellar dwellers or in the non-conference schedule.

The round-robin schedule is an anachronism among competitive conferences. Even the TV networks would be better at scheduling than Larry Scott.

[Jefe]

https://frshoopz.com/cbb/pac-12-conside ... 19-season/" target="_blank

The Pac-12 is now considering a conference scheduling change for the 18-19 season, a source told FRS Sports.

The league’s head coaches voted last week on the projected standings for the upcoming year in an effort to put together a model where the conference’s top teams would have the most opportunities to play each other.

Based on the results of the poll conducted by the league’s head coaches, the Pac-12 will have “travel partner rankings” based on the average of what the two seeded teams were.

According to a source, the rankings are listed below:

1. USC/UCLA
2. Oregon/Oregon State
3. Arizona/Arizona State
4. Washington/Washington State
5. Stanford/Cal
6. Colorado/Utah

Under the proposed method, the league is sticking with its travel partners and would have the top two programs listed above (UCLA, USC) play teams ranked two through four twice next season with stand alone games against Stanford, Cal, Colorado, and Utah.

This is similar to the model used by the Atlantic 10, which annually ensures that its top teams play as many times as possible during the regular season.

A separate source told FRS Sports that the Pac-12’s head coaches have a conference call on Friday to discuss this matter further.

[YoDeFoe]

Fine by me. Wish they'd ditch traveling partners as well but one step at a time.

[ChooChooCat]

Fine by me. Wish they'd ditch traveling partners as well but one step at a time.

They should kill travel partners with fire.

[U.P. Zona Fan]

Especially if they are going to alter the schedule to make it so the better teams play more. It is not often that both travel partners are good. So you go and get a good game and clunker, just like every other weekend in the Pac 12. What they could do is say on the week that the zona schools play, have the Oregon schools play and then have the cats play the ducks and the gerbils play the beavers. That also gives us another game. Whatever, but it's almost silly to monkey with the schedule without undoing travel partners.

[YoDeFoe]

Especially if they are going to alter the schedule to make it so the better teams play more. It is not often that both travel partners are good. So you go and get a good game and clunker, just like every other weekend in the Pac 12. What they could do is say on the week that the zona schools play, have the Oregon schools play and then have the cats play the ducks and the gerbils play the beavers. That also gives us another game. Whatever, but it's almost silly to monkey with the schedule without undoing travel partners.

The Oregon example is a pretty glaring one, right? Of course Oregon should be at the top of the heap, but good god why do they have to bring poor Oregon St with them? I really think they'll unwind that aspect as they continue to move towards a more competitive scheduling system.

[U.P. Zona Fan]

That is just this year, just a couple years ago ucla was hot and usc won like 2 games in the Pac. Asu almost always sucks, cal has been bad lately while the furds are usually respectable, udub is often decent, how long has it been since the cougs were in the top 2/3 of the Pac? Utah an Colorado are always surprising on their courts. I don't see much benefit without splitting up the travel partners. Why do we still do that, are we taking the same bus as the gerbils to the closer school, dropping em off and the switching? Are there airplanes out there? Gotta be quicker to fly to Oregon than for the wolverines to drive to Madison.

Edit, yes 2:40 flight, 6 hour bus ride.

[YoDeFoe]

Right - further evidence that there's too big a spread in competitiveness between the top four teams and their travel partners.

And yes, we fly everywhere now and we're fairly flush with cash. So no, it doesn't make a ton of sense (financially or time-wise) to pull the travel partner routine.

[RichardCranium]

I have no problem with travel partners. But i have a lot of problems treating some conference partners like the crazy uncle you only want to be near because you have to go to family funerals.

We need to play EVERYONE, twice, home and away (basketball).

What is the point of being in a conference if you dont treat them as equals? It is insulting to them and us.

[Spaceman Spiff]

I have no problem with travel partners. But i have a lot of problems treating some conference partners like the crazy uncle you only want to be near because you have to go to family funerals.

We need to play EVERYONE, twice, home and away (basketball).

What is the point of being in a conference if you dont treat them as equals? It is insulting to them and us.

They aren't equals. ASU is a constant drain on us. So are programs like OSU and WSU. If they don't want to get that treatment, they should get better as programs.

[YoDeFoe]

I have no problem with travel partners. But i have a lot of problems treating some conference partners like the crazy uncle you only want to be near because you have to go to family funerals.

We need to play EVERYONE, twice, home and away (basketball).

What is the point of being in a conference if you dont treat them as equals? It is insulting to them and us.

Nobody does this. No major conference plays a true round robin.

We're not equals - we're competitors.

And the bottom dwelling Pac-12 programs that pull down our SOS and RPI? Instead of getting drubbed by the big boys in the conference they can be competitive against their peers in the bottom and middle. Everyone gets to play more competitive basketball with the limited schedule that exists as a reality of this sport.

More competitive games. More prestigious match-ups. More exposure for the conference. More TV revenue. More programs in the NCAA tournament. More programs fire-tested to compete for a championship.

It's a win all around, unless you enjoy abstract victories like "a pure round robin."

[Spaceman Spiff]

I have no problem with travel partners. But i have a lot of problems treating some conference partners like the crazy uncle you only want to be near because you have to go to family funerals.

We need to play EVERYONE, twice, home and away (basketball).

What is the point of being in a conference if you dont treat them as equals? It is insulting to them and us.

Nobody does this. No major conference plays a true round robin.

We're not equals - we're competitors.

And the bottom dwelling Pac-12 programs that pull down our SOS and RPI? Instead of getting drubbed by the big boys in the conference they can be competitive against their peers in the bottom and middle. Everyone gets to play more competitive basketball with the limited schedule that exists as a reality of this sport.

More competitive games. More prestigious match-ups. More exposure for the conference. More TV revenue. More programs in the NCAA tournament. More programs fire-tested to compete for a championship.

It's a win all around, unless you enjoy abstract victories like "a pure round robin."

We can jockey for seeding in the NCAA tourney by playing the better teams. ASU can jockey for seeding in the NIT or CBI by playing the dregs of the Pac.

It all works according to God's plan.

[Jefe]

[ASUHATER!]

Seems like the first time in like 5 years we haven't finished with Cal and Stanford at home.

[ChooChooCat]

Seems like the first time in like 5 years we haven't finished with Cal and Stanford at home.

Said the same thing. Also we don't get 3 conference home games in a row this year, while ASU does.

[Spaceman Spiff]

I still don't understand why we don't have an automatic round robin vs all South opponents (like SC and UCLA) but we do vs some North schools. Beyond that, there are ups and downs.

[gronk4heisman]

I still don't understand why we don't have an automatic round robin vs all South opponents (like SC and UCLA) but we do vs some North schools. Beyond that, there are ups and downs.

There is no north and south in basketball. Also, I had heard rumors that the conference was working on fixing the schedule so rivals (i.e. AZ vs UCLA) always play twice. Anyone heard any movement on that front?

[UAEebs86]

I still don't understand why we don't have an automatic round robin vs all South opponents (like SC and UCLA) but we do vs some North schools. Beyond that, there are ups and downs.

There is no north and south in basketball. Also, I had heard rumors that the conference was working on fixing the schedule so rivals (i.e. AZ vs UCLA) always play twice. Anyone heard any movement on that front?

I think it starts next season.