Mid-Major Scheduling Issues

[ramathon74]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/13/AR2010061303909.html

Looking to add games for next season, Wichita State men's basketball Coach Gregg Marshall sits in his office and awaits word from an assistant and school official who for weeks have been calling dozens of teams asking to play. Time after time, they relay Marshall the same two-letter response: no.

"It is a pain in the [butt], for lack of a better word," Marshall said. "Constantly pounding the keys on the phone to get somebody to say yes. It's almost impossible."

The period between the end of the Final Four and the start of July's recruiting period is a critical and often maddening season for head coaches, assistants and athletic department officials hoping to finalize men's basketball schedules at competitive mid-major programs. .........

While we're not mentioned, this applies to our own efforts to schedule games.

 

[Ramdog]

well...lets get them together with us...seems simple enough

 

[DCRAM]

Doesn't it seem funny that all the mid major coaches complain that they can't schedule anyone, yet all the mid major coaches complain that they can't schedule anyone?

 

[bighorn]

The Bracket Busters concept might be an answer here, if extended to include activity in the preseason NIT, postseason NIT, and those two Johnny-Come-Lately end-of-year shindigs. Not all schools would benefit here, but many would.

Simple put: if you play a home game in any of these events, you owe the visiting team a return within a reasonable time frame (1-3 years). This could also be applied to in-season tournaments, such as the one VCU is hosting this upcoming campaign - meaning, if you agree to play at another school's tournament, you'll receive a return home engagement as a handsome door prize.

With that mindset, N.C. State would have been required to come to VCU a while back. So would Syracuse, Indiana, California, Virginia, UT-C, New Orleans and Kentucky, traveling further back in the time machine.

The awarded home game would serve as a replacement for the odious "financial guarantee," which borders on athletic prostitution. Tournament games contested on truly neutral floors (like Cancun, Puerto Rico, Hawaii), of course, wouldn't apply to this proposal.