20 game conference schedule

[screamingeaglepride]

I listen to a podcast last month that the OVC is considering a 20 game conference schedule next year and a maximum on non D1 games. 

[Bball Fan]

Certainly hope so. Hate Non D-1 games.

[NecksFan1523]

I heard the same podcast. Commissioner DeBauche said they're looking for the following in the future.
  1) 20 game conference schedule
  2) Max of 2 non-DI games for it's basketball teams.
  3) Looking for expansion, but will be selective, not just expanding for the sake of expanding. Particularly want a school that is already at the DI level, and plays football. 

I think these are all good things for us, and the conference in general. Fills up most of the schedule with quality games and makes it as close to balanced between home/away games as possible.

[bignecks]

the limit of non conference games won't help us with the home/away grind. We clearly have issues with getting D1 schools to play us in Macomb. We'd be on the road through most of the non conference if they made this rule. 

[screamingeaglepride]

the limit of non conference games won't help us with the home/away grind. We clearly have issues with getting D1 schools to play us in Macomb. We'd be on the road through most of the non conference if they made this rule. 

 

It would be nice to have OVC/Horizon League challenge double header men's and women's basketball. Both conferences have 11 schools so it could work out nicely. 

[pvk7072]

Info for potential idea/suggestion:

The Mid-American and Sun Belt conferences are in the first year of a two-year cooperative deal where each school is guaranteed one home and one away game each for MBB and WBB. All is D1 and o-o-c, obviously. Matchups are based on comparative NET, which changes (games are played in November and February), so they don't play the same teams twice; makes it really interesting as season goes on.

Example, using NIU since it's the MAC team in Illinois:
-- NIU MBB hosted Appalachian State in Nov, will play at South Alabama in Feb.
-- NIU WBB played at Arkansas State in November, will host Georgia Southern in Feb.

Again, MBB gets a home and away, and WBB gets a home and away. Each has two D1 o-o-c games to help fill the o-o-c schedule. Note that when MBB is away, WBB is home, and vice versa.

Just a thought via something already being done.
 
 
 

[sealhall74]

I would like to see a legislative push to force the public D1s to play each other now and then on a regular basis.  If you invest in some of these potential in-state rivalries, kids would be less likely to leave the state IMHO.

[ST_Lawson]

I would like to see a legislative push to force the public D1s to play each other now and then on a regular basis.  If you invest in some of these potential in-state rivalries, kids would be less likely to leave the state IMHO.

 

I'm not sure that's really all that neccessary. If you look at most public DI schools in Illinois, outside of conference games, most schools have at least one other in-state school on their schedule in a season.
In-conference...
MVC: ILSU, SIU, and UIC are all likely to play each other at least once, usually twice a season, plus maybe a matchup in the conference tournament
OVC: EIU, SIUE, and WIU...same deal

For Western, specifically, we've been playing EIU nearly every year OOC for a while now, sometimes twice in a year. Had U of I this year, DePaul (not public, but IL) a couple of years before that, NIU in back to back years.

Something that I could see possibly getting done is every public DI in the state (except U of I) has to play a H&H against an in-state non-conference team every pair of years, rotating through teams. U of I has to host one in-state public team every year, but they also have to rotate...can't be the same team every year or anything. I think the schedules are fairly close to all that anyway, but this would codify it a bit more.

the limit of non conference games won't help us with the home/away grind. We clearly have issues with getting D1 schools to play us in Macomb. We'd be on the road through most of the non conference if they made this rule. 


 

It would be nice to have OVC/Horizon League challenge double header men's and women's basketball. Both conferences have 11 schools so it could work out nicely. 

 

I'm all for that idea. If you want to keep similarly-ranked schools, go off of something like the NET rankings, #1 in the conference vs #1 in the other conference. Year 1, everyone plays at the Horizon League team...year 2, everyone at the OVC team.

If you based it off of the current NET rankings, you'd see these matchups:
Youngstown State vs Morehead State
Oakland vs WIU
Wright State vs UT Martin
Fort Wayne vs TN State
Northern Kentucky vs SIUE
Cleveland State vs Little Rock
Green Bay vs EIU
Milwaukee vs TN Tech
Robert Morris vs Southern Indiana
IUPUI vs SEMO
Detroit Mercy vs Lindenwood