2022-23 Out of Conference Schedules.

[BCPanther]

Can add UNI at Virginia on November 14th.

Going to be a swing through Virginia.

At Richmond on 11/11 to pair with this one. 3rd game of a 4 year H-H with Richmond that is most likely going to continue to get extended. Jake and Mooney are good friends.

[Action10]

I was fairly certain the Bears game @ St Marys last season was as buy game--meaning no return. But I could be wrong. I guess we'll find out for sure when the schedule comes out.

I wasn't sure what the contract looked like for this game and it may have been a buy game. If so, why? To me, a buy game against any WCC team that isn't Gonzaga is TOTALLY LUDACRIS. This would be the equivalent of Memphis playing a buy game at Villanova. How likely is that to happen?

[BCPanther]

Grand Canyon is the 4th team in the Hall of Fame Classic.

Pretty good mid-major field--UNI, Wichita, San Francisco. Grand Canyon

[SalukiWorld]

More MVC teams need to look at how UNI schedules and follow that model. In my opinion, they won the Valley last year because they were more prepared for it than anyone based on their out of conference scheduling.

[tribecalledquest]

More MVC teams need to look at how UNI schedules at follow that model. In my opinion, they won the Valley last year because they were more prepared for it than anyone based on their out of conference scheduling.

For sure. One big reason why UNI does it - Jake is confident in his job status. He isn't coaching for another extension or to hang on.

These coaches are making more money than they ever dreamed and don't want to lose that. Having more wins (regardless of the schedule) is more appealing to them than anything else.

[BCPanther]

More MVC teams need to look at how UNI schedules at follow that model. In my opinion, they won the Valley last year because they were more prepared for it than anyone based on their out of conference scheduling.

For sure. One big reason why UNI does it - Jake is confident in his job status. He isn't coaching for another extension or to hang on.

These coaches are making more money than they ever dreamed and don't want to lose that. Having more wins (regardless of the schedule) is more appealing to them than anything else.

Exactly. Jake is bulletproof. Honestly he could go 10-20 for the next 5 years and not lose his job. Every dime of the $8.5M that UNI owes him is guaranteed.

I think I speak for all UNI fans in really appreciating the way he schedules. He always has a schedule that's good enough to get an at large. His theory is the correct one, if you don't do as well in the non-con as you'd like, you've still got StL. There are far too many teams that are down to 3 days in StL the minute they take the floor in November, UNI always has a puncher's chance. Sometimes it blows up in your face bur other times it pays off.

I get why other guys in the league can't do it but DeVries, Prohm and Alexander can certainly get away with that kind of schedule and Wardle and Ford are really close to be being there, Mullins joins that club with a good year this year. Just need to go out an do it. Road games suck but that's how you make this a multi-bid league going forward.

[SalukiWorld]

Mullins' scheduling has been quite frankly, terrible. They're going to get Saint Louis at home this year, who might be a top 25 team at the time, but that's a series that's been going on since Lowery was there and was pushed back from last year. Still don't have an MTE announced for this year, which can't mean it's gonna be anything amazing.

[tribecalledquest]

Mullins' scheduling has been quite frankly, terrible. They're going to get Saint Louis at home this year, who might be a top 25 team at the time, but that's a series that's been going on since Lowery was there and was pushed back from last year. Still don't have an MTE announced for this year, which can't mean it's gonna be anything amazing.

This is the season he really needs to put together a top level schedule.

[Adunk33]

More MVC teams need to look at how UNI schedules at follow that model. In my opinion, they won the Valley last year because they were more prepared for it than anyone based on their out of conference scheduling.

For sure. One big reason why UNI does it - Jake is confident in his job status. He isn't coaching for another extension or to hang on.

These coaches are making more money than they ever dreamed and don't want to lose that. Having more wins (regardless of the schedule) is more appealing to them than anything else.

The idea that a tough noncon gets you ready for the conference season is an interesting topic. I've always thought the two were directly related.

Looking at the very small sample size of ILST over the last decade, Muller was a pretty strong scheduler for a while. The year before the wheels completely fell off (2018-19) the Birds had games against FGCU, Belmont, Georgia, Boise, BYU, and SDSU. A solid schedule and this was the first year the Birds played on Thursday night, thanks to buzzer beater losses to Valpo and Mo State. Ended up sneaking by UE on Thursday and got boat raced Friday by Drake, after beating them twice during the regular season.

In 2019-20, they had noncon games against Belmont (W), UCF (W), Little Rock (L), Cincy (L), WKU (w/
Charles Bassey, L), GCU (L), TCU (L), and NKU (L). I know that Birds team wasn't very good but it didn't help that lost all confidence in the noncon, which carried over into the the conf season, where they won 5 games.

So, it's a bit of a slippery slope. Yes, you want to challenge your guys and playing better competition should prepare the guys for the rigors of conference play, but if you string together a few losses in a row, you have to be sure you have the guys that can dig deep and recover from it. UNI pretty consistently has that, ILST didn't. So I think the construction of a non con needs to be a mix of challenging games and ones that are winnable for confidence. I also believe every team in the conference should try to get one or two buy games on the schedule. It'll likely get your team more exposer coupled with the financial implications.

Lastly, we need to bring back a conference challenge. Ideally, the A10 (soon to be 16?), but I'd be fine with the MWC too. It'd be the funniest to get one with Conference USA-errr, The American.

[Salukimadness86]

Back in 2016-17 under Hinson SIU played a very good non conference schedule. However, the results were not very good.
Wright State @ home L, @ Arkansas L, @ Minnesota L, @ Louisville L, @ UNLV L, SHSU @ home L.
6 and 6 and getting blown out by P5 schools does nothing for a teams confidence. Schedule multiple mid majors that are picked to win their league, with maybe one of two P5's. A strong MTE is great, but not always easy to get for mid majors. All I'm saying is be careful what you wish for.