Not that I don't enjoy Arkansas State playing a home game and resurfacing in Statesboro, GA 2 days later, and then turn around 4 days later and playing in San Marcos. Because obviously such a thing makes perfect sense...

Seriously, did the Western Kentucky Big Red Blob of a mascot write the conference basketball schedule?

Anywho, there will be some changes for next season:

1. Doubleheaders are half gone. Talk is that Men may go Thursday, Saturday, and Women Saturday, Monday. Teams will play DH's on Saturday, (Which can be split day and night), but will play single games on week night's.

2. Travel Partners are back: Conference Road Trips will return to 2 game Trips pending Arena availability. Team's will fly in to one city on Wednesday for a Thursday game, bus on Friday to a nearby SBC city, and then fly out after a Saturday game from that location

Travel Partners are pretty obvious for the most part

UTA/TX State
AState/UALR
ULL/ULM
USA/Troy
GS/GSU

Now, there is a catch. You see...App State does indeed have a basketball program. And since we don't seem to be in any hurry to find team #12...that means App is all by their lonesome. Meaning they don't have a travel partner. That means when a team is scheduled to play App State, the following paired Game Day will be a Bye for that team:

When Travel Partners play Each other, App would have a bye

Example:

Matchday 1-2:

Arkansas Schools at Louisiana Schools
Texas Schools at App/Bye
Georgia Schools at Alabama Schools

Thoughts?

Anything would be better than this system - having all the men and women's games play on the same days has been horrendous

The idiots that came up with these single games trips should be forced to travel and see the obvious stupidity of their "idea".If these are the decision makers then -WHEW!!!

The bad thing about having travel partners with 11 teams as proposed would mean every Saturday App would be playing a team that likely didn't play on Thursday if they didn't schedule a non-conference game.

You'd have to pair App with the GSU's and have teams come east and go to two of the three. And since the league slate shouldn't be 20 freaking games, it would work out fine.

(01-22-2015 02:24 AM)T-Dog Wrote:  The bad thing about having travel partners with 11 teams as proposed would mean every Saturday App would be playing a team that likely didn't play on Thursday if they didn't schedule a non-conference game.

You'd have to pair App with the GSU's and have teams come east and go to two of the three. And since the league slate shouldn't be 20 freaking games, it would work out fine.

Why shouldn't it be 20 games? You play everybody twice...h/h. We did that in the SLC...so it was 22 conference games, we did it in the WAC. How did the SoCon work it?

The SoCon changed it every year. 16/18/20 in different combinations with divisions, without divisions, different divisions, etc. It was a mess. But this is different in that we aren't bussing to every league game.

20 games, especially in 63 days as it is this year, is way too much. If a true double round robin means so much, then there shouldn't be a conference tournament.

Conference schedules should be 18 tops unless they have no ambition to ever have more than one NCAA team. 16 games with the caveat that teams can only schedule 1 sub-D1 team and must schedule most of their OOC to be series, not money games. 16 games gets rid of having Mon/Thur/Sat game weeks, especially with the travel schedule. Get the conference to play some good OOC teams to build up 2-3 teams with NCAA credentials to make real money in tournament units. The CAA followed a similar model (no sub-D1's at all) before their top teams bolted and it served them very well monetarily.

I like the 20 game schedule but agree that travel partners in this league is a MUST HAVE! With a 20 game conference schedule it still gives every team the opportunity to schedule 10 OOC games which is plenty plus we get to see every SBC team at home once which is my favorite thing about the double round robin.

Sorry, but doubleheaders are good. Don't like those going away. Hard to get a crowd three nights in five days.

Keep double headers.

Institute travel partners.

Go to 16 game conference schedule and allow teams to schedule more OOC games with local programs.

Most importantly, limit non D1 games to one per season.

(01-22-2015 02:24 AM)T-Dog Wrote:  The bad thing about having travel partners with 11 teams as proposed would mean every Saturday App would be playing a team that likely didn't play on Thursday if they didn't schedule a non-conference game.

You'd have to pair App with the GSU's and have teams come east and go to two of the three. And since the league slate shouldn't be 20 freaking games, it would work out fine.

Coaches have already voted in the 20 game schedule for next year. Though this is another 1 year deal type thing. They are throwing a bunch of stuff at the wall and seeing what fits.

I was told that App will be the one screwed if they go to travel partners. However, travel partners is certainly better than the current system, where Georgia State played App in Boone on a Saturday, and Arkansas State in Jonesboro two days later.

(01-22-2015 08:15 AM)warhawk09 Wrote:  Sorry, but doubleheaders are good. Don't like those going away. Hard to get a crowd three nights in five days.

From what I understand there are a lot of schools unhappy with the doubleheader format because it means a lot of families aren't getting home until 10:30pm on a school night, that takes out a lot of kids. The average age of our weeknight crowds this year is roughly 75. We've found it almost impossible to convince families to bring kids to weeknight games when they know the Men won't start till 7:30 at the earliest.

Plus there are a few league schools who actually draw well enough for Women to justify the expenses of putting the games on separate days.

(01-22-2015 09:32 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(01-22-2015 08:15 AM)warhawk09 Wrote:  Sorry, but doubleheaders are good. Don't like those going away. Hard to get a crowd three nights in five days.

From what I understand there are a lot of schools unhappy with the doubleheader format because it means a lot of families aren't getting home until 10:30pm on a school night, that takes out a lot of kids. The average age of our weeknight crowds this year is roughly 75. We've found it almost impossible to convince families to bring kids to weeknight games when they know the Men won't start till 7:30 at the earliest.

Plus there are a few league schools who actually draw well enough for Women to justify the expenses of putting the games on separate days.

Whew no wonder you guys are having trouble with attendance. At an average age of 75 your fans are dying off quick...

(01-22-2015 09:58 AM)Georgia_Power_Company Wrote:  

(01-22-2015 09:32 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(01-22-2015 08:15 AM)warhawk09 Wrote:  Sorry, but doubleheaders are good. Don't like those going away. Hard to get a crowd three nights in five days.

From what I understand there are a lot of schools unhappy with the doubleheader format because it means a lot of families aren't getting home until 10:30pm on a school night, that takes out a lot of kids. The average age of our weeknight crowds this year is roughly 75. We've found it almost impossible to convince families to bring kids to weeknight games when they know the Men won't start till 7:30 at the earliest.

Plus there are a few league schools who actually draw well enough for Women to justify the expenses of putting the games on separate days.

Whew no wonder you guys are having trouble with attendance. At an average age of 75 your fans are dying off quick...

It's part of a much larger problem than game times. It's part of the reason many of us want a coaching change now. Football has a ton of season ticket holders in their 30's...but because Basketball has been futile for over a decade now, most of those knew nothing but awful basketball teams when they were in college, and successful football teams.

Baseball is the same way. Average ticket buyer is far younger, so the sport has more room for growth. That growth doesn't exist in basketball.

When Georgia State fans are making fun of your fan support, you know you have problems.

Most programs I would think definitely support the 20 conference games. I will take 10 home games vs. conference foes anyday over more non D1 home games. We already seem intent on playing 3 of these games every year now. If the conference schedule is dropped to 16 or 18 we may be looking at playing 4 or 5-- ridiculous.

(01-22-2015 10:50 AM)GaSoEagle Wrote:  Most programs I would think definitely support the 20 conference games. I will take 10 home games vs. conference foes anyday over more non D1 home games. We already seem intent on playing 3 of these games every year now. If the conference schedule is dropped to 16 or 18 we may be looking at playing 4 or 5-- ridiculous.

That being said, fewer OOC games hurts our RPI. If you are only going to play 10 OOC games, then you need to make sure they are all tough opponents, because the league will destroy what RPI you had.

Im sure ualr fans can attest to the fact how overtime games+double headers=hurts keeping families to stay both games

(01-22-2015 09:28 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(01-22-2015 02:24 AM)T-Dog Wrote:  The bad thing about having travel partners with 11 teams as proposed would mean every Saturday App would be playing a team that likely didn't play on Thursday if they didn't schedule a non-conference game.

You'd have to pair App with the GSU's and have teams come east and go to two of the three. And since the league slate shouldn't be 20 freaking games, it would work out fine.

Coaches have already voted in the 20 game schedule for next year. Though this is another 1 year deal type thing. They are throwing a bunch of stuff at the wall and seeing what fits.

I was told that App will be the one screwed if they go to travel partners. However, travel partners is certainly better than the current system, where Georgia State played App in Boone on a Saturday, and Arkansas State in Jonesboro two days later.

If everyone would just vote Liberty in this wouldn't be a problem...

Jesus does love basketball.

(01-22-2015 11:04 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(01-22-2015 10:50 AM)GaSoEagle Wrote:  Most programs I would think definitely support the 20 conference games. I will take 10 home games vs. conference foes anyday over more non D1 home games. We already seem intent on playing 3 of these games every year now. If the conference schedule is dropped to 16 or 18 we may be looking at playing 4 or 5-- ridiculous.

That being said, fewer OOC games hurts our RPI. If you are only going to play 10 OOC games, then you need to make sure they are all tough opponents, because the league will destroy what RPI you had.

When you have less OOC games, it makes it tougher to get high quality home or home/home commitments with fewer dates. Also, with travel costs (due to the 10 conference road games) most schools don't have the budget (50K-75K guarantee per game) to bring it higher quality home opponents.

Ole King Karl did an interview today on basketball scheduling and league expansion. I'll link it when its archived this afternoon. Fair warning, he sounds like he just got out of bed...(I mean it was an 11:00am CT interview)