I said this before the season and I was bashed. Some of our fans even said I was crazy because Louisville was on our schedule, perhaps not understanding that they are now in our conference. Our OOC schedule was terrible and really killed our RPI. Only bad things can come from playing the likes of Savannah State or Howard. If you win, its "so what"; if you lose, or lose badly as we did to Eastern Kentucky and Green Bay, it's a major blemish.
We need to schedule solid RPI builders by playing quality mid-majors or other Power 5 teams. Providence was a good team to play; they're a tourney team. We got unfortunate that UF ended up having so many injuries and was terrible. Illinois was a decent team this year, but even we didn't schedule them (they were assigned by the ACC-Big Ten Challenge). Outside of that, there were no quality OOC teams that we scheduled; we had just one opponent OOC going to the NCAA's.
Look at the records of our OOC opponents:
Howard 16-16
Florida 16-17
Drexel 11-19
Akron 21-14
Charlotte (twice) 14-18
South Alabama 12-21
Illinois 19-13
Green Bay 24-8
Savannah St 9-22
Eastern Kentucky 19-11
Providence 22-11
Charleston 9-24
Not only are those terrible records, but there's no buzz about those teams that would make the committee go back and say well they did play X back in December. One easy way to fix this is to start playing in better tournaments at the beginning of the year. Take advantage of teams before they gel. I really hope we get this fixed for next year because that team should be very talented.
We need to schedule solid RPI builders by playing quality mid-majors or other Power 5 teams. Providence was a good team to play; they're a tourney team. We got unfortunate that UF ended up having so many injuries and was terrible. Illinois was a decent team this year, but even we didn't schedule them (they were assigned by the ACC-Big Ten Challenge). Outside of that, there were no quality OOC teams that we scheduled; we had just one opponent OOC going to the NCAA's.
Look at the records of our OOC opponents:
Howard 16-16
Florida 16-17
Drexel 11-19
Akron 21-14
Charlotte (twice) 14-18
South Alabama 12-21
Illinois 19-13
Green Bay 24-8
Savannah St 9-22
Eastern Kentucky 19-11
Providence 22-11
Charleston 9-24
Not only are those terrible records, but there's no buzz about those teams that would make the committee go back and say well they did play X back in December. One easy way to fix this is to start playing in better tournaments at the beginning of the year. Take advantage of teams before they gel. I really hope we get this fixed for next year because that team should be very talented.
