Braves to play at Northern Illinois this season

[BU RICK]

Would I rather go on the road to a Top 15 program than go on the road to 10-20/RPI 329 Northern Illinois? Yes. 100 times out of 100.

The BCS doesn't go on the road to RPI 329 teams, so I am not what you're inferring with the 'so why should we' comment.

I was trying to make a point (the BCS schools don't play all top teams during non-conference, so the 'why should we' comment) You are right, the BCS schools play, the lower RPI teams, on their home courts and they don't have any regrets winning by 30-40 points. I like the schedule we have, I think it fits us well for a young team. And I certainly never meant to imply that Bradley could ever start 0-15. Just trying to make a point.

[mportsch]

I don't see this as an awful game - NIU will be better this season than last. They had one of the younger teams in D1 last year, with just one senior, and they're also adding Colorado transfer Xavier Silas, who had a decent sophomore season against a very tough schedule.

All that said, Bradley will still be significantly better than NIU. Adding road victories to the resume is usually a good thing. Would a road game against Michigan State be more exciting? Absolutely. Still, this is better than a home game against a sub-300 RPI team.

[BradleyBrave]

maybe not 329, but it is quite the emerging trend for the BIG BOYS to go on the road and play some lesser teams and get some early road experience under their belts.......

UNC is reportedly coming to Evansville this year, and they played at Nevada & UC Santa Barbara last season.
UConn played AT Buffalo, Michigan State played at IUPU-FW, Xavier plays at Cincy, Iowa and Iowa State go to Drake, and on rare occasions Wisconsin plays at Green Bay!
Tennessee played on the road at Middle Tennesse this past seaosn and Villanova played AT near-300 RPI Penn.

Do we wish it was a home game with Duke or a road game at Georgetown?? Sure, but I'd be far less enthused if it was a road game at Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, or Cal-State Northridge as some of our conference mates have been doing!

Chitown Fanatic might have a coronary if we went to Northridge and played the Matadors...

[CABUFan]

Personally, I'd love to see a road game at Cal State Northridge, though only for selfish reasons; its an hour and a half or so away from me. Cal State Fullerton would be even better. It's been a long time since BU played a game anywhere in SoCal. I think the last time was Pepperdine in about 2003. Of course, that one didn't end so well.

[TheHeemyMonster]

The only reason why I like this game is because it just gives me a reason to go up to Chicago and its actually a road game that I will be able to drive to. However I much rather see the Braves play a decent road game vs a top 100 rpi team and watch it on TV. This is no way shape or form is going to help us in any way get a bid to the NCAA's. Very dissappointing

[BU RICK]

The only reason why I like this game is because it just gives me a reason to go up to Chicago and its actually a road game that I will be able to drive to. However I much rather see the Braves play a decent road game vs a top 100 rpi team and watch it on TV. This is no way shape or form is going to help us in any way get a bid to the NCAA's. Very dissappointing

I'm certainly no expert on the RPI stuff. But NIU plays at Illinois and Illinois is rated #25 in one of the pre-season polls, posted in one of the threads I read here. We play NIU, Illinois plays NIU, hopefully we play Illinois in Las Vegas. The NIU game could be a big help to us in the RPI depending on how these games play out.

[TheHeemyMonster]

the bottom line is their RPI last year was 329. If they improve by 100 teams, they are still a bad team with a 200+ rpi only hurt us.

[doug shank's crossover]

There's always value in playing in-state competition as it tends to cultivate recruiting opportunities...especially in the Chicago metro area. In addition, if BU can develop a relationship with NIU as it has with Loyola and Depaul over the years, it would be a scheduling coup as NIU's RPI gradually improves...

[Braves4Life]

I know I'm not in P-town anymore so it really doesn't matter............... But I'd have NO interest in ever seeing Bradley play Northern. Bring on DePaul, Loyola, or St. Louis anyday.

[Out of Balance]

NIU, SENO, SIU E'ville, Its all good, as long as we don't travel to play UW Plattville

I'm lost Can someone please help me, my GPS is reading DeKalb is 70 miles west of Chicago, yet some are saying its in Chicago JK

[Da Coach]

I'm lost Can someone please help me, my GPS is reading DeKalb is 70 miles west of Chicago, yet some are saying its in Chicago JK

A lot of Chicago alumni will drive to DeKalb to see the game.

[wizard1]

Scheduling

This current scheduling situation is a great example of why we MUST have an AD with a basketball coaching background and good Div. I basketball networking contacts. Our Coach is a very busy guy---He has a trip to Brazil to organize and run, we are entering a prime recruiting time, and he has to be thinking about the upcoming season, etc. This leaves little time for the very time-consuming job of scheduling which should be one of the primary duties of the AD. I hope our President understands and accepts this because if she doesn't, we all can very likely look forward to years of weak schedules and "ho-hum" opponents.

[BU RICK]

We don't have a weak schedule, we have a top 25 schedule if we win the right games. Last year we were given the opportunity too, but we just didn't win the games. I don't want us to play all top 25 teams during the non-conference, no other teams do it. We've got the opportunity again this year, will we take it? And I'm sure whoever the AD is next year will schedule a couple big programs for us to play and give us another opportunity One of these years...... I hope it's this year.

[wizard1]

Scheduling

BUR, I agree with you that our schedule has not been weak and that what we need is wins. While this years schedule could be very good with BYU, and possibly Illinois or Utah in the LV tourn., we also have some real "crips" on the schedule. Our first two home games in the LV Tourn. are not good. NIU is a lower level mid major and a W against them will be meaningless. Chicago games are great but somehow I feel we could do much better in Chi. with the large number of good opponents in that area. My real concern is that we not begin to have scheduling problems to the extent that we find ourselves in a poor schedule situation year after year. Our post season tournaments the last couple of years were awful and while they may have helped our W's, they weakened our overall schedule. They were "hyped" being big, but they were not. Again, in my view, the key to all of this is the AD. I wonder how much of our current scheduling "fell between the cracks" as a result of the KK and Interem AD situation. The Pres. needs to get off the dime and locate and hire a qualified AD for Bradley.

[BU RICK]

I don't disagree but Illinois is going to play the same two teams we do leading into Las Vegas so I guess you could say Illinois has a weak schedule too, Illinois is ranked #25 in one pre-season poll so lets see how we both do against them. But from what I've read here, the two teams we both are going to play, aren't too bad.

Regarding NIU: the way we've played on the road, I'll be happy if we beat them by a point or two. It's a good game