Strength of Schedules - Year by Year Comparison

[tornado]

Wichita State's schedule will be release sometime this week after a few TV times are set. The schedule will include the Shockers playing Pittsburgh in the CBE Classic followed by either Texas or Iowa. They will also play TCU and Texas Tech at home.

good, I am encouraged....I was worried that the delay was because of something bad...

[squirrelgotdead]

And if you are using Pomeroy's data, you should also point out that postseason is included in the non-con rankings as well.

[dogsrus]

And ISU was better then BU last year and went to the NIT AND the finals of the MVC.

BU had a tougher sked and another mediocre year.

So I ask, does scheduling make ALL that much difference?


I suppose a stronger schedule for ISU (you know about 8 points higher) would have given them more at large consideration but the bottom line is, WHATEVER the sked, you gotta win and the rest takes care of itself.

PM me if you want to here more....

[CABUFan]

And ISU was better then BU last year and went to the NIT AND the finals of the MVC.

BU had a tougher sked and another mediocre year.

So I ask, does scheduling make ALL that much difference?


I suppose a stronger schedule for ISU (you know about 8 points higher) would have given them more at large consideration but the bottom line is, WHATEVER the sked, you gotta win and the rest takes care of itself.

PM me if you want to here more....

I think the point is that with a weak schedule winning isn't enough. ISU has won most of their noncon games the last two years and gotten left out of the dance because they didn't put themselves in a position to get a bid by winning.

[TheAsianSensation]

Just look at all those '09 numbers. That's just brutal across the board.



Let's remember: No matter a team's intentions with the non-con SoS, sometimes the numbers don't go your way. The best intentions to schedule hard can go array and your SoS can go south, and the intention to schedule down and build a terrible SoS may actually result in lucking out a bit.

I'm not saying BU tried to schedule up and got unlucky, and I'm not saying ISU actually got relatively lucky with schedule conference champions of bad, bad conferences to jump from the 300s to the 200s....I'm just sayin'

[georgethedog]

Bradley was not the team that was left out of the NCAA tournament because of their nonconference schedule, ISU was.

Bradley was left out because they just were not very good...

[georgethedog]

And ISU was better then BU last year and went to the NIT AND the finals of the MVC.

BU had a tougher sked and another mediocre year.

So I ask, does scheduling make ALL that much difference?


I suppose a stronger schedule for ISU (you know about 8 points higher) would have given them more at large consideration but the bottom line is, WHATEVER the sked, you gotta win and the rest takes care of itself.

PM me if you want to here more....

100% agreed. Especially the part about "another mediocre year". If BU has another mediocre year this year, here is a small list of excuses we will read on this board:

-Wilkins could not enroll
-AW's foot just wasn't right and he has been out a long time
-WE's knee didn't fully heal and he is still young
-Sticks just needs a few more pounds
-Our Freshman just are just not ready (even though other team's seem to have ready freshman--Butler, etc....)
- Blah, blah, blah...

The heck with the non-conference schedule. A harder one would probably just mean more losses. Let's WIN some games and WIN the conference for once during the Les era. 4th place and below is starting to get rather old after all these years. BU has nothing to boast about (except the aberration of the Sweet 16 year). BU needs to start winning and consistently. My patience is wearing thin... (Just thought I would mention that in case you couldn't tell).

I may be the only one on the board that feels this way, but I don't think so.

[dogsrus]

I think the point is that with a weak schedule winning isn't enough. ISU has won most of their noncon games the last two years and gotten left out of the dance because they didn't put themselves in a position to get a bid by winning.

And BU, with a stronger sked, did nothing either. I guess I'm a more "results" oriented guy. We have a tough sked over the years and its gotten us ONE "moment" and that was still with a 4/5th place Valley finish.

Other then that its been mediocre year in and year out with NO valley regular season title and NO Tournament appearance title again save for 06.

So we can brag about our sked all we want and put down ISU but it still comes down to winning. Either Sked as tough as you can and win or go easy (by force or by choice) and win the auto-bid.

[Grassman]

100% agreed. Especially the part about "another mediocre year". If BU has another mediocre year this year, here is a small list of excuses we will read on this board:

-Wilkins could not enroll
-AW's foot just wasn't right and he has been out a long time
-WE's knee didn't fully heal and he is still young
-Sticks just needs a few more pounds
-Our Freshman just are just not ready (even though other team's seem to have ready freshman--Butler, etc....)
- Blah, blah, blah...

The heck with the non-conference schedule. A harder one would probably just mean more losses. Let's WIN some games and WIN the conference for once during the Les era. 4th place and below is starting to get rather old after all these years. BU has nothing to boast about (except the aberration of the Sweet 16 year). BU needs to start winning and consistently. My patience is wearing thin... (Just thought I would mention that in case you couldn't tell).

I may be the only one on the board that feels this way, but I don't think
so.

Believe me GTD, You are NOT the only one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[BU RICK]

I can agree with both sides of the issues, none of us would be true sports fans if we weren't a little bit bipolar regarding sports.

But I do think this is going to be a good season for Bradley if the excuses being put forward before the season has even started don't happen.

I like the fact that BU schedules 3-4 top teams every non-conference. If we had won those three last season we would have been ranked, at least early on. We've got another chance this season. I like the fact Bradley takes risks with their schedule, ISU doesn't seem to want to do that. And I agree we need to start winning many more MVC games.

[shaunguth]

Bradley was left out because they just were not very good...

Apparently neither was isu, considering they couldn't beat some of the bottom-feeders in the Valley and lost to the "not very good" Bradley team. In fact, I remember leaving Carver on that January night being extremely unimpressed with isu as a team.

[shaunguth]

I guess it comes down to every team in the Valley winning those games in St. Louis. Might as well not even put forth the time and effort in scheduling and just do it the isu way?

I do find it humorous when Bradley's schedule is blamed on the lack of a full-time AD, especially when it sure seems to be much better than isu's schedule. Did I miss something or do they not have a full-time AD as well?

Seems to me people will never be happy with the schedule, be it too many BCS opponents, no BCS opponents, and even having games on Sunday.

[Da Coach]

Bradley was left out because they just were not very good...

Exactly my point.
It is ridiculous to try to justify ISU's bad schedule that kept them out of the NCAA by comparing it to Bradley's schedule and saying ISU's was not really too much worse than Bradley's.

[tornado]

RPI and SOS are not qualitative measures, they are rankings.....and there's a bit of subjectivity to it, since the formula takes into account arbitrary assignments of value to things like road and neutral, which can be misleading since many times, playing in a "neutral place" is playing right in the opponents' back yard.

I have shown solid data that over a five year span, Bradley has played consistently better opposition than not just ISU, but better than anyone else in the Valley except SIU.

People without data, and with embarrassingly impotent scheduling for the past half decade are blowing smoke, and have no argument.

[TheAsianSensation]

Also important to note: We're not talking about which team is better - we're just talking about who schedules tougher and the impact it has on the Valley. Fact is, having SoSs in the 200's hurts the MVC as a whole.

I'd say SIU is king as scheduling tough in the conference, and I'd put Creighton ahead of BU too - if they would've learned to ignore SWAC schools, they would have a higher SoS than us. CU does a good job at building depth with their schedule.