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We have had this discussion before. The teams in the MVC have serious problems getting good schools to play them, despite what some self-anointed experts say. Indiana State is apparently just now learning that.
Here is a column in the Terre Haute Trib Star by Todd Golden, the beat writer for Indiana State about the difficulty the Sycamores are having with scheduling. It seems that when they were bottom-dwellers in the MVC they didn't have this much problem, but now that they are expected to be one of the upper-half MVC teams, nobody wants to play them.
The rub for a school like ISU is that most Division I schools that would be considered less prestigious than the Sycamores will take someone else’s money and run.
If you’re a low-major school, are you going to take the modest payout ISU can offer or take the six-figure payday at a BCS school? You’re probably going to get beat no matter what, but getting trounced by a BCS school helps the RPI and that check sure looks good on the balance sheet.
It’s why a school like IU can parade one low-major team after another into Assembly Hall, but ISU can’t get anyone for love or money.
Most MVC teams play in exempt tournaments, as ISU will this year in the Old Spice Classic, but there’s no guarantee those tournaments will bump your RPI. In 2010, for example, ISU Preseason NIT foe LSU turned out to be the worst team ISU played that season RPI-wise. And then there’s the small matter of actually beating BCS teams, which is never easy.
Schools like ISU can go another route and try to get 2-for-1 (or 3-for-1) deals with bigger schools, or even more controversially, acquiesce to a one-off buy game at a major school, a la FCS football.
But that creates an entirely new set of problems. Many BCS-level schools aren’t interested in playing MVC schools under any circumstance. And not all MVC coaches are convinced 2-for-1’s are in their interests. And the majority of MVC coaches are dead-set against accepting one-off buy games, no matter how prestigious the opponent is, what the potential RPI payoff could be or the money they’re paid.
So where do you go from there? The end result is that ISU and its MVC brethren are stuck playing a road-heavy schedule or you’re buying non-Division I schools to play at your place. None of which helps a team’s resume come Selection Sunday.
In ISU’s case, there’s another dynamic that’s made it even worse for them this season — success. When ISU was struggling, it was still tough to schedule, but some teams would play them anyway because they knew they would likely beat ISU and avoid a big RPI hit since ISU plays in a good mid-major conference.
Now that ISU is NCAA Tournament-tested? It’s a lot like the legend of Icarus. The higher the Sycamores go, the more their scheduling options melt away.
Here is a column in the Terre Haute Trib Star by Todd Golden, the beat writer for Indiana State about the difficulty the Sycamores are having with scheduling. It seems that when they were bottom-dwellers in the MVC they didn't have this much problem, but now that they are expected to be one of the upper-half MVC teams, nobody wants to play them.
The rub for a school like ISU is that most Division I schools that would be considered less prestigious than the Sycamores will take someone else’s money and run.
If you’re a low-major school, are you going to take the modest payout ISU can offer or take the six-figure payday at a BCS school? You’re probably going to get beat no matter what, but getting trounced by a BCS school helps the RPI and that check sure looks good on the balance sheet.
It’s why a school like IU can parade one low-major team after another into Assembly Hall, but ISU can’t get anyone for love or money.
Most MVC teams play in exempt tournaments, as ISU will this year in the Old Spice Classic, but there’s no guarantee those tournaments will bump your RPI. In 2010, for example, ISU Preseason NIT foe LSU turned out to be the worst team ISU played that season RPI-wise. And then there’s the small matter of actually beating BCS teams, which is never easy.
Schools like ISU can go another route and try to get 2-for-1 (or 3-for-1) deals with bigger schools, or even more controversially, acquiesce to a one-off buy game at a major school, a la FCS football.
But that creates an entirely new set of problems. Many BCS-level schools aren’t interested in playing MVC schools under any circumstance. And not all MVC coaches are convinced 2-for-1’s are in their interests. And the majority of MVC coaches are dead-set against accepting one-off buy games, no matter how prestigious the opponent is, what the potential RPI payoff could be or the money they’re paid.
So where do you go from there? The end result is that ISU and its MVC brethren are stuck playing a road-heavy schedule or you’re buying non-Division I schools to play at your place. None of which helps a team’s resume come Selection Sunday.
In ISU’s case, there’s another dynamic that’s made it even worse for them this season — success. When ISU was struggling, it was still tough to schedule, but some teams would play them anyway because they knew they would likely beat ISU and avoid a big RPI hit since ISU plays in a good mid-major conference.
Now that ISU is NCAA Tournament-tested? It’s a lot like the legend of Icarus. The higher the Sycamores go, the more their scheduling options melt away.
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