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Schools already unveiling their non-conference schedules

Hmmm .. this is interesting....

University of Illinois has just announced that they will be MOVING some of their games this season to other arenas in the state due to construction issues with their home arenas...

Illini will "likely to move 1 exhibition (game), 4 non-conf. games elsewhere in state as lower bowl of State Farm Center is completed by Dec. 1."

...Plan to have no home games in Nov., 2015 is not new. Officially saying team displaced for 5 home games & hunting for a venue is new."
(per Mark Tupper)

so...could this be part of what troubles our plans for dates at Carver Arena??
Reportedly Illinois is working on relocating at least 5 of their men's and 5 of their women's games and that other arenas in the state could be working with them or holding dates. One game for sure is vs. Oregon at Chicago's United Center.

http://www.news-gazette.com/sports/...ketball/2014-07-07/temporary-digs-illini.html
http://www.tribtown.com/view/story/f00921bf61024801b597d4b313ca55d2/BKC--Illinois-Arena

One writer suggests playing WIU in Moline and one other reports say a couple of the games to be at the Hoffman Estates Sears Center
https://twitter.com/johnbohnenkamp/status/486207047180890112

Jim Mattson & others suggest Peoria
https://twitter.com/hoijim/status/486219387158806529
https://twitter.com/OrionBuckingham/status/486191780917178370
 
this actually fits exactly with a story I had heard that the Civic Center was indeed holding some important dates for a specific client, and was unwilling to work with BU on scheduling until those dates are resolved...
If that is indeed the case - then it would really anger me and I suppose it would really anger BU people
O believe one of our posters knows about this - so I hope he is willing to add what he knows...


edit - now the PJS has a story that confirms the Illini are bargaining for certain dates at Carver Arena
http://www.pjstar.com/article/20140707/SPORTS/140709399

..in that column a quote from Dr. Cross seems to hint that Illinois should just play Bradley while they are at Carver - but....
doesn't he realize that Illinois isn't looking for a road game against a midmajor - if they came, they would want to play such a game as a home game...
thus all their season ticket holders would get all the priority seating - all 12,000 of them plus ~2,000 student season tickets


btw - once the new arena is completed - seating capacity will be reduced and Illinois is planning to stick it to the fans for the best seats....hmmm..
http://www.news-gazette.com/sports/...-03-29/loren-tate-ad-makes-sense-seating.html
 
Indeed - one of our long time posters who has inside knowledge of what's going on down at the Civic Center - has PM'ed me and confirmed that the Civic Center is giving a considerable priority to Illinois having home games on our home floor possibly to the scheduling exclusion of our team's requests!!

this is an amazing insult by the Civic Center people and I will boycott and never buy another ticket for any event there if they pull this crap...
 
If true, then we have become super-lightweights in this process if the greedy folks at the Civic Center see a few Illini games as more benefit to them than dealing fair and square with Bradley.
Next thing you know, we will be asking for a Tuesday morning and the Civic Center people will say sorry but we have to wash our hair.
 
Even worse - we are probably losing decent games that we are unable to lock into the schedule simply because the Civic Center won't deal with us or give us the time of day or that dates that we want, preferring to hold the dates just on the hope of luring the Illini who they see as nicer event.

This makes more games like Eureka a possibility.
If anyone can't see how we keep slipping further and further and further into the fallout hole - dropping D-I sports, tightening our belt due to financial crisis, landing DIII's, now having a school almost 100 miles away getting in front of us in line to land the choice spots even at our OWN home arena...
what next - fire Dave Snell and replace him with KaBoom?
 
SIU has their non-conference schedule released
http://thesouthern.com/sports/colle...cle_6c08af80-3532-5e36-903e-5635b0a59a04.html
http://www.siusalukis.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/071414aaa.html

don't mean to be harsh but it is very weak..

NAIA Olivet Nazarene
nothing even close to a BCS school - you could call SLU a decent opponent, and maybe Murray State, but then SEMO,
then Tennessee State both HOME & AWAY - play them twice...
Yale, UIC, SIUE, Austin Peay, Chicago State, New Orleans, Kent State.
 
tornado said:
SIU has their non-conference schedule released
http://thesouthern.com/sports/colle...cle_6c08af80-3532-5e36-903e-5635b0a59a04.html
http://www.siusalukis.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/071414aaa.html

don't mean to be harsh but it is very weak..

NAIA Olivet Nazarene
nothing even close to a BCS school - you could call SLU a decent opponent, and maybe Murray State, but then SEMO,
then Tennessee State both HOME & AWAY - play them twice...
Yale, UIC, SIUE, Austin Peay, Chicago State, New Orleans, Kent State.
Click to expand...

Outside of Olivet, we have played most of these teams in the past.
 
of course - everyone plays a few cupcakes -
you could say even Illinois, Indiana, even Michigan has played most of those guys but the concern that has MVC Commissioner Doug Elgin inventing new rules to penalize teams with weak schedules is when one of the Valley members schedules ZERO opponents from the top conferences, and has a slate of a lot of bottom dwellers..
BTW - SIU's RPI last year was 214 - but they played Mizzou, Wichita had a #4 RPI and SLU was top notch last year - this slate this year will likely result in a 275-300 RPI.
I know we'll get the same "scheduling is hard" excuse, but a weak schedule is a weak schedule - whether we've played them in the past or not.
I am not saying anything that most SIU fans aren't already bellyaching about in their thread already on their weak schedule.
Here's some representative posts
http://salukination.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1604&start=227
 
Two other Valley schools have released their non-conference schedules...

Evansville:
The high point - really none - there's really not a single RPI-builder on the entire slate - there's a remote chance of catching FGCU in the Gulf Coast Showcase.
The low point - Earlham? IUPUI? Alabama State? Coppin State? Lots to choose from.
http://gopurpleaces.com/news/2014/8/18/MBB_0818141328.aspx

Missouri State:
The high point - a home & home begins with a road game at Tulsa, and games with Texas Tech & Colorado
The low point - a regular season home game vs. Avila University (a small NAIA school in Kansas City that went 6-21) and a matchup with Alaska-Anchorage (DII) in a tourney
http://www.missouristatebears.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/081814aaa.html

Missouri State has also noted one exhibition against DII and one closed exhibition against an unnamed DI
 
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Wichita finally finishes their non-conference schedule...

and it's pretty good by MVC standards, but considering they have kinda moved into the realm of the "elite" it's still pretty surprising how FEW good home opponents they have.

They have only FOUR DI home non-conference games...
They have New Mexico State, Newman (a DII), Tulsa, Seton Hall, Alabama
...only two of which (Tulsa RPI 70, NMSU RPI 71) had an RPI better than 100! Neither Seton Hall nor Alabama finished in the top of their conferences and neither were above .500 last year.

http://www.goshockers.com//ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=7500&ATCLID=209624865
 
Creighton is not in the MVC so I really don't care, but whoa....
their home schedule is weak.

They have a huge home arena so they can get a lot of schools interested in coming there to play,
and yet of their eight non-conference games, they have almost all cupcakes that are a huge step down from what Valley schools are scheduling!

Central Arkansas, Chicago State, North Carolina Central, EIU, South Dakota, St. Mary's, Texas Pan-American, but they do have Oklahoma..
Their conference schedule saves them a little - but they are, of course, unfamiliar and distant rivals - St. John's, Seton Hall, DePaul, Providence, Butler, etc...
..might be a little step down in attendance this year...
 
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