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https://www.toledoblade.com/sports/coll ... 0220509102

How does VCU at Toledo and Toledo at Loyola Chicago sound?
It could soon be reality if a revolutionary college basketball scheduling concept comes to fruition.
Last week, CBS Sports reported 22 of the 32 Division I men’s basketball conferences were in the midst of hashing out a creative initiative that would feature back-to-back non-conference games in late February, producing must-see matchups and strengthening NCAA tournament resumes. (The concept could be used in women’s basketball, as well.)
Mid-American Conference commissioner Jon Steinbrecher, Toledo coach Tod Kowalczyk, and Bowling Green coach Michael Huger are all in favor of the plan.
“We’re always interested in ways that facilitate right-size scheduling, which this is something that this potentially does,” Steinbrecher told The Blade. “The details and who will participate, which are yet to be determined, are really important. It’s a work in progress. We will continue to be a part of those conversations and we’ll see where this goes.”
The proposal, which is in the early stages, would have every member of the conferences involved pause their conference schedule for one week in February and play two non-conference games — one at home and one on the road. Most of the games would follow a Wednesday-Saturday format.
An algorithm would create the matchups in late January, with the best teams playing each other. The merit-based system would place Quad 1 teams against Quad 1 teams, Quad 2 teams against Quad 2 teams, and so on. The late-season games could help bubble teams and create more multi-bid leagues.
If accepted, the flex schedule would begin in 2023-24. A decision is expected by the fall of 2022.
“I was pleasantly pleased that the MAC is supporting it and wants to be involved, because I think it’s awesome,” Kowalczyk said. “For a league that’s trying to get two bids, you have to get creative and do things like this. And you have to help your coaches schedule, because if you’re a really good team like Toledo’s been, it’s hard to get quality games. Our fan base thinks everyone wants to play everyone. That’s not the truth. It’s very difficult to schedule when you’re a really good mid-major program. This will help us get really quality games.”
From 2003 to 2013, ESPN BracketBusters was a series of February games between mid-major schools. It began with the MAC, Missouri Valley, Colonial, Horizon and Western Athletic Conference, eventually expanding to other leagues and more than 100 schools.
In 2006, George Mason won a BracketBusters game at Wichita State, a victory that propelled the Patriots into the NCAA tournament. George Mason would complete one of the most unlikely Final Four runs in history.
George Mason won another BracketBusters game in 2011 — at Northern Iowa — that contributed to an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament.
“It definitely can help if you get the right matchup at the right time,” said Huger, a former George Mason assistant. “That’s all you can ask for if you’re playing well and on the bubble. You should be able to go and play. I believe in that. Hopefully, it’ll work out. I think it’s good for the game.”
What Steinbrecher doesn’t want to see are teams opting out, which became one of the downfalls of BracketBusters. The idea is to have entire conferences be part of the new event.
The latest scheduling venture is the brainchild of WAC commissioner Brian Thornton, according to Matt Norlander of CBS Sports. The Big Ten, ACC, Big 12, Big East, Pac-12, and SEC will not be involved.
Ricky Stokes, the MAC’s senior associate commissioner for men’s and women’s basketball, has been involved in discussions. The conference’s spring meetings are next week, and it’s sure to be a talking point for athletic directors.
Michigan State associate AD Kevin Pauga, considered by many to be the best scheduling mind in intercollegiate athletics, has contributed to the proposal. He told Norlander if the concept had been used during the 2021-22 season, it would have featured 31 Quad 1 vs. Quad 1 games and 52 Quad 2 vs. Quad 2 games, a significant amount of opportunities to enhance an NCAA tournament resume.
“The more high-level interconference games facilitated, that’s positive for all involved,” Steinbrecher said. “I want our top teams who are cruising through the year and coming into late January in the 40s, or the 50s, or the 60s, or the 70s [in the NET] to get a chance to pick up a couple interconference games against a high-level opponent. Sure, that’s an attractive proposition.”
In 1995, 1998, and 1999, the MAC sent two representatives to the NCAA tournament. For the past 22 years, only the MAC tournament champion has experienced March Madness.
Despite the conference’s NCAA tournament exploits — the MAC has won a game in three of the past four tournaments — the same story unfolds every year on Selection Sunday.
“Until two years ago, we were on about an eight-year streak of really doing a nice job as a league of right-size scheduling,” Steinbrecher said. “And it’s not just about how your top teams schedule. It’s about how every team in the league schedules. I can’t emphasize that enough. When COVID hit, we got away from our disciplined scheduling, and we have to get back to that.”

This is intriguing. I also really liked Steinbrecher's quote at the end. I feel like that could also mean BGSU should stop scheduling Carlow University as a regular season non-conference opponent.

footballguy51 wrote: ↑Fri May 13, 2022 12:41 pm This is intriguing. I also really liked Steinbrecher's quote at the end. I feel like that could also mean BGSU should stop scheduling Carlow University as a regular season non-conference opponent.

Steinbrecher has been reading my posts/tweets on the subject.

Yes, I want UT to get good games when they're among the best in the conference. Yes, I want BG to stop playing multiple D2 teams every year, and play some legit competition when they are angling for a good year. But if EVERYBODY doesn't make a concerted effort in the conference the have nots will just undermine the haves.

In this league, for far too often, "Right size scheduling" has meant "Scheduling a good number of games that we know we'll win". That's not "right size" it's "cheap bullshit". We cannot have half of our conference playing 2-3 games against D2 & D3 teams and expect to ever sniff a 2nd bid in the dance. The conference SHOULD put an immediate hard cap on those sorts of games of 1 with an emphasis that they'd like it to be zero by a set future year. Sure an exhibition against a lower division is fine, but real games should not be happening between the MAC and D2/3 schools.

I'm overwhelmingly in favor of this plan as proposed in the article as well. Get each team a home game and a road game against similar tiered competition. And use an algorithm to matchmake midseason so you're not basing it on last year's results as well. Love it all. But it needs to be contracted in stone with every participating conference. Any team opting out should be ineligible for their conference's tournament/autobid.

The MAC has ignored basketball to its own detriment for far too long. Even with the lack of commitment we've had some reasonably good showings in the dance. But no matter how successful our tourney teams have been, we're not going to get actual respect by the selection committee until we make a concerted effort to improve the product, and that largely hinges on scheduling.

"Ricky Stokes, the MAC’s senior associate commissioner for men’s and women’s basketball, has been involved in discussions. The conference’s spring meetings are next week, and it’s sure to be a talking point for athletic directors.

Ricky is a former assistant BG basketball coach under Larranaga. I knew him when he was here.

IIRC....ESPN tried something similar for a few years in the early 2000's

Flipper wrote: ↑Fri May 13, 2022 7:48 pm IIRC....ESPN tried something similar for a few years in the early 2000's

That was their bracketbuster tournament, I think, and teams started opting out to avoid losing games.

Just FYI scheduling lower division opponents has no impact on your RPI/Net rankings. It obviously can factor in when looking at non auto bids. The thing that kills the conference is when teams like BG, NIU, EMU (pre Stan Heath anyway), WMU, and CMU are scheduling multiple lower division games and then additional non conf matchups against s**t teams in the 200+ rpi range. That kills your chances at building a decent conference RPI.
Problem is a lot of coaches have win bonuses in their contracts and they schedule accordingly.

TommyG wrote: ↑Sat May 14, 2022 11:24 am Just FYI scheduling lower division opponents has no impact on your RPI/Net rankings. It obviously can factor in when looking at non auto bids. The thing that kills the conference is when teams like BG, NIU, EMU (pre Stan Heath anyway), WMU, and CMU are scheduling multiple lower division games and then additional non conf matchups against s**t teams in the 200+ rpi range. That kills your chances at building a decent conference RPI.
Problem is a lot of coaches have win bonuses in their contracts and they schedule accordingly.

Good point. I still think they should stop the lower division scheduling for perception if nothing else.

But yes, scheduling nothing but rpi 200+ teams kills your ranking, doesn't prep for conference play, and tanks the conference as a whole.

Agree 100%…I’d be all for a conference rule only allowing 1 lower division game per year. Those games are aren’t entertaining and should be avoided.

TommyG wrote: ↑Sat May 14, 2022 4:42 pm Agree 100%…I’d be all for a conference rule only allowing 1 lower division game per year. Those games are aren’t entertaining and should be avoided.

I’m not opposed to an annual game against someone like Findlay or something. One standalone game against a regional team at a lower level could be alright.

But playing multiple games against lower level opponents is pretty ridiculous. And it’s extra ridiculous when it’s called the Frack game, as if that makes it better.

I’m tired of the over-inflated records because of mediocre non-conference competition. We need to start winning consistently in the MAC, period.

This idea nationally is very intriguing for late season games. I wish regionally mid-majors would work together similarly to get 4-6 games of value for December. If the MAC would work with 3 other conferences to set up games based on preseason polls everyone benefits. If the big guys don’t want to play then the mid-majors need to work hard together