What's with the poor out of conference schedule?

[Red Man]

10/29 Army
10/30 Sacred Heart
11/12 @ Michigan St
11/14 @ Michigan St.
11/27 Canisius
12/28 Everblades (1st Round)
12/29 Everblades (2nd Round)

I recognize the quality of the competition in the holiday tournament (probably too stiff) and that the Spartans are a decent program but the rest of this out of conference schedule is piss-poor.  These guys are not going to have any credibility coming out of the perpetually softening ECAC unless they play some more iron.  Recall that the sweep of BU is what really got people's attention 2 years ago.  Save winning the holiday tournament (highly unlikely with BC and Maine in there next year) they will not have much of an opportunity to turn heads this year.

Any thoughts?

[CU Fan]

Let's remember that Cornell wasn't exactly great last year.  Another factor that goes into scheduling out of conference games is that you want to be able to win them. Many of the nation's stronger teams (BC, Maine, etc.) don't like to schedule out of conference games with teams like Michigan, Minnesota, etc. because its damaging to your RPI to lose them.

[adamw]

It is true that BC and Maine are strong teams.  The rest of the statement is not true.

[Rosey]

[Q]CU Fan Wrote:

 Let's remember that Cornell wasn't exactly great last year.  Another factor that goes into scheduling out of conference games is that you want to be able to win them. Many of the nation's stronger teams (BC, Maine, etc.) don't like to schedule out of conference games with teams like Michigan, Minnesota, etc. because its damaging to your RPI to lose them.[/q]

Michigan and Minnesota aren't strong teams?  ::screwy::

Cheers,
Kyle

[ithacat]

Cornell had a better winning % against tourny teams last year than any team in the field. I'm not sure how the RPI works, but it seems that what also hurt them (beside not winning the ECAC) was not playing enough power teams to garner mindshare. It seems that as the ECAC weakens the need to improve the OOC schedule increases greatly. Also, if you're going to play Western Michigan and Bowling Green (etc) you better win.

[fanalicious]

hey, the big red will win all out of conference games, win ivy league, ecac and ecac championship, what are all you worying about, they are f*ing stacked, there is nothing to worry about
peace

[KeithK]

[q]It is true that BC and Maine are strong teams. The rest of the statement is not true.[/q]Agreed.  The top teams do intentionally schedule tough competition in order to help their SoS ranking. Not to mention the fact that playing better competition tends to make you a better team.  It's generally more damaging to your RPI to beat a bad team than to lose to a very good one.  SoS components (Opponents winning percentage and OppOpp%) account for 65% of RPI last time I looked.

Of the seven games on the docket, four have to be considered very good games.  The other three are, but all together it's not a horrible schedule.  I wonder if Schafer intentionally scheduled an "easy" weekend to start the season to get things off on the right foot.

[min]

i think geography also plays a small part when scheduling ooc games.
from a logistic standpoint, ithaca does not look too favorably for visiting teams.  guess what other team do army and sacred heart play in the same opening weekend? colgate.

[jtwcornell91]

[Q]KeithK Wrote:
It's generally more damaging to your RPI to beat a bad team than to lose to a very good one.[/q]
That's not generally true, we just notice it when it is.  Also, I think if beating a bad team hurts your RPI it's typically because your winning percentage is so high that the extra win doesn't help much, in which case the extra loss would hurt a lot.

[Greg Berge]

If we equally weight the chances of playing the three teams that make up the Everglades, and if we take last season's strengths, how does next year's schedule strength stand against the last few years?

[CU Fan]

The point is that they are strong teams, so tyhey don't want to risk a loss by playing them. Cheers ::screwy::

[ugarte]

[Q]CU Fan Wrote:

 The point is that they are strong teams, so tyhey don't want to risk a loss by playing them. Cheers  [/q]But the point is still wrong.  The top teams play eachother.  It is the middle teams that have trouble scheduling top teams.  The top squads don't want to make the sacrifice in SOS and risk a loss that will hurt their RPI more than a win will help.

[ursusminor]

[Q]fanalicious Wrote:

 hey, the big red will win all out of conference games, win ivy league, ecac and ecac championship, what are all you worying about, they are f*ing stacked, there is nothing to worry about
peace[/q]
I think that you said it a bit incorrectly when you wrote: [q]there is nothing to worry about peace[/q] When Dan Peace, a Cornell legacy, returns in a different red and white uniform, Cornell will be in trouble. :-D



[size=10]Well, actually I don't expect him to get much ice time.[/size]

[ninian '72]

Another issue with scheduling stronger teams is rink size.  Teams benfit from scheduling games at the larger arenas the stronger teams typically play in, since their gates tend to be larger.  From that standpoint, it may be harder to get quality opponents to schedule games at Lynah.

[Big Red Colonel]

I don't think many folks mind the "cupcake" opening weekend.  I recall in the last few years playing (and destroying) Alabama-Hunstville and several other weaker teams.  What has me in a tizzy is the Thanksgiving week game against Canisius.  I was banking on a BU game that weekend and I am sure all of us would like to have seen a top notch opponent.  I agree with folks that rink size and location are a problem, but why not schedule a game in Binghamton, Rochester, Syracuse or even Buffalo?  We could have scheduled a nice double-header with Colgate playing someone good at 4:30 and then Cornell playing a big name team in the evening.  Since it is a holiday weekend, many folks would be able to make the trip and it's not like Lynah would have had many students in there anyway.

In any case, as I am a bit of a Chicken Little, I am just freaking out that Cornell hockey and Ivy League hockey is going the way of Ivy League football.

Cheers,
Mike