A Modest Proposal: The Bucknell Plan

[Trotsky]

Bucknell is a very good basketball program in a very bad conference (the Patriot League).  Their problem is that even if they rip through their league, their RPI will be so low that they'll wind up with a killer seed in the tournament (although that didn't hurt them that much last year when they upset Kansas).  Nobody good is going to schedule Bucknell home-and-home since (a) they'll lose revenue by playing at a smaller arena and (b) they won't risk the loss. This is starting to sound familiar...

Their solution?  This year they had road games against Syracuse (win), DePaul (win), and Duke (loss).  Their schedule strength has been greatly helped, and with a nice tear through their conference they will be well-positioned for the tourny.

This isn't an (OT) so you know where I'm going with this.  This year's NC quality opponents were: MSU (twice; yeah, they didn't turn out to be so hot, but that couldn't have been forseen) and a 50/50 shot at a game with Maine which didn't pan out.  5 of the 7 games were against subpar teams.  4 of them look *really* subpar.  This compounds the effect of playing the comparatively weak ECAC schedule.

The reason given is that Coach Schafer will not schedule a road game without a reciprocal home game.  That sounds like strong program advocacy, but I propose that he rethink it.  Here are some of the opponents that the traditional powers scheduled this year (I am presuming, in most cases, without a road return coming up any time before the next ice age):

North Dakota: Northeastern (twice), Harvard (twice)
Minnesota: Union, Lowell, Niagara (twice)
Colorado College: Union, UMass
Denver: UMass, Princeton
Wisconsin: St. Lawrence (twice)
Michigan: Qunnipiac (twice), Merrimack

It's true that those games tend to fall either in the very early portion of the schedule or during the holiday break, and Cornell has the Ivy limit and the Estero conflict to contend with.  But, since the aim is to have the program compete for the national title year after year, it's worth discussing whether a weak NC slate is more hurtful now than a bunch of road games (and hence a greater likelihood of losses) against top teams would be.


(edit: changed "OSU" to the correct "MSU")

[cth95]

You mean Michigan State?  Not trying to distract from the overall idea and Ohio State would also be true for not as good as expected.

[RichH]

[quote Trotsky]
This year's NC quality opponents were: Ohio State (twice; yeah, they didn't turn out to be so hot, but that couldn't have been forseen) and a 50/50 shot at a game with Maine which didn't pan out.

The reason given is that Coach Schafer will not schedule a road game without a reciprocal home game.  That sounds like strong program advocacy, but I propose that he rethink it.  [/quote]

I think you mean Michigan State, for accuracy's sake.

This is pretty interesting.  In the past, I've said that the assumed requirement for home-away recipricality was rumor and heresay, like the rumor that Chris Higgins committed to Cornell and then bolted (turned out to be false after The Sun picked up the discussion).  I didn't think that Coach Schafer ever specifically said that this is a requirement for scheduling, but then I just re-read the interview on eLynah, and found the following:

http://www.elynah.com/?articles&id=34

[Q]Everyone talks about scheduling and I'm the one who does the scheduling. The scheduling people think it is an exact science, but when you look at the schedule after you take away our Florida tournament, there are only about three dates when we can play during the course of the season and we are not like a New England team where we can play during the course of the week. It leaves us very little time. Our league has changed and we have only known our league schedule a couple years in advance so there are very few times where we can play teams. Once that is set you start looking at teams across the country. Many teams will not travel and so that takes away a lot of opponents, so you end up with a very small pool of teams that you can play. The Florida tournament has always given us some quality opponents and we always try to play quality opponents. We continue to try and play teams like UNH and Maine and different teams from across the country that will come here and we can go there.

The number one seed in the tournament is overrated right now. If you wanted a better placement, we would have been better off being a lower seed because there isn't a lot of difference between Minnesota and Ohio State. The number one seed was really critical when you had fewer teams. You are always subject to them moving you around. The scheduling aspect is important. It's tough to get games based on our schedule. We are what we are in the ECACHL. Because we start the season so late, it doesn't do any good to be careful about whom we schedule as our non-conference opponents and where we play. We need home games. We are a team that needs to support our Athletic Department and bring in money, just like anyone else. It does our department and University no good if we are traveling all over the place and not playing at home. We owe it to our fans to play home games.[/Q]

Although he didn't come out and say it, it certainly takes a little less than reading between the lines to see that policy.

In the past, I've always been a fan of supporting the newer/smaller conferences by giving them a chance to play top programs for the evolution of the entire college sport.  But as Greg pointed out, give them too much, and it winds up being a drag on a team's bid chances.

BTW, I'll bring it up, because it sticks in my craw every year.  I'm upset that Harvard gets non-beanpot NC games scheduled vs. both BU and BC each and every fall.  They have the same ivy limit we have, and they are already guaranteed to play at least one of those 2 teams each Beanpot.  Convenience be damned, it's like Harvard is a lock to have a better SoS every year.  I know it gives Jack, Jerry, and Mr. Clean short trips, and it gives the 3 schools advance scouting before the Beanpot, but it just seems unfair.

[ebilmes]

To be honest, I cringed when I saw our OOC schedule this year. It had just been made very clear to us (when we were sent to Minny) that the Selection Committee values RPI much more than other factors, especially polls. And then the OOC schedule comes out: Niagara, RIT, MSU, Estero. While we ended up having more trouble with Niagara than I had expected, beating them certainly doesn't help our RPI. MSU was supposed to be (and looked like) a good team this year, but we know where that's gone. And Estero handed us anemic Northeastern and then UMD. Forget about the home-away crap; Cornell needs to get a perennial contender in the schedule. If we go out west and lose, then so what? I'd prefer to have those games than more Niagara Cup championships.

[Ben Rocky '04]

It seems like we're getting better and better opponents for FCC in future years:  UNH next year, and maybe CC in 07; we can't complain about that.  Perhaps this is a sign that our holiday tournament will continue to increase in clout, even thought it probably will never outrank Dodge or Great Lakes.  

On a side note, is there already a partial schedule for next year somewhere?

[redhair34]

[quote Ben Rocky 04]

On a side note, is there already a partial schedule for next year somewhere?[/quote]


Yeah I'd be interested in seeing that too.  I know we saw something like that by this time last year.

[oceanst41]

To be fair to Niagara if they run the table in the CHA and get the tourny bid, that's two wins against a TUC for Cornell, and they beat UNH which we can use for a common opponent win.

However, MSU is killing us by seemingly rolling over the past few weeks and that loss to Union...nevermind that didn't happen

[Al DeFlorio]

Oct. 14 - red/white
Oct. 20 - exhibition
Oct. 27-28 - non-conference games
Nov. 3-4 - at Brown, Yale
Nov. 10-11 - Harvard, Dartmouth
Nov. 17-18 - at Princeton, Quinnipiac
Nov. 24-25 - non-conference games
Dec. 1-2 - Rensselaer, Union
Dec. 27-28 - Florida College Classic

[KeithK]

In the interview that Rich quotes Schafer says that they have to schedule home games to support the Athletic Dept.  Now this makes me wonder if Andy Noel hasn't had some influence in the scheduling decisions here.  Maybe he has told Schafer that there needs to be a certain number of home games to provide revenue and that while a home and home would be acceptable, isolated road games are not.

This is pure speculation.  But it's more fun to paint Andy as the "bad" guy. :-P

[exposcohen]

Well I got to admit the Estero games are a nice touch. It was great when OSU, Maine and even the crappy gophers were there. This year was a little sad since there weren't that many great teams down there. Hopefully next year though we can get a UND game in there. I really HATE the Souix (avaition people here will get it, go Purdue!!)

I am thinking though if Lynah does infact get expanded to eventually 5,000+ we could get some better teams in here. I also bet a lot of teams try to avoid Ithaca, who the hell wants to come into town? We rip them apart!!!

[Ben Rocky '04]

Sorry to whine, but thats all that is known?

[Will]

[quote Ben Rocky 04]Sorry to whine, but thats all that is known?[/quote]

I seem to recall in past years the only things usually known by this point of the season about the following season is the conference schedule and if we have any home-and-home reciprocating to do (BU, MSU, etc.).  If one of us called the hockey office, I imagine all we'd get would be the conference game schedule.

[ithacat]

[quote KeithK]In the interview that Rich quotes Schafer says that they have to schedule home games to support the Athletic Dept.  Now this makes me wonder if Andy Noel hasn't had some influence in the scheduling decisions here.  Maybe he has told Schafer that there needs to be a certain number of home games to provide revenue and that while a home and home would be acceptable, isolated road games are not.

This is pure speculation.  But it's more fun to paint Andy as the "bad" guy. :-P[/quote]

Start a travel endowment...I'm in the strengthen the schedule camp. Play 2 games at Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota. Get the program out there on a bigger stage & showcase it to more kids, especially when they're younger. I'd get in Ann Arbor as often as I could since the NTDP is there. Do some 4-2s with some of these programs. I think a goal should be a glamour weekend at home & one on the road each year. Making up for those 2 lost home games is the problem.

The Ivy penalty sucks.

[ftyuv]

Why don't we just embrace the fact that we're just SUNY Ithaca and drop out of the Ivy?  

[ithacat]

[quote ftyuv]Why don't we just embrace the fact that we're just SUNY Ithaca and drop out of the Ivy?  [/quote]

I just don't understand why hockey's held back but not basketball and wrestling.