Wow

[Panthers to the Bone]

PTTB, well written but I have to disagree with a lot of what you said.

I think our SOS will get better just by plaing teams in the MVC, but it is a big stretch to assume that our non-conference opponents will pick up the pace. Of the 4 teams you mention (UW, Loyola, Bucknell, and Washington), it is very difficult to imagine Washington(4 games out) and UW (3 games out) contending for a conference title. I would guess all 4 of these teams will improve on their records, but not to that extent.

A couple things. First off, thanks for being classy in your response. Well appreciated. I was not totally discussing our total SOS. Our overall SOS is pretty good, however, I was talking about our non-con SOS. I said that this year, our non-con SOS could be seen negatively, and that most conferences (I believe I said all BCS conferences except for Pac-10) play two less non-con games, b/c they don't play round robin. So, they can play a couple more teams that could improve their non-con SOS, compared to us. I did also mention our non-con SOS will improve with a quality BB opponent. I completely agree with you though, our overall SOS will improve (and it has) when in MVC play. UNI will only play a max of 3 teams over 100 in the RPI the rest of the season.

As for the current schedule. Think about this for the future...ISU and Iowa will not usually both be 'down' at the same time. It's difficult to play a 4th BCS conference opponent, b/c of 2 reasons...1, they don't want to play us...and 2, it would have to probably be on the road (the current 3 BCS opponents are typically, Iowa/ISU/exempt tourney BCS opponent). Another thing to think about is travel expenses. Playing a CAA team is great, but the travel is tough.

Why do we play UMKC and Loyola? 2 reasons. 1. They are a bus trip, and winnable games (and Loyola is quality)...and 2. They are in the two metro areas outside the state of Iowa that have big alumni concentrations. To play one game a year in a large alumni base is a great thing for the university to keep relations going well with those schools. To reconnect alumni with athletics, is a great thing. Those two types of games need to continue, IMO. Plus, it's one less game a year we need to "buy" in.

Why UW-Milwaukee? They were a 'name team' that would come in and open up the McLeod Center. They were a Sweet 16 team 2 years ago, and won a game last year in the Dance. They are perennially a top flight opponent. However, this is only a 2 year deal, so I don't know how long it will continue. It's also a quality game vs. a top regional opponent that fans can travel to and the team can bus to in a metro area.

Why SDSU? Another team you can bus to, and play a 2-for-1, meaning they will play 2 times at UNI for 1 trip to SD. That's attractive financially, in addition, they usually have very good basketball. As they continue to transition to D1 fully, they will be a good regional opponent. Plus, maybe it will begin to rejuvenate some of the UNI alumni in the western part of the state (maybe one of those games will be in Sioux City or closer to the Iowa border at a neutral site?).

Our recruiting base is a 6 hour radius. Why should UNI go out east every year, if that's not an area we get recruits...and if we get recruits from there, they don't always stay. Also, when you play games out east or down south against similar conferences (actually slightly below the MVC with the CAA, and much lower with the Southland) you have to have more travel expenses. Let's look at the top Southland teams over the past couple years...Northwestern State and Sam Houston State. Would either of those teams bring in more fans that SDSU? Are they that better of a draw (honest question)? I don't think they are. And for the CAA, outside of George Mason, is Old Dominion a draw in the McLeod? My opinion is if UW-Milwaukee who has had great success as a 'mid' in the NCAA's for the opening game in the McLeod doesn't bring in a great crowd, then I don't see ODU, Drexel, or Hofstra doing that...George Mason is another story, however.

C-USA is a conference that is down (11th nationally). Take Memphis out, and this conference isn't very good at all, IMO. So, say UNI wants to schedule a game with Houston (one of the larger metro areas that UNI has alums in). Houston still has to agree to play UNI. Why would they want to come to Cedar Falls? To play a name school? Possibly, but is UNI a name school in Texas...probably not. We could do two things...give them a good game and not hurt their RPI. But again, they have to want to play us.

The main thing is important, IMO. If you are going to go out of the area to play a non-conference game, you want to be able to secure a tv package. For Bucknell, UNI would probably have never played them (although I would love for this series to continue). The only way they started was due to Bracket Busters, where UNI got a tv game. Why this year's game wasn't on TV is beyond me. It should have been. If UNI goes to play out of region, there needs to be a tv game associated with it, otherwise, outside of it being a good game where our guys have to play in a tough environment on the road, it needs to have even more value financially or exposure wise, IMO. Otherwise the travel and putting our guys in a hostile environment aren't worth it, IMO.

I hope this helps out in explaining the non-conference portion of our schedule...for now and in the future.

[DWadle1983]

I know this came up on another thread awhile back, but if you compared last season's non-conference schedule to this season's non-conference schedule before this season began, the two schedules didn't look that much different as far as quality.

Washington has been a huge disappointment. They were a preseason Top 25 team. Likewise, Bucknell was expected to be better, I believe ESPN predicted a 20+ win season, Loyola, not Butler, was the preseason Horizon favorite, UMKC, whose second leading scorer from last season PF Dee Ayuba has only started 8 games this season because he had off-season ACL surgery, was a pre-season 2nd or 3rd place team in the Mid-Con ahead of Valpo and right behind Oral Roberts, and Iowa has underperformed.

But don't forget that part of what was a big help to UNI's non-conference SOS last season was Iowa, and before last season nobody would have picked Iowa to have a Top 10 RPI.

UNI's non-conference SOS might have gotten a significant boost had Iowa State shot free throws better than a junior high team against Kansas.

Lunardi's not criticzing UNI's schedule, and neither should we. It looked fine last summer.

[DWadle1983]

Teams like Texas A&M last season is probably what UNI's SOS numbers will look like this season. http://www.kenpom.com/confrank.php?y=2006

If UNI can go at least 12-6 in the MVC, and at least 1-1 in St. Louis, winning approxmately 2/3 of the MVC games then UNI should be okay as far as SOS and overall RPI. 11-7 and 0-1 in St. Louis, and UNI's probably looking at the NIT.