a puzzle to me is the pre-conference schedule

[Cusefan0307]

Top 50, no. SU won't draw near 39K... 23-30k is what you'd get depending on who the top-50 program is, where SU is ranked at the time and what day of the week the game is scheduled.

But bring in a non-ACC top-10 program (Kentucky, Kansas, Arizona, Michigan State, UCLA) or GTown/UConn on a Saturday and you'll get 30K fans or more guaranteed - with most of them paying a premium for tix when compared to prices SU can charge for Colgate and Cornell.

We will play the old Big East Schools in a home/away series, but we will not play those schools at the dome. The only way we end up playing them is in a tournament, as those schools are not going to agree to play here unless we play there as well. There is no advantage to playing said schools. We have no scheduling issues anymore. We will consistently play one of the toughest schedules in the country every year.

 

[Bayside44]

Now, I am a long time fan, long time reader of the site, and a non-alum with relatives and many friends who graduated SU.
I have always been surprised that there is not widespread dissatisfaction with the pre-conference schedule that JB puts together. Put aside the preparation aspect for the rigors of conference play. Syracuse basketball is a major entertainment source for Central NYS.
I realize that to get better programs to come to the Dome, it is necessary to commit to home and home, which JB seems to abhor. But isn't that preferable to the annual parade of Cornell, Lemoyne, Colgate etc. ?
I might have missed a discussion on this, but it seems time to amp up the gauntlet a bit. Other schools in the ACC, except for Duke and Louisville, seem to have improved the pre-ACC home slate. I would like to think I'm not alone in seeing that a new approach would help the program ( and the Syracuse economy) in the long run

We play in a major tournament every year, play a B1G program, and somehow feel the need to play a couple of Big East games.

When I opened the link I was expecting the story to be it's needlessly challenging with our ACC schedule ahead of us.

 

[NateW]

This year's non-conference schedule was perfect. Road games against two of your all-time rivals after leaving their conference for greener pastures minus your 30+ year long head coach makes for tough games.

We will not be unprepared mentally walking into the Oakland Zoo on Wednesday. There have been years in the past where we could not say that.

 

[SUMBA]

The scheduling non issue is about three things: Gate, gaming the RPI, and recruiting.


Gate: SU is a private school and playing cupcakes at home puts dollars in SU coffers.

Gaming the RPI: A home loss counts as 1.4 losses, regardless of the opponent. A home win counts as 0.6 wins regardless of the opponent. A neutral court game counts as 1.0 either way. That is why we see a lot of good non conference match ups on neutral courts early in the season. That is not unique to SU, a number of teams, including Duke, adhere to this strategy. The neutral court game against a top 50 opponent helps a team's SOS without the risk of doing significant harm to the team's RPI that a home loss would. Consider this end of season risk management.

Recruiting: We play 'Nova, St. John's, and G'town for recruiting purposes. These games are designed to keep our foothold in what have traditionally been fertile recruiting grounds. Without these games, we would run the risk of becoming an afterthought in these important areas.

This last point is why we should never play UConn in a home and home series. There is no upside for us.

 

[Delmar]

I have been critical of the OOC in the past. Now that we are playing former Big East rivals, the OOC has been much improved.
This year: UConn, Texas A&M, Wisconsin, Georgetown, St. John's. That's not bad at all.

 

[SWC75]

If anything, with a team full of young or questionable players in so many spots, a few more cupcakes early where we could play everybody would have been welcome.

 

[SUintheVille]

Besides today's game against UK, Louisville has basically played nobody.

And Michigan State. After that, you're probably right.

 

[HOFCeluck]

.

This last point is why we should never play UConn in a home and home series. There is no upside for us.

Besides fun, exciting games?

Yeah, much better to play a garbage SJU team to protect an overrated recruiting ground.

 

[reedny]

You're aware that scheduling two home games (even against cupcakes) generates more revenue than scheduling one home game against a Top 50 team (and playing a corresponding road game against another Top 50 team).

Combined attendance for Colgate & Cornell was over 39,200. And the money stays in Central New York. You won't draw anywhere near that for a Top 50 team.

Like you said in your OP, it's all about the local economy.

Keep in mind that we already have Nova, Georgetown, St Johns, and maybe UConn in the home/home rotation.

Yes ...:

1- We're already playing quality OOC teams every year (Nova, GT, Johnies, possibly UConn);
2- Our OOC schedule also has a healthy mix of lesser difficulty teams (St. Bonnies; Texas Southern) .. that usually give us a good game but also help us build the program and keep the lights burning; and
3- There are important traditions involved in our schedule. We've been playing Cornell and Colgate for more than a century. These are quality New York schools. We've played them forever. We make money having them come to the Dome. It's a no-brainer.

 

[TinyManInside]

I'll keep saying. We should have played our Big Ten/ACC opponent. And that game should have been on Friday or Thursday at the earliest.

And one of ST. Johns/Georgetown/or Villanova.

The Battle for Atlantis which we won was enough test of a non conference schedule alone.

You literally don't understand how anything works, do you?

 

[Hoo's That]

Yes ...:

1- We're already playing quality OOC teams every year (Nova, GT, Johnies, possibly UConn);
2- Our OOC schedule also has a healthy mix of lesser difficulty teams (St. Bonnies; Texas Southern) .. that usually give us a good game but also help us build the program and keep the lights burning; and
3- There are important traditions involved in our schedule. We've been playing Cornell and Colgate for more than a century. These are quality New York schools. We've played them forever. We make money having them come to the Dome. It's a no-brainer.

Plus you can add to #3 that it's highly unlikely they will ever want you to play a return game in their gym because they really like the check you hand them.

 

[Briancuse]

Nothing wrong with our schedule at all. We played in a very competitive tournament, we happened to get Wisc in the one year where they decided to have a bad season, and we expected G-town to be pretty good this year. There is no upside to scheduling a bunch of games against those mid majors, if you lose the game its considered a bad loss, and if you win, its a game you should have won.

 

[reedny]

The 'cupcake' assertion usually comes from not knowing how good some of the MM's we play actually are that particular year. If someone hasn't heard of L-Tech, for example, they call it a cupcake. Likewise with a bunch of other quality programs we play. Some of them are not competitive against us .. and that's fine too. We have a good balance in our schedule, and we organize our season the same way many of the power BB schools do.

 

[Orangeblue2]

The 'cupcake' assertion usually comes from not knowing how good some of the MM's we play actually are that particular year. If someone hasn't heard of L-Tech, for example, they call it a cupcake. Likewise with a bunch of other quality programs we play. Some of them are not competitive against us .. and that's fine too. We have a good balance in our schedule, and we organize our season the same way many of the power BB schools do.

That's all well and good, if we are really a "power BB school". Maybe traditionally we are, but right now, based on ACC league predictions, we are supposed to be middle of the pack., like in the 6-8 range. That is bubble territory.

 

[reedny]

That's all well and good, if we are really a "power BB school". Maybe traditionally we are, but right now, based on ACC league predictions, we are supposed to be middle of the pack., like in the 6-8 range. That is bubble territory.

We're a power bb program. This year and last year, ugly as they are, are outliers. We've had a string of bad luck ... unexpected defections to the NBA, loss of an NBA caliber PF early last year, a shoddy NCAA investigation/sanctions resulting in further losses of players and recruits -- especially bigs. We started this year hoping some freshmen would shore up our front line -- then lost another big to the NCAA "clearinghouse". Obviously, front court issues are going to continue to cause us problems this year ... as I've been saying since early last year when CM went down.

As tough as this year and last have been, we were on a hot streak before that. A couple of 30 win seasons, a FF appearance, lots of time in the top 5-10 ... believe me, no one's crying for us. We'll be back.

 

[cuseguy]

We're a power bb program. This year and last year, ugly as they are, are outliers. We've had a string of bad luck ... unexpected defections to the NBA, loss of an NBA caliber PF early last year, a shoddy NCAA investigation/sanctions resulting in further losses of players and recruits -- especially bigs. We started this year hoping some freshmen would shore up our front line -- then lost another big to the NCAA "clearinghouse". Obviously, front court issues are going to continue to cause us problems this year ... as I've been saying since early last year when CM went down. As tough as this year and last have been, we were on a hot streak before that. A couple of 30 win seasons, a FF appearance, lots of time in the top 5-10 ... believe me, no one's crying for us. We'll be back.

Agree, but I don't expect it to happen next year after losing our senior backcourt. Front court should be deeper and more experienced, but we all know it starts in the backcourt. And no way of knowing where we'll be if Battle and Malachi bolt after next year. We're back to square one again.

 

[SWC75]

Agree, but I don't expect it to happen next year after losing our senior backcourt. Front court should be deeper and more experienced, but we all know it starts in the backcourt. And no way of knowing where we'll be if Battle and Malachi bolt after next year. We're back to square one again.

You've just describe college basketball in the 21st century. But some schools continue to be successful year after year and we're one of them.