I do not understand NU's preseason schedule
- Thread starter stpaulcat
- Start date
Well, the B10 West is extraordinarily weak.
I think the 9-game B10 schedule and possibly some late rescheduling has something to do with the non-con schedule.
Seems like in recent history the Cats have only faced two decent non-con teams, maybe three at best, per season. So the schedule looks like a slight step down from that, based on those teams results from last year.
I thought Rhode Island was a better team, but they had a pretty bad year, so Dayton and Arizona State are probably the "highlights".
I thought Rhode Island was a better team, but they had a pretty bad year, so Dayton and Arizona State are probably the "highlights".
Mississippi St will be a good one. One of the top players is hurt, but will still be a challenge
NU is in scheduling no man's land right now.
NU is not in the Gavitt games. The BigTen / ACC challenge was terminated due to ESPN losing rights to Big Ten hoops. Those were two opportunities for quality games each year.
Making it worse, any good teams do not want to risk an L. Higher profile bad teams likely cost too much to bring in and most power 5 would not want to play NU because they are trying to collect w's before entering conference play.
At the same time, NU is not good enough to load up a schedule with 4 or 5 top 100 teams.
Don't we have this conversation every year? @Max_Power nicely summarized the challenges of non-conference scheduling. The best case scenario would be NU becomes a regular in the NCAA Tournament and uses that higher profile to get better non-conference games. Bigger Big Ten checks leading to a larger budget for non-conference opponents is another hope. DePaul returning to relevance would help too.
The teams in the power conferences are reluctant to schedule away games in their non-conference schedule. Therefore, scheduling a typically competitive opponent is nearly impossible without reciprocation. We should try to schedule the top regional D1 teams every year, home and away in alternate years. Are we afraid of a worse record or an away loss at Illinois State, Notre Dame or Marquette? Possibly the coaches and athletic administration are, but I know the fans and think the players would welcome a more rigorous schedule. Also, lowering the carbon footprint in the pre Big 10 games would be better for global health and would offset burning all that fuel needed to get to those away games at USC, UCLA and Rutgers.
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