Ratings watch

[ShockerFever]

and last at 12, MVC.

There's a couple reasons for this IMO.

First of all, there are at least two coaches that are on the record for saying they accept NOTHING but 1-for-1's. Their egos allow them to buy games against SWAC schools and what not, but they refuse to do the same for upper-tier BCS schools. Hypocrites much?

Also, with the scheduling philosophy Tim Jankovich has adopted at Illinois State, there is no way in hell he's ever gonna get mid-major schools on his schedule, unless mandated to do so. It's nothing..and I mean NOTHING but a cupcake factory for him.

Just those reasons by themselves drop the Valley's # of BCS games dramatically.

[ShockTalk]

and last at 12, MVC.

There's a couple reasons for this IMO.

First of all, there are at least two coaches that are on the record for saying they accept NOTHING but 1-for-1's. Their egos allow them to buy games against SWAC schools and what not, but they refuse to do the same for upper-tier BCS schools. Hypocrites much?

Also, with the scheduling philosophy Tim Jankovich has adopted at Illinois State, there is no way in hell he's ever gonna get mid-major schools on his schedule, unless mandated to do so. It's nothing..and I mean NOTHING but a cupcake factory for him.

Just those reasons by themselves drop the Valley's # of BCS games dramatically.

What we don't know: Are there coaches like this in the other 4 mid major conferences as well? Probably. Don't forget these 5 conferences had more home games than on the road. So the "one and done" must not have that much of an impact.

[The Mad Hatter]

TMH said:
"Top level BCS teams avoid good smaller schools like the plague because they don't want what they perceive as an embarrassing lose. Lower level BCS teams don't want to play smaller schools because as long as they don't lose head to head with small schools they can use the Gary Williams argument that going .500 in a BCS league merits getting an at-large bid over a non-BCS school. If they actually had to play those schools (especially if they, God forbid, had to go on the road) it would be clearly demonstrated that they were .500 because they were mediocre teams, and as long as the selection committee buys their argument, it is in their best interest to avoid playing the teams they are competing with for an at-large bid."

I'm not that convinced of this. So far this year, the Atlantic-10 has played 41 games against BCS competition, 8 at home, 12 on the road, and 21 neutral sites. Yes, 21 of those games were against the Big East, but they still had 20 games against the other 5 BCS conferences. Other "major" mid major conf against BCS: WCC (this year anyway) 20, MWC 16, C-USA 14, and last at 12, MVC. I didn't go forward to see how future games fit into this. As a note: these 5 conferences had 29 games at home, 26 on the road, and the rest at neutral sites.

Just to break down the numbers by conference:

A-10 has 41 games and 14 teams = 2.9 BCS games per team average
WCC has 20 games and 8 teams = 2.5 BCS games per team average
C-USA has 14 games and 12 teams = 1.2 BCS games per team average
MVC has 12 games and 10 teams = 1.2 BCS games per team average

Wichita State has 3 BCS teams on its schedule this year, which puts our schedule above the average schedule for any of these conferences.

This in essence was my point. Wichita State has scheduled a higher than average number of BCS teams, and yet gets criticized for not having more on the schedule. The reality is that getting much more than we have gotten is difficult, for the reasons I have noted.

Geographical difficulties play into the picture as well. Since many of the bottom tier Big East teams recently came out of the A-10 and Conference USA, they may have more tradition/expectation of playing their former conference rivals regularly. Also as noted above, being in a state where the state schools regularly play each other also affects these numbers.

Just out of curiosity, where did you get the stats on home/away/neutral court?

[ShockTalk]

TMH - I've been charting BCS / Mid Major games from the ESPN scoreboard, sometimes also checking many teams' ESPN page.

For the record, I've not a had a problem with WSU scheduling more BCS games. They have done a nice job of getting their share of these through the early season tournaments they've been able to get into. My problem, some our doing and some not, is with the number of games with teams under 250 RPI. We may end up with 6 of these. This is bad on a number of levels.

I would like to see no more than 2 games with teams below 250. Missouri St has done a nice job of this. They've played only one BCS school (and have one to go), but will likely end up playing only 2 games with teams below 250. They will probably have 7 games with non-BCS teams above 200. We will have 2, the Bracket Buster return game and the MWC game.

I believe there are a number of good reasons to schedule more teams who, from looking at past history, will likely end up in this 100-200 range. If we are to be a competitive team who is looking to Dance, we should not fear these level of games, but embrace them. After all, they would be games we should win.

[shocker3]

Actually by my count the Valley has played 13 games against BCS teams (7-6).

UNI has played the most 4 (3-1) with wins over Iowa, Iowa St., Boston College and la loss to DePaul.

WSU (1-1), Creighton (1-1: win over UNL, loss to Michigan), and Bradley (1-1: loss to Okie St, win over Illinois) have played two each.

Missouri State (win over Auburn), Indiana St (loss to LSU), and Drake (loss to Iowa St) have played one each .

That is a 7-6 record so far, which isn't too shabby.

There are still a few Valley games against BCS teams left, but the biggest problem is the three teams who haven't played ANY BCS teams (Illinois St, SIU, and Evansville).

The lack of games against BCS teams as well as too many games against the rpi 250 or worse teams makes the MVC-MWC series all the more important.

The MVC-MWC Challenge gives us 9 more games against a top 10 conference (MWC is #7 right now). Also the MWC has 3 teams in the top 50 and 8 teams better than 210 in rpi.
:wsu_posters: