Hello There, Guest! (LoginRegister)

Post Reply 
OT: Duke being ripped for non-conference schedule
Author Message
Bookmark and Share
Seahawk Nation 08 Online
Hall of Famer
*

Posts: 17,099
Joined: Aug 2014
Reputation: 147
I Root For: UNCW
Location:
Post: #1
OT: Duke being ripped for non-conference schedule
Thought this would be of interest for a few reasons. For one, Duke hosts W&M on Nov 23 and also plays Elon in Greensboro on Dec 21. It also speaks to a wider problem regarding D-I College Basketball scheduling as a whole (as Duke is of course not the only culprit of this problem among P5 schools).


http://collegebasketball.nbcsports.com/2...the-sport/

Duke’s unimpressive non-conference schedule bad for the sport


By Rob Dauster
Jul 13, 2016, 10:35 AM EDT

Duke released their non-conference schedule on Wednesday, and while the highlights of the schedule will be the highlights of the non-conference season, there really isn’t all that much to sink your teeth into.

The Blue Devils will square off with Kansas in the Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden in what will likely be the most anticipated non-conference game in 2016. Duke will be the consensus preseason No. 1 team in the country while Kansas will likely be in the top five; we have them No. 3.

Duke also squares off with Michigan State, another preseason top ten team, in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

But after that?

They play seven games against mid-major or low-major competition with absolutely zero chance of beating the Blue Devils; the spread in all those games will be over 20 points. Their date with Florida in the Jimmy V Classic is better on paper than it will be in person, and their trip to Vegas to play UNLV looked a lot more difficult before the UNLV program imploded.

And then there is the Hall of Fame Tip-Off tournament at Mohegan Sun Arena, where Duke gets Penn State (meh) in the opener before facing off with either Cincinnati or Rhode Island, both of whom are borderline top 25 teams. That game should be competitive, especially if Duke plays URI and the URI faithful make the hour drive to see the Rams play Duke, but it’s a sad state of affairs when the third or fourth best game that Duke will play in the first six weeks of the season is one that we hope will be competitive.

That’s how it works with college basketball early in the season, and it’s one of the biggest reasons that the sport continues to lose relevance. Less than a third of Duke’s schedule in the first two months of the season is worth watching for diehard college basketball fans, and only two of those games will convince anyone with something better to do than sit on their couch and watch sports to make the effort to see them play. More than half of their schedule comes against completely overmatched opponents.

And this is the norm.

Sure, Kentucky and Kansas and North Carolina may have had some better luck with their marquee games this season than Duke did, but that doesn’t affect the overall trend in college basketball: Too many of the games that get played are blowouts that aren’t worth watching.

You can’t blame Duke for Florida and UNLV being down. And it’s not their fault that the Hall of Fame Tip-Off committee couldn’t land another elite program for that event.

But it is their fault that they play seven games against relative no-names before Christmas, and who is going to tune in to see Duke put a 40 point mollywhopping on Maine or Grand Canyon when we can watch our fantasy football dreams whither away and die along with the rest of America?

(UPDATE: People seem to be taking this as a shot at Duke, and it’s not meant to be, so I’m going to elaborate a bit more on this.

This is not always the case, but generally speaking, the industry standard for high-major programs is to play at least seven of their 13 non-conference games at home. This generates revenue, whether it be making season ticket packages more appealing and easier to sell or profiting off of the food, apparel and parking that sports fans always seem to be spending their money on. Some programs require more than seven games.

This becomes a problem when you look at how Duke scheduled: They play two neutral site games in New York and two in Connecticut. Their trip to Vegas is, technically, a neutral site game, as is their game against Elon in Greensboro. If you bust out your calculator, that means that Duke has six neutral site games on their schedule — not unusual for the Blue Devils — which means that they cannot schedule a home-and-home for this season if the athletic department wants them to play seven non-conference games at Cameron Indoor Stadium. And that’s before you consider that the games against Grand Canyon and Marist are given to the Blue Devils by the organizers of the Hall of Fame Tip-Off, which is typical for the early season tournaments.

Now imagine that this is happening at all of the visible, high-major programs around the country. No one is going to volunteer to play a road game with getting a home game in return, and with the way that these schedules shake out, it’s impossible for a lot of these programs to actually play true road games.

So what happens is that the low- and mid-major programs willingly accept a big check and a chance to play on national television in exchange for, in all likelihood, taking a whipping on the road.

And so what we’re left with is this situation, which no one can argue is good for the sport of college basketball even if, individually, it is in the best interest of the individual programs.)

If we really want people to pay attention to college basketball outside of the month of March, they need to be provided with something worth paying attention to. That’s true of just two of the 13 games that Duke, the biggest brand and the preseason No. 1 team in the country, announced today.

Anyway, here is Duke’s full schedule:

Nov. 11: Grand Canyon

Nov. 12: TBA

Nov. 15: vs. Kansas (MSG, Champions Classic)

Nov. 19: vs. Penn State (Mohegan Sun Arena, Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off)
Nov. 20: vs. Cincinnati/Rhode Island (Mohegan Sun Arena, Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off)

Nov. 23: William & Mary

Nov. 26: Appalachian State

Nov. 29: Michigan State (ACC/Big Ten Challenge)

Dec. 3: Maine

Dec. 6: vs. Florida (MSG for Jimmy V Classic)

Dec. 10: vs. UNLV (Las Vegas)

Dec. 19: Tennessee State

Dec. 21: vs. Elon (Greensboro, N.C.)

*(NOTE: Duke’s release initially included Marist as their Nov. 12th opponent, but they subsequently announced that game had not yet been confirmed.)
(This post was last modified: 07-13-2016 02:38 PM by Seahawk Nation 08.)
07-13-2016 02:37 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Advertisement


solohawks Online
Hall of Famer
*

Posts: 20,784
Joined: May 2008
Reputation: 810
I Root For: UNCW
Location: Wilmington, NC
Post: #2
RE: OT: Duke being ripped for non-conference schedule
Duke has always played a crummy out of conference
07-13-2016 05:29 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
B_Hawk06 Offline
Moderator
*

Posts: 15,479
Joined: Dec 2014
Reputation: 676
I Root For: UNCW / America
Location:
Post: #3
OT: Duke being ripped for non-conference schedule
It's not surprising but I don't necessarily know that articles like this champion the cause of the mid majors. This guy is looking for Duke to play more P5 type programs during out of conference highlighted by his description of "no name" teams. One could argue that strong and up and coming mid majors may not be the "no names" he mentions, but I doubt it. William and Mary will have a strong team next year and he doesn't even mention them, further causing me to believe the author doesn't know much about quality mids.
07-13-2016 09:04 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
dan10 Offline
Heisman
*

Posts: 6,130
Joined: Feb 2015
Reputation: 47
I Root For: Drexel
Location: Indianapolis
Post: #4
RE: OT: Duke being ripped for non-conference schedule
(07-13-2016 09:04 PM)CoastGuardHawk06 Wrote:  It's not surprising but I don't necessarily know that articles like this champion the cause of the mid majors. This guy is looking for Duke to play more P5 type programs during out of conference highlighted by his description of "no name" teams. One could argue that strong and up and coming mid majors may not be the "no names" he mentions, but I doubt it. William and Mary will have a strong team next year and he doesn't even mention them, further causing me to believe the author doesn't know much about quality mids.

I think it has more to do with the power conference teams want to only play each other and push everyone else down a peg and have them form their own "NCAA" as far as fans of those programs go, and likely those programs themselves. They are not a fan of outsiders crashing their party.
07-14-2016 06:11 AM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Advertisement


B_Hawk06 Offline
Moderator
*

Posts: 15,479
Joined: Dec 2014
Reputation: 676
I Root For: UNCW / America
Location:
Post: #5
OT: Duke being ripped for non-conference schedule
(07-14-2016 06:11 AM)dan10 Wrote:  
(07-13-2016 09:04 PM)CoastGuardHawk06 Wrote:  It's not surprising but I don't necessarily know that articles like this champion the cause of the mid majors. This guy is looking for Duke to play more P5 type programs during out of conference highlighted by his description of "no name" teams. One could argue that strong and up and coming mid majors may not be the "no names" he mentions, but I doubt it. William and Mary will have a strong team next year and he doesn't even mention them, further causing me to believe the author doesn't know much about quality mids.

I think it has more to do with the power conference teams want to only play each other and push everyone else down a peg and have them form their own "NCAA" as far as fans of those programs go, and likely those programs themselves. They are not a fan of outsiders crashing their party.

I think we're essentially saying the same thing. I agree.
07-14-2016 08:44 AM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
solohawks Online
Hall of Famer
*

Posts: 20,784
Joined: May 2008
Reputation: 810
I Root For: UNCW
Location: Wilmington, NC
Post: #6
RE: OT: Duke being ripped for non-conference schedule
Duke also never plays any true road games unless forced to via the acc big 10 challenege
07-14-2016 10:59 AM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Seahawk Nation 08 Online
Hall of Famer
*

Posts: 17,099
Joined: Aug 2014
Reputation: 147
I Root For: UNCW
Location:
Post: #7
RE: OT: Duke being ripped for non-conference schedule
(07-14-2016 10:59 AM)solohawks Wrote:  Duke also never plays any true road games unless forced to via the acc big 10 challenege

And I almost can't even blame them for it. Coach K has little courage when it comes to his scheduling practices, and that's being kind. But the system is set up in such a way that it makes all the sense in the world for him to trot out schedules like these.

He doesn't play teams on the road because it will help THEIR recruiting far more than Duke's. He doesn't play tough teams at home because THEY have more to gain than Duke does. They're college basketball royalty, and Duke is one of the programs that gets to essentially set the rules for everybody else.

One day the P5 is going to take their ball and go home, creating their own league. The NCAA has never had any TRUE authority, only the authority the big programs ALLOW them to have. The money involved in March Madness is the only thing keeping the big boys around, and even that would not touch the money that would be involved with a 32+ team, P5 only tournament.
(This post was last modified: 07-14-2016 12:52 PM by Seahawk Nation 08.)
07-14-2016 12:50 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
solohawks Online
Hall of Famer
*

Posts: 20,784
Joined: May 2008
Reputation: 810
I Root For: UNCW
Location: Wilmington, NC
Post: #8
RE: OT: Duke being ripped for non-conference schedule
(07-14-2016 12:50 PM)Seahawk Nation 08 Wrote:  
(07-14-2016 10:59 AM)solohawks Wrote:  Duke also never plays any true road games unless forced to via the acc big 10 challenege

And I almost can't even blame them for it. Coach K has little courage when it comes to his scheduling practices, and that's being kind. But the system is set up in such a way that it makes all the sense in the world for him to trot out schedules like these.

He doesn't play teams on the road because it will help THEIR recruiting far more than Duke's. He doesn't play tough teams at home because THEY have more to gain than Duke does. They're college basketball royalty, and Duke is one of the programs that gets to essentially set the rules for everybody else.

One day the P5 is going to take their ball and go home, creating their own league. The NCAA has never had any TRUE authority, only the authority the big programs ALLOW them to have. The money involved in March Madness is the only thing keeping the big boys around, and even that would not touch the money that would be involved with a 32+ team, P5 only tournament.
Oh I agree with everything you say. It just stinks in the practical sense
07-14-2016 04:50 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Post Reply 




User(s) browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)


Copyright © 2002-2024 Collegiate Sports Nation Bulletin Board System (CSNbbs), All Rights Reserved.
CSNbbs is an independent fan site and is in no way affiliated to the NCAA or any of the schools and conferences it represents.
This site monetizes links. FTC Disclosure.
We allow third-party companies to serve ads and/or collect certain anonymous information when you visit our web site. These companies may use non-personally identifiable information (e.g., click stream information, browser type, time and date, subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over) during your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you. These companies typically use a cookie or third party web beacon to collect this information. To learn more about this behavioral advertising practice or to opt-out of this type of advertising, you can visit http://www.networkadvertising.org.
Powered By MyBB, © 2002-2024 MyBB Group.