Pac-12 scheduling requirements

[Secho99]

I just read that the Pac-12 is putting in new requirements for non-conference scheduling to help raise the profile of the league. Home opponents will have to have a 5-year average NET ranking of 175 or better (so basically the top half of D1) and road opponents a top 200 average ranking.

We don't have anything like this in the B1G, do we?

In some ways, I really like this because it forces teams to have to improve their competition and there should be fewer games that are totally uncompetitive blowouts, which honestly aren't that fun for fans to watch.

But if other power leagues adopt this (apparently the SEC already has), it could be terrible for the teams in the bottom half of D1 that rely on both the money from these road games to fund their programs and the exposure of some of these games being on TV to help recruiting.

 

[NUCat320]

I appreciate your sentiment — but I don’t think ‘traveling by bus and getting pounded all December, occasionally on some channel in the 600s’ is a reason basketball players commit to the Mississippi Valley States or UTPAs of the world. Mostly, they commit to those schools because those schools will have them.

I think it’s a good rule for fans. It’s true, though, that bottom tier D1 conference would suffer were several conferences adopt such a rule. But it begs the question — if your program’s sustainability is contingent on sending your athletes on the road for a month, should yours be a D1 program at all?