2007-08 Schedule

[filbert]

Games in red are Mid-Con games, direct from their web site.

Other games are what I personally would like to see--explanation following the schedule.

(Note: this is NOT the 2007-08 schedule (except for the Mid-Con games). I'm posting this to start a discussion, as well as to start a sticky thread to discuss the ACTUAL 2007-08 schedule as it comes together.)

Home games in bold

Tue, Nov. 13 Exhibition -- Dakota State
Sat, Nov. 17 Exhibition -- SW Minnesota State
Fri, Nov. 23 Sioux Falls or Black Hills State
Sat, Nov. 24 Northern State
Thu, Nov. 29 Augustana
Sat, Dec. 1 South Dakota
Thu, Dec. 6 at Centenary (Mid-Con opener)
Sat, Dec. 8 at Oral Roberts (Mid-Con)
Thu, Dec. 13 Northern Iowa
Sat, Dec. 15 at (guarantee)
Sat, Dec. 22 Utah Valley State -or- Texas-Pan American
Thu, Dec. 27 at (guarantee)
Sat, Dec. 29 at (guarantee)
Thu, Jan. 3 Oakland (Mid-Con home opener)
Sat, Jan. 5 IPFW (Mid-Con)
Thu, Jan. 10 at Western Illinois (Mid-Con)
Sat, Jan. 12 at IUPUI (Mid-Con)
Thu, Jan. 17 UMKC (Mid-Con)
Sat, Jan. 19 Southern Utah (Mid-Con)
Sat, Jan. 26 at North Dakota State (Mid-Con)
Thu, Jan. 31 at IPFW (Mid-Con)
Sat, Feb. 2 at Oakland (Mid-Con)
Thu, Feb. 7 IUPUI (Mid-Con)
Sat, Feb. 9 Western Illinois (Mid-Con)
Thu, Feb. 14 at Southern Utah (Mid-Con)
Sat, Feb. 16 at UMKC (Mid-Con)
Thu, Feb. 21 North Dakota State (Mid-Con)
Sat, Feb. 23 at Utah Valley State -or- Texas-Pan American
Thu, Feb. 28 Oral Roberts (Mid-Con)
Sat, Mar. 1 Centenary (Mid-Con)

Discussion: I have two goals here: first, to provide a schedule that ramps up the difficulty of the opponent for our (still young) team to work into D-I intensity, and second, to get three guarantee games to help pay the bills.

After the exhibition games against the closest possible opponents, DSU and SWMSU, I have four straight home games against non-D-I opponents. When we're tournament-eligible, I don't know if I'd schedule even one lower-division opponent, but the ultimate goal is to build the team towards competing for the NCAA tournament in 2008-09, so I'm willing to take the RPI/reputation hit this year.

Yes, I have us playing USD. I bring the Coyotes to Frost Arena. I might even offer a 2-1 deal to them, playing them this year and in 2009-10 and going to Vermillion in 2010-11 or something like that. I want to re-connect SDSU men's basketball with sports fans in South Dakota, and the way to do that is to play South Dakota schools. Not only do the Wolves, Vikings, and Coyotes bring competitive teams to Frost, they also bring fans. We need to re-establish the Frost Arena environment. Playing the SD D-II schools is in my opinion the quickest and easiest way to do that. Plus, that gives us fifteen home games and thirteen road games. It's unlikely we'll ever have a schedule which has that ratio of home-to-away games again.

I have a home and home with either Utah Valley State or with Texas-Pan Am. This is, to be honest, something to help those schools out. The Feb. 23 weekend is Bracketbuster Saturday, and since we're not going to be picked to play in a Bracketbuster game until we're both tournament-eligible and competitive in D-I, it's no big deal to schedule a game that weekend. It also gives us another home D-I game early in the season when we're building the team, and gives UVSC or TPAU a home game late in the season when they're hard to come by for independents.

I have us playing three guarantee games. This is not only to get the payday, but also to try to balance out the schedule with some quality opponents after playing the non-D-I games at home. And, you can't beat the big guys if you don't play them, and we're not going to get them to come to Frost, so we have to go there.

I have heard that we actually have a home game planned with Northern Iowa for November 2007. I'd try real hard to move that to December, in order to "ramp up" our level of competition in November the way I want to.

Well, that's my ideas for men's basketball scheduling next year. What do y'all think?

[JackerRabbit]

Re: 2007-08 Schedule

I don't have a problem scheduling USD for a 2-1, as long as we have the money to buy out the game in Vermillion. No way should we be within 50 miles of the Dakota Dome until they have completed their transition, its just too helpful to their fan base, and it gives them something to look forward to. They need to go through transition hell just like we did, and see how their average attendance holds up playing UTAPIYU University home and home. And God forbid if they actually won the game at the Dome, we would never hear the end of it... and neither would recruits. Right now we have the upper hand in recruiting, and we will continue to do so until either 1. USD gains conference admission or 2. USD beats us in Vermillion to put some doubt into recruits minds about where to attend school.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not concerned about USD being better than us, and I'm not jealous or whatever other crap their fans spew about us, I just don't think we need to play them. Its pretty much just opening ourselves up to take a possible hit, and the benefit is what? One game of good attendance? Is that really worth opening ourselves up to take a loss in recruits eyes, and the state populations eyes? I don't think so, and I prefer them sitting down in Vermillion whining like a 5 year old about how they could beat their big brother if they just had a chance... sure you could champ, everybody that is your mom knows you could beat him up. Right now, we just don't need this... period. They do, very, very badly, and I'm absolutely in favor of not helping them whatsoever.

So to sum up, I'm in favor of letting USD reap what they've sown the last couple of years.

[thebluehatman]

Re: 2007-08 Schedule

A 6 game exhibition schedule, not a bad idea filbert

[NightHawk78]

Re: 2007-08 Schedule

Interesting plan, filbert. Nagy probably wants a less-rigorous schedule next year. Didn't he say that he didn't care for playing in the early-season tournaments?

I'm all for trying to get USF, Augie, and Northern on the schedule. USD, on the other hand, is not a high-priority opponent in my book. It's evident that the 'Yotes won't end up on our football schedule for quite some time and I doubt A.J. would want to schedule them, but having USD play us in MBB would likely place more pressure to schedule them in FB and WBB. I also am skeptical that USD would accept anything less than a home-and-home series. Finally, placing USD on the schedule acknowledges the notion that we need them to be successful in D-I.

Having a conference is really a beautiful thing when you only have to find ten non-conference games (or nine plus a tournament). 8-) 8-) 8-)

[Jacks#1Fan]

Re: 2007-08 Schedule

To: JackerRabbit

AMEN brother...you are right on! I never want to have to endure the absolutely horrible way that USD lets its students treat visiting teams. If they end up in the MidContinent conference in four or five years, and we have to play a basketball game in the dome, it will come under the conditions set down by the Conference, which will be a whole new "ball game" for the Yotes.

The conference had a meeting for the new athletic directors and they were told that the conference will not allow visiting teams to be treated any worse than the way the home school treats its own athletes. HURRAH for them! No more noisy, yelling kids spewing vile language standing 5 feet away from our players on the bench (at the last game we played in that dump, we had to stand two kids up with their backs at the end of the bench to try to block out the foul, filthy language. No more spitting in our water container by a Yote fan passing by, either.

Sorry, Filbert, I've had all of that I can take. One other point in regards to your schedule. I might be wrong, but I thought that we could only schedule two non-Division 1 schools in basketball in a season. I know we only scheduled two this year, but maybe that was just because they don't count in our 20-win goal.

[JimmyJack]

Re: 2007-08 Schedule

I wouldn't hold your breath for a game with USD for a while. And from what I'm told, unless we're in a conference with them or the Legislature mandates it, SDSU won't be traveling to the DakotaDome for basketball OR football for a long, long, long time.

Generally, I sense precisely zero interest anywhere in Brookings for a renewal of the series with USD.

[filbert]

Re: 2007-08 Schedule

To: JackerRabbit

AMEN brother...you are right on! I never want to have to endure the absolutely horrible way that USD lets its students treat visiting teams. If they end up in the MidContinent conference in four or five years, and we have to play a basketball game in the dome, it will come under the conditions set down by the Conference, which will be a whole new "ball game" for the Yotes.

The conference had a meeting for the new athletic directors and they were told that the conference will not allow visiting teams to be treated any worse than the way the home school treats its own athletes. HURRAH for them! No more noisy, yelling kids spewing vile language standing 5 feet away from our players on the bench (at the last game we played in that dump, we had to stand two kids up with their backs at the end of the bench to try to block out the foul, filthy language. No more spitting in our water container by a Yote fan passing by, either.

Sorry, Filbert, I've had all of that I can take. One other point in regards to your schedule. I might be wrong, but I thought that we could only schedule two non-Division 1 schools in basketball in a season. I know we only scheduled two this year, but maybe that was just because they don't count in our 20-win goal.

Actually, the maximum two-non-D-I-game rule is for provisional NCAA members (like Utah Valley State) not active NCAA members who are reclassifying, such as SDSU. (NCAA Bylaw 20.9.5 if you're interested.)

Regarding the vitriol towards USD--believe me, I understand where it's coming from.

I really don't care whether or not we ever play in Vermillion again. My only point is that nothing would jump-start fan interest in Brookings like a State-U basketball game.

I'd say we play USD on our terms, for our benefit. Having a full house in Frost Arena before launching into the D-I portion of our schedule next year would be a great thing for SDSU and our team. I really couldn't care less how the USD community reacted to it. In fact, I would not be surprised if USD turned such a game down precisely because it would benefit SDSU.

But, there are politics beyond sports going on here. Make no mistake, there will be politics aplenty being played over SDSU-USD athletic contests in the coming years. Why not turn it to SDSU's advantage?

Finally, I'd love to invite Mid-Con conference representatives to be guests of SDSU when we play USD here, and also when we took teams to the DakotaDome. Then I'd be more than happy to let them decide whether or not they want USD based on their observations of those two games.

[JackerRabbit]

Re: 2007-08 Schedule

I have no problem using USD for our benefit! Let's just give them the old "Montana" 2-1, with the first two at Brookings. They would scream bloody murder, and I would say we were pretty close to even for how they acted when we moved up. Then we can start a home and home with them for real.

[valleyrabbit]

Re: 2007-08 Schedule

I actually like. Most mid-majors play one or two lower division teams so they can get home games. UNI played Southwest MN St and a D3 school this year and they will compete for an at large bid. Also I think we will play at Minnesota and Utah St next year and also have another 3 year contract with Wisconsin Milwaukee. Are Montana and Green Bay coming to Frost next season? We might not have enough room on the schedule to play 4 of these lower division games.

[thebluehatman]

Re: 2007-08 Schedule

I believe Tennessee State makes the return trip to Brookings next year.

[filbert]

Re: 2007-08 Schedule

So our actual 2007-08 schedule includes:
Mid-Con, home and home (18 games)
Minnesota
Utah State
Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Tennessee State
Northern Iowa

That's 23 out of 28 games . . . it's GOOD to be in a conference!

[thebluehatman]

Re: 2007-08 Schedule

I wonder if we get the Big Sky schools to come back here next year?

[valleyrabbit]

Re: 2007-08 Schedule

18 Mid-Con games
Northern Iowa
Montana
Wisc-Green Bay
Tennessee St
at Utah St
at Minnesota
at Wisc-Milwaukee
at Middle Tennessee (Was this a 2-1 contract?)

We will probably want to set up some road games at another mid-major or 2 so we can have some more good home games in 08-09. Being in a conference is beautiful. Rather than not having enough games we will soon have to turn schools away because our schedule will be full.

[Jacks#1Fan]

Re: 2007-08 Schedule

I'd say we play USD on our terms, for our benefit.  Having a full house in Frost Arena before launching into the D-I portion of our schedule next year would be a great thing for SDSU and our team.  I really couldn't care less how the USD community reacted to it.  In fact, I would not be surprised if USD turned such a game down precisely because it would benefit SDSU.

But, there are politics beyond sports going on here.  Make no mistake, there will be politics aplenty being played over SDSU-USD athletic contests in the coming years.  Why not turn it to SDSU's advantage?

 

I understand where you are coming from Filbert...but I would just say that the ONLY way we should play the Yotes is if they want to come up here (or possibly we accept a come up here and we play in Sioux Falls). And I would just as soon let the first game wait until the 2008-2009 season. Let them accept it or turn it down...there is no way we need to be going to their house for the next few years.

[Jacks99]

Re: 2007-08 Schedule

I like seeing UNI at home. Someone with name recognition and a fine program. I can't imagine what having a conference means to the people who work on the schedule.