Scheduling story

[89rabbit]

http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs...36/1002/SPORTS

Tough for SDSU to attract major conference teams

By Terry Vandrovec
tvandrovec@argusleader.com
PUBLISHED: January 9, 2007

The recently reshuffled Conference USA is not what it once was, but it's still generally regarded as a major conference.

And for South Dakota State's purposes it absolutely is.

On Saturday night, before a tepid crowd of 1,587, the Jacks hosted C-USA's Central Florida in their first home game against a team from one of the 10 major conferences, classically defined in NCAA Division I men's basketball as the ACC, Atlantic 10, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Conference USA, Mountain West, Pac 10, SEC and WAC.

It may be a while before they host another.

SDSU coach Scott Nagy called such arrangements, "darn near impossible."

"We moved 20 years ago from Division II to Division I," UCF coach Kirk Speraw said, "and we have a hard time scheduling teams to bring into into Orlando (Fla.), which is pretty attractive. There are a lot of major schools that to this day won't come in and play at our place. He (Nagy) is not going to find many teams that will be willing to come up here." . . . (read more)



Terry is very good, but he does mistakes (just like the rest of us). In this case he defined the "Major Conferences" as "ACC, Atlantic 10, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Conference USA, Mountain West, Pac 10, SEC and WAC". So we have in fact hosted two "Major Confereneces" Central Florida of C-USA, and Idaho of the WAC. Still a good story.


Go State!

[BTownJack]

Re: Scheduling story

This also seems odd from his online story?

Their next marquee home game will be in November against Northern Iowa, an up-and-coming school in a league - the Missouri Valley Conference - that's threatening to redefine what constitutes a major conference.

I'm trying to figure out what he meant to say here because we obviously don't have a game against Northern Iowa coming up and we are well past November?

[gojacksgo]

Re: Scheduling story

I believe he is talking next year.

[Grizzled_Jack]

Re: Scheduling story

I'm sure most C-USA schools don't play in venues that draw less than 2000. (I know the students weren't there but that's still very, very low for this kind of opponent).

[Cadsev]

Re: Scheduling story

Terry is very good, but he does mistakes (just like the rest of us).  In this case he defined the "Major Conferences" as "ACC, Atlantic 10, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Conference USA, Mountain West, Pac 10, SEC and WAC".  So we have in fact hosted two "Major Confereneces"  Central Florida of C-USA, and Idaho of the WAC.  Still a good story.


Go State!  

Not so sure I'd consider the WAC a High Major Conference.  Nevada has had a great deal of success recently but not enough to be considered a high major.  Heck Gonzaga has had more sustained success and they still struggle to be considered a high major.  C-USA would be considered a high major league had it not lost so many team.  Still Mempis is a strong program and much more highly regarded than any team in the WAC.  I agree with you that including the WAC in the list is a stretch.  Although did some research and found that Saragian has the WAC at #9 and C-USA at #10 overall:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/bkc0607.htm


Getting quality teams out of major conferences to come to Brookings will be next to impossible. Bottom dwellers in the leagues not so much a stretch (ala Kansas State heading to Fargo). The more success SDSU has at the DI level the harder it will be to attract top teams.

[filbert]

Re: Scheduling story

I'm sure most C-USA schools don't play in venues that draw less than 2000. (I know the students weren't there but that's still very, very low for this kind of opponent).

Your point as stated is correct.

Going deeper, I'd say that the impression that most D-I teams are filling their arena every night is not necessarily true. The average home attendance for Division I teams is 5,198. C-USA averages 5,655, slightly above the D-I average. (The Mid-Con, by the way, averages 2,455, a number that will likely go up significantly with NDSU and SDSU in the conference).

UCF's attendance average last year was 1,541. SDSU's was 2,070. Granted, UCF's home attendance last year was the worst in C-USA.

The point being that UCF is used to playing in front of small crowds--at home, even.

http://www.ncaa.org/stats/m_basketba...all_attend.pdf

We have a ways to go to build our attendance. I'd say a reasonable and achievable goal would be to get to the NCAA average of about 5,000 per game. Putting a winning team on the court is the biggest factor in reaching that goal.

[valleyrabbit]

Re: Scheduling story

Utah State is also in the WAC, so we have actually hosted 3 teams from the Major 10 conferences. With the way the Big East has raided the C-USA and the A-10 changes that have happened, those two conferences are only a shadow of what they used to be. I think once we start conference play if we can continue to get the schools we have gotten we will be in good shape. We have had Wisonsin-Milwaukee, Butler, Utah St, and Central Florida come to Frost the last two seasons. If you look an UNIs home non-conference schedule you will find they host Iowa or Iowa St every year, but that is it for big time non-conference home games.

[juice]

Re: Scheduling story

http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070109/SPORTS0202/701090336/1002/SPORTS

Tough for SDSU to attract major conference teams

By Terry Vandrovec
tvandrovec@argusleader.com
PUBLISHED: January 9, 2007

The recently reshuffled Conference USA is not what it once was, but it's still generally regarded as a major conference.

And for South Dakota State's purposes it absolutely is.

On Saturday night, before a tepid crowd of 1,587, the Jacks hosted C-USA's Central Florida in their first home game against a team from one of the 10 major conferences, classically defined in NCAA Division I men's basketball as the ACC, Atlantic 10, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Conference USA, Mountain West, Pac 10, SEC and WAC.

It may be a while before they host another.

SDSU coach Scott Nagy called such arrangements, "darn near impossible."

"We moved 20 years ago from Division II to Division I," UCF coach Kirk Speraw said, "and we have a hard time scheduling teams to bring into into Orlando (Fla.), which is pretty attractive. There are a lot of major schools that to this day won't come in and play at our place. He (Nagy) is not going to find many teams that will be willing to come up here."  .  .  .  (read more)



Terry is very good, but he does mistakes (just like the rest of us).  In this case he defined the "Major Conferences" as "ACC, Atlantic 10, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Conference USA, Mountain West, Pac 10, SEC and WAC".  So we have in fact hosted two "Major Confereneces"  Central Florida of C-USA, and Idaho of the WAC.  Still a good story.


Go State!  

Good article, but I'm very surprised that he has the Mountain West and WAC listed as major conferences and he doesn't list the Missouri Valley. They had four teams in the tournament last year, and two in the Sweet 16.
This article doesn't give me a lot of hope that USD will ever be attracting big time teams into Vermillion, or at least hardly ever. I certainly don't like hearing UCF coach talk about having trouble getting teams come into Orlando to play.

[joeboo22]

Re: Scheduling story

One thing I think SDSU has to look at is if they are trying to schedule big home games work with Minnesota, Iowa, and Iowa State in which if they get a big home game see if they want to come up to frost and play a game. Alot of teams don't mind playing a "warm up" game before playing a school like that. I know minnesota isn't what it once was and actually all 3 programs are fairly weak but that is one idea to getting some what big schools to come to frost.

[propar80]

Re: Scheduling story

Utah State is also in the WAC, so we have actually hosted 3 teams from the Major 10 conferences.  With the way the Big East has raided the C-USA and the A-10 changes that have happened, those two conferences are only a shadow of what they used to be.  I think once we start conference play if we can continue to get the schools we have gotten we will be in good shape.  We have had Wisonsin-Milwaukee, Butler, Utah St, and Central Florida come to Frost the last two seasons.  If you look an UNIs home non-conference schedule you will find they host Iowa or Iowa St every year, but that is it for big time non-conference home games.

I'm actually very impressed with the home schedules that SDSU's coaches and admin. have strung together over the past 3 years during our transition, for the girls and guys.  Just take a look at the list above that rabbitinunicntry listed and it really is pretty solid, and even better on the girls side.  The fact that the guys didn't schedule a single D-II team this year, I would say puts our home schedule above NDSU's guy's schedule...just my opinion, NDSU posters might disagree.

As far as there being low attendence, the casual Jacks fan has to take Terry's advice and realize that coming to a game at Frost against a UCF, or Utah State, UWMil., etc. is not completely about thinking that the Jacks have a chance to win, which we always will hope for, but at this stage just seeing some athletes that you would've never seen in the D-II, NCC days, coming to Brookings from all over the country.

I know that getting in a conference and knowing that our Jacks will be playing on set nights will definitely help the casual fan get in the seats, but winning will also help and looking at some of the teams in the Mid-Con, both women and men, there are definitely a lot of them that the Jacks can beat in the "very near-future".  And once that starts happening, especially on the guys side, I don't think the NCAA average of 4500 folks, is at all out of reach.
Heck, we may get a game at Frost for the Women's NIT due to the fact that we put more people in the seats than most D-I women's programs!! GOT TO GET IN FIRST, THOUGH!

Here's my plea the the casual Jacks fan:  The NCC is gone...it's time to evolve.


Go Jacks-it's time to show the U of M who the plays the best women's basketball in the midwest!!
I better see all of you there...there's still rooms available at the U of M Days INN!!  www.hotels.com

[FargoBison]

Re: Scheduling story

[  The fact that the guys didn't schedule a single D-II team this year, I would say puts our home schedule above NDSU's guy's schedule...just my opinion, NDSU posters might disagree.

Two words for you....Kansas State

Getting a Big 12 team and coach like Bob Huggins in your arena is probably about as good as it gets as far as home games go. Getting Major conference teams is something NDSU is going to try to do every year by scheduling 2 for 1s or paying upwards of 80 to 100k to lure a team to Fargo.

[twism]

Re: Scheduling story

Kansas State was going even before Huggins got there. But still impressive.

[FargoBison]

Re: Scheduling story

Kansas State was going even before Huggins got there. But still impressive.

Yeah, I doubt Huggins would have scheduled the game but he was a good sport about it. I am sure some coaches would have whined and complained and tried to buy the game out but Huggins made it clear he honors all his scheduling contracts even if it was a previous coach's contract.

As for your schedule Utah State was a good get, they don't carry the weight a BCS conference school has but any college basketball fan knows they have a good program down there. I am also jealous to see you guys have UNI coming up to Brookings next year, great program and one that you would think local fans would want to go out and see SDSU play.

[propar80]

Re: Scheduling story

[quote author=propar80 link=1168350524/0#9 date=1168440650][  The fact that the guys didn't schedule a single D-II team this year, I would say puts our home schedule above NDSU's guy's schedule...just my opinion, NDSU posters might disagree.

Two words for you....Kansas State

Getting a Big 12 team and coach like Bob Huggins in your arena is probably about as good as it gets as far as home games go. Getting Major conference teams is something NDSU is going to try to do every year by scheduling 2 for 1s or paying upwards of 80 to 100k to lure a team to Fargo.

[/quote]

I'm talking overall home schedule:

NDSU:
Furman                RPI: 188   SoCON
Wisconsin GB               161   Horizon
K-State                         73   Big 12
SWMS                           D-II
Mayville St.                    D-II
Valley City St.                D-II  Maybe D-III??
U of Mary                       D-II
TX Pan Amer.               240   INdep.
Utah Valley st.              140   Indep.
Winston-Salem ST.       333    INdep.
New Jersey Tech           324    Indep.
IPFW                           278    Indep.

SDSU:
Idaho                  RPI: 313  WAC
Ark. St.                       244  Sun Belt
Utah St.                       93   WAC  
Montana St.                 302  Big Sky
UCF                             142  Conference USA
Utah Valley st.              140  Indep.
Tx. Pan Amer.              240  Indep.
Mid Tenn. St.                163  Sun Belt
Cal State Northridge      155  Big West
New Jersey Tech            324  Indep.
Winston-Salem st.         333   Indep.
New Jersey Tech           324   INdep.
IPFW                            278   INdep.
 
Here are the facts.  K-State was a good draw, but the the rest of your schedule is a little/very weak.   Just the fact that SDSU has 13 home games versus NDSU's 12 and four of those are D-II programs gives us a considerable edge in games that fans around here SHOULD want to see. (this is not counting our home games against each other)
After lining it up like that, I'm actaully more embarrassed that SDSU isn't getting more people to these games compared to NDSU's average attendance.  I don't care if their excuse is that, "the Jacks aren't that good this year."  

I didn't want to knit-pic your reply, but you've got to admit you kind of goated it out of me!  

Go Jacks!!

[mitchell2006]

Re: Scheduling story

This link is kind of fun to keep up with throughout the season

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/bracketology

Jacks will have played against two teams in this projected bracket
#4 Butler
#7 Northern Iowa

NDSU has played against one
#11 Texas Tech
Obviously just a projection because Marquette will most likely make the tournament, that is if they stop losing to teams that they should beat....NDSU, Providence, Syracuse.

I also agree that NDSU's Home schedule is pretty weak, sure they brought in K-State but it's not like they're exactly a basketball powerhouse. 4 non DI schools is pretty ridiculous.