Home and Home with Gonzaga

[blackoutpony]

I tweeted to Hart we needed to ignore the big name schools who have no interest in home-and-homes with us and go after the Gonzaga, Wichita St, VCU, UMass schools. Hope we get a couple of more!

Indiana, Arkansas and NC State aren't big name schools?

[ojaipony]

I don't know - here's a novel thought: BEAT THE FREAKIN' TEAMS ON YOUR SCHEDULE regardless of who they are! We beat USF/Temple and Houston and we are in the tourney. The low SOS OOC was just some weakness they found for an excuse (EVERY team in the country has a weakness in their schedule!). If we are that good, then we should sweep all these lesser schools in the bottom half of our conference. I'm happy with Indy, Gonzaga, NC State, and Arky. I wish we had one more good team that was a true rival (other than Houston . . . TCU doesn't count because they suck . . . maybe it should be Baylor . . . home and home would be fun or neutral, whatever). That's all I would add/change. Then, just go out and DOMINATE!

Funny how WINNING clears everything up.

Novel concept, I know.

[MFFL02]

I tweeted to Hart we needed to ignore the big name schools who have no interest in home-and-homes with us and go after the Gonzaga, Wichita St, VCU, UMass schools. Hope we get a couple of more!

Indiana, Arkansas and NC State aren't big name schools?

RPI says no.

[RGV Pony]

Bigger name than utpa et al. We don't need to upgrade to an acc sched. Just go from garbage to meh and we are lightyears ahead rpi wise

[SMU 86]

I tweeted to Hart we needed to ignore the big name schools who have no interest in home-and-homes with us and go after the Gonzaga, Wichita St, VCU, UMass schools. Hope we get a couple of more!

Indiana, Arkansas and NC State aren't big name schools?

Yes, they are big name schools regardless of their RPI.

[LA_Mustang]

Indiana and NC State will play at Moody in 2015, right?

[Tx_Mustang10]

I wish we had one more good team that was a true rival (other than Houston . . . TCU doesn't count because they suck . . . maybe it should be Baylor . . . home and home would be fun or neutral, whatever).

Baylor would be very cool - I'd be very anxious to play the team down I-35. But I also liked NY Pony's idea to play Stephen F. Austin, provided they are expected to have another good season (I think they graduate two seniors, though).

[Big12Mustang]

ECU and Tulane are worse than Rutgers RPI wise. 216 and 223 versus 192.

Tulsa came in at 73, so they're a decent add, but the bottom of the conference just got ever worse than it was before while the top got worse with Louisville leaving.

We need to add AT LEAST two other solid OOC opponents. Don't get football syndrome here guys. We shouldn't be afraid to play good teams anymore, but should instead embrace it. Now do I want the schedule Kansas had last year? No, but it needs to be solid. No more Hofstras

Good point, we're going to need to compensate for a weakened AAC slate. 12 teams in conference with only 18 conference games means we might not play each of the brand teams twice (UConn, Memphis, Cincy).

I hope we don't have to play Tulane or ECU twice. I still don't see the benefit of adding Tulane and ECU into the conference. Tulsa I could be ok with and keep it a 10 team conference like Big 12.

[OhioBrownFan]

I tweeted to Hart we needed to ignore the big name schools who have no interest in home-and-homes with us and go after the Gonzaga, Wichita St, VCU, UMass schools. Hope we get a couple of more!

Indiana, Arkansas and NC State aren't big name schools?

RPI says no.

RPI will say yes on all 3. Anyone inside the Top 100 is a school that has a prayer at the NCAA tourney. And Indiana will be solid, Arkansas should be better. Don't know a whole lot about Gotfried's group coming back. But yes, they're all big name teams and don't be surprised to lose 2/3. They're going to be good.

[Mustangs35SMU]

Love this. Absolutely love it.

[MFFL02]

I tweeted to Hart we needed to ignore the big name schools who have no interest in home-and-homes with us and go after the Gonzaga, Wichita St, VCU, UMass schools. Hope we get a couple of more!

Indiana, Arkansas and NC State aren't big name schools?

Yes, they are big name schools regardless of their RPI.

Big names aren't relevant to the selection committee. RPI is relevant. I meant big names that have solid RPIs. We need to schedule more OOC games against top 50 RPI teams.

[CoxMustangFan]

In my opinion, there are three scheduling objectives: 1) the Committee, 2) our fans, and 3) the national fan view/media. Playing the likes of Indiana and NC State will help more with groups 2 and 3, than 1 (if in fact they end up with weak RPI's).

As far as appeasing the Committee, again, it's not the top five teams that need to be improved as much as it is the bottom 10. At this point SMU can't do anything about the fact that half the conference blows, but we can do something about playing road kill OOC teams like Tx State, ARPB, SHSU, McNeese, UCI, et al. We can play the top five RPI teams and our record will still be discredited if we play a bunch of dog barf teams (unless we win every game, of course).

Everyone keeps arguing over these teams as if there's a single objective. Raise the OVERALL RPI by a healthy margin, create additional fan support/interest, and earn national respect. 1-2-3.

[OhioBrownFan]

Why are people acting like those teams had weak RPIs? Every one of them were inside the Top 100 and would be looked at very favorably by the committee.

[ponyboy]

Indiana 99
Arkansas 68
NC State 54

[ponyinNC]

Why are people acting like those teams had weak RPIs? Every one of them were inside the Top 100 and would be looked at very favorably by the committee.

agreed.