by Eye of the Jay » Thu Jun 01, 2023 12:46 pm
With UNLV game announced here are our opponents and projected Bart Torvik rankings (updated after yesterday's decisions w/ us at 4th):
Alabama (H) #17
Iowa (H) #43
Nebraska (A) #45
Oklahoma St. (A) #58
2 of 3 in KC: Colorado St. (N) #64 Loyola (N) #65 or Boston College (N) #94
UNLV (N/A) #67
Texas Southern #197 (best of the SWAC)
So, theoretically we could end up playing 7 of our 8 current members as NCAAT quality based purely on these rankings. I know, I know chances are very high that it could just be 2 or 3 of them that make it. I think it's a great mix of semi-decent Top 100 teams that give the Jays a chance to grow while still challenging them and not killing their NET. I also like that our top 2 opponents are at home and the home crowd gets some actual good competition in the non-con to watch again.
For the remaining 3 games, I'd like to see some Big West school (thinking UC Davis, Hawaii or UC San Diego maybe?), a Summit league opponent (Oral Roberts, Denver maybe?) and I know it's a pipe dream but an MVC opponent that maybe we could work out a Home-neutral site game (like UNI here then in Des Moines next year) or a bottom-feeder MVC opponent (like Evansville, Valpo, Ill-Chicago) that could just be a buy game.