Future Schedules

[AttyAlum]

It's hilarious to me how so many are becoming that which we once despised (*ahem* Atty Alum *cough cough*).

I assume you're all willing to take back every insulting comment you made to the big conference teams when we were in the MVC and couldn't get any prominent games scheduled?

Lol. Fans. All the same.

If you are going to accuse me of something, provide a prior post as an example. Otherwise, STFU and stop making things up.

(You won't find any such quote, of course, because I never said what you are accusing me of...you obviously have me confused with someone else. Acknowledge it and move on.)

[vivid_dude]

It's hilarious to me how so many are becoming that which we once despised (*ahem* Atty Alum *cough cough*).

I assume you're all willing to take back every insulting comment you made to the big conference teams when we were in the MVC and couldn't get any prominent games scheduled?

Lol. Fans. All the same.

If you are going to accuse me of something, provide a prior post as an example. Otherwise, STFU and stop making things up.

(You won't find any such quote, of course, because I never said what you are accusing me of...you obviously have me confused with someone else. Acknowledge it and move on.)

I'd be happy to provide an explanation. And keep in mind, this goes back several years. Even to the old message board.

Back when we were in the MVC, there was not a more reasoned, thoughtful, dare-I-say awesome defender of the Bluejays and our conference than you. That's no joke and is absolutely a compliment. When Husker fans or other "big conference fans" came and bashed our little school or little conference, there was no one better at putting them in their place. Whenever a Jay Bilas or other national pundit shortchanged the Jays because of our SOS or conference, you (along with RealHoops) were the best at setting forth how and why they were misguided. For what it's worth, I envied how much better you could articulate it than I could.

It was the #1 thing I associated with you, as random message board poster guy. Monica Lewinsky had the blue dress. Flavor Flav had the over-sized clock. AttyAlum could defend the hell out of CU against the big conference bias.

Now that we are in one of those bigger conferences - the ones that you were so good at shredding - you've done a complete 180. You are what you used to be critical of. Your reasoned, thoughtful, dare-I-say awesome defending of CU two years ago has been seemingly abandoned for the exact opposite position on the debate. Your bashing of Wichita last year, when they were undefeated, would have never happened if we were in the same conference as them. The argument shouldn't change, even if the circumstances have. I find that disingenuous, but not the end of the world. You're not alone.

So, I guess that's why I take the shots. It's nothing personal. It's just kinda amazing to me how everyone has forgotten so quickly, led by the guy who was the Atticus Finch of the debate so recently. Now, it's more like My Cousin Vinny. Don't take it personally. Just something I noticed. Now that it's been explained, I'll let it go (if I'm capable...so probably not).

I think the off-season is here.

[FreddyMac]

I'd love to see a WSU, Bradley, SIU or Illinois State on the schedule but maybe five years down the road. We've been playing those teams 2-3 times a year for decades so right now I don't really have any interest in seeing them again. We got the series with Oklahoma so we're obviously able to expand our scheduling horizons a bit. I don't care to use up one of those slots against a team I've seen countless times in my lifetime. Like I said though, once we've been away for a while it might be kind of fun to see a familiar name on the schedule from time to time.

[cu8493]

I say no, but nothing to do with RPI. We have scoreboard on them for all time. I can't imagine a more perfect ending to our relationship with WSU than senior night 2013. If we play them again, win or lose, that is no longer the last time we played. Sure, we may get paired with them at some point down the road in post season or a early season tournament, but why push it?

Actually, I don't see any issue with playing UNI/WSU or whatever other MVC team does well. A major program can withstand a bad loss. Many if not most of the major conference teams in the tournament have suffered one or two bad loss at some point in the season. For the most part, as long as we finish .500 or above and top 5 or 6 in the conference, then most years we are going to get in whether we dropped a game to an MVC team. If we win, then an MVC game is not going to be any worse than a win to one of the low major teams on our schedule.

The biggest issue is that we need to have a certain number of home games. In the MVC, we could only get home only games with low major teams. We could get home and homes with fellow mid-major programs at best. We could never get a home game out of a high major program - except the one down the road. Now, we have the chance of getting Oklahoma and other high major programs to play here. So, we can up the ante, and the teams that we used to accept for home and home series are not so attractive when you have a realistic chance of using your home and home games for P5 teams. So, I am not opposed to playing MVC teams, I still think we should have room for maybe one home and home with a high mid-major each year (MVC or similar level) but the chance of agreeing to a home and home with more than that is much diminished for economic reasons, not RPI reasons - at least in my opinion. Also, those should be the last games scheduled as the first effort should always be to get a couple of home and home series with P5 teams now that we have the BE clout behind us.

[HandDownManDown]

Sure it should change. Had we been in the Valley I would have supported Wichita because their success would have benefited CU. Now it doesn't. This is a divorce and they are just some other team - and a team whose program i respect but whose fans I would love nothing more than to watch fry.

So no bone will be thrown regardless of past arguments. That the argument is completely valid in the macro sense doesn't mean we have to hew to it on an individual level.

So what if its hypocritical? It is totally consistent in one sense: we are the same as every other program when it is confronted with a fluid situation, namely we take the legal angle that will help us compete the best. Well, I'm for always doing what's best for us; I'll leave the windmill tilting to someone else.

[vivid_dude]

That the argument is completely valid in the macro sense doesn't mean we have to hew to it on an individual level.

This is where I disagree with you. If you're being genuine and logical, your position on such things should not change. But I respect your honestly in saying you don't give a crap if you're hypocritical.

To be clear, I'm not advocating for scheduling WSU or Drake or other mid-majors. It'd be just as disadvantageous to us, as it would have been to Kansas or Indiana or Michigan scheduling Creighton a few years ago. I've always maintained that position, and just chalked it up as one of the bummers of being in the MVC. The thing is, many, many others vehemently (and effectively) had a counter-position, but have now done the about face.

Oh well. There could be worse things.

And I fully acknowledge the absurdity of this "argument." Just an observation. Not a huge deal.

[Cp Jay 07]

Vivid I'll bite here. I was one of those defenders of the MVC for years and thought it didn't get enough respect and all that good stuff but now after two years of watching some of the best basketball we have ever seen in a league (and mind you our first year was a "down" year for the league) I have to change my opinion. We have to play in one of the toughest leagues in America, why should we give them a home game, it would be their super bowl and it would rank right between the SHU and DePaul games for us (Call me Doc IDGAF)

We don't need to go on the road to face UNI or Wichita in their glorified High school gyms when we go to Nova, GT, Providence, Xavier, St. Johns, Marquette and Butler already. Tough enough to win on the road with that schedule so why make it even more difficult for minimal reward?

One in Omaha, one in Des Moines for UNI would be good, and KC for WSU. Hell I'll even be generous and say lets go play in Wichita but at the new 15,000 seat arena down there.

[section202jay]

I want to see us schedule a close, respectable opponent for a home-home series. A game where we could actually travel to. A series with say Missouri, Wyoming, Colorado State, K-State or something.

[WBR Tom]

First off, I guess the guy that runs the @ShockerHoops Twitter account isn't a fan of the direction this thread is going; he had quite a sarcastic multi-tweet response to it. On the plus side, it's driving lots of additional lurker traffic to the board from Wichita fans that wouldn't normally come here (and display ads based on a CPM model don't distinguish traffic types, so thanks!)

Second, I think adding a couple of Valley schools -- including Wichita State -- back onto the schedule occasionally is a good thing, but not for another 5-10 years. Let the emotions on both sides die down before playing them, especially in a true road game where a student section and crowd that has vivid memories of the Bluejays' MVC days would be out for blood (figuratively, not literally, although there were some fans in Carbondale back in the mid-2000s that might have literally wanted blood given the things that came out of their mouths). I'd like to see us take the Tulsa approach, where they waited a few years after bolting from the MVC to play old conference rivals again. Having a drivable road game maybe three out of every five years in the non-conference would be fun. Those kind of road games don't exist in the Big East, which is perhaps the only drawback to the move.

That said, I think it'll be even longer than that before we see any MVC teams on the schedule except in a MTE scenario.

[FreddyMac]

Actually, I don't see any issue with playing UNI/WSU or whatever other MVC team does well. A major program can withstand a bad loss. Many if not most of the major conference teams in the tournament have suffered one or two bad loss at some point in the season. For the most part, as long as we finish .500 or above and top 5 or 6 in the conference, then most years we are going to get in whether we dropped a game to an MVC team. If we win, then an MVC game is not going to be any worse than a win to one of the low major teams on our schedule.

It's pretty silly to suggest that losing to an MVC team is going to automatically be considered a bad loss. We knocked off major conference teams for years and when it came down to tournament selection time I never saw us listed as a bad loss on a resume and I never heard one of the analysts ever call it a bad loss. The fortunate thing is that unlike in football you don't have to contract these games 10 years in advance so you can have a pretty good idea if the team is going to be good or not when you actually play the game.