Yeek! Those are bad.KenPom has those teams (currently)
Prairie View A&M- 336
FAMU- 343
Eastern Illinois- 340
New Hampshire- 295
I'll also add with VCU's loss to McNeese St last night they dropped from 86 to 107th
Thanks for posting, though!
Yeek! Those are bad.KenPom has those teams (currently)
Prairie View A&M- 336
FAMU- 343
Eastern Illinois- 340
New Hampshire- 295
I'll also add with VCU's loss to McNeese St last night they dropped from 86 to 107th
Yeah, it's weak.Torvik ranks the nonconference opponents like this (check out the column with 311 for UW-GV) --
View attachment 118942
They're all bad. Just terrible. I thought we were going to try and upgrade our usual cupcakes to somebody more competitive (e.g., a MAC or a Sun Belt programs, ones with some players who could play at the P6 level, not these slappies that look like they might as well be a Division II team at this point). Maybe they wanted this season to start off easy or Iowa State simply can't afford to pay those mid-tier teams to come to Hilton for the RPI boost, but there's nothing challenging on this schedule outside of three in Orlando, DePaul, and Iowa.
Then the Big 12 schedule starts and rubs our face in the mud.
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Yeah, it's weak.
I guess if you aren't able to grab opponents that are dependably 100-150 NET range, maybe going low-end is a "might as well" as far as tournament profile. Quad 4 home games are 161 to 363, so you don't get any more "credit" for beating teams in the 160s than you do for 300 and below. Perhaps that's the logic.
I'm fine with it. This team needs a bit of time to hit its stride and gel. We'll obviously need to get some quality wins in the Big 12 with that non-con, but I think they'll get their share.Torvik ranks the nonconference opponents like this (check out the column with 311 for UW-GV) --
View attachment 118942
They're all bad. Just terrible. I thought we were going to try and upgrade our usual cupcakes to somebody more competitive (e.g., a MAC or a Sun Belt programs, ones with some players who could play at the P6 level, not these slappies that look like they might as well be a Division II team at this point). Maybe they wanted this season to start off easy or Iowa State simply can't afford to pay those mid-tier teams to come to Hilton for the RPI boost, but there's nothing challenging on this schedule outside of three in Orlando, DePaul, and Iowa.
Then the Big 12 schedule starts and rubs our face in the mud.
![]()
Torvik ranks the nonconference opponents like this (check out the column with 311 for UW-GV) --
View attachment 118942
They're all bad. Just terrible. I thought we were going to try and upgrade our usual cupcakes to somebody more competitive (e.g., a MAC or a Sun Belt programs, ones with some players who could play at the P6 level, not these slappies that look like they might as well be a Division II team at this point). Maybe they wanted this season to start off easy or Iowa State simply can't afford to pay those mid-tier teams to come to Hilton for the RPI boost, but there's nothing challenging on this schedule outside of three in Orlando, DePaul, and Iowa.
Then the Big 12 schedule starts and rubs our face in the mud.
How far down will it be? UCF is an obvious dreg that we've lacked in recent years, but I feel aside from them, teams 1-13 will have potential to play into the month of March in some form or another.I think things just moved too fast in realignment to figure it out for this year. The conference will be down this year, but then AZ comes in and we will probably hold our own as a league. Going forward I would bet it will look different depending on what pre-con tournaments we get in to. We seem to be fairly attractive in that regard.
A couple decent teams on there would be nice. Playing 8 games against really bad competition is going to get a little boring. I get it for 3-4 games but man that's a brutally boring schedule.Torvik ranks the nonconference opponents like this (check out the column with 311 for UW-GV) --
View attachment 118942
They're all bad. Just terrible. I thought we were going to try and upgrade our usual cupcakes to somebody more competitive (e.g., a MAC or a Sun Belt programs, ones with some players who could play at the P6 level, not these slappies that look like they might as well be a Division II team at this point). Maybe they wanted this season to start off easy or Iowa State simply can't afford to pay those mid-tier teams to come to Hilton for the RPI boost, but there's nothing challenging on this schedule outside of three in Orlando, DePaul, and Iowa.
Then the Big 12 schedule starts and rubs our face in the mud.
![]()
This is a great point. If you aren't getting quad 1 wins then absolutely demolishing really bad competition seems to really boost your profile. So it's better to play that than a team that is meh to bad but might have enough to keep it close or play well and beat you.I think one of the general problems with the current system in college basketball is it's a greater benefit to your analytical profile to beat Green Bay (#306) and Lindenwood (#336) by 40 than it is to beat Missouri State (#132) by 10. Before the Eastern Illinois meltdown Iowa had benefited from this principle in the computers. In TJ's first year, we really hurt ourselves with some relatively close wins against Kennesaw St (11), Alabama St (8), and Jackson St (10).
Are they ever better? None of those teams are very interesting we might as well make them fun instead of close.A couple decent teams on there would be nice. Playing 8 games against really bad competition is going to get a little boring. I get it for 3-4 games but man that's a brutally boring schedule.
Yeah, it's weak.
I guess if you aren't able to grab opponents that are dependably 100-150 NET range, maybe going low-end is a "might as well" as far as tournament profile. Quad 4 home games are 161 to 363, so you don't get any more "credit" for beating teams in the 160s than you do for 300 and below. Perhaps that's the logic.
I like the schedule this way. Quad 4 to boost confidence, tryout different lineups, tournaments and Iowa for legit games. Our Big12 conference schedule is such a beast that there’s no way our SoS is gonna be an issue.
There’s no reason to intentionally try for a top 25 sos which is what a big 12 schedule easily is with any kind of non conf difficulty.
Maybe Kansas is the only program where it makes sense to pile an elite non conf schedule on top of the best conf schedule. Perhaps Baylor a few of those years but not all of them.
Arizona has a legit non conf schedule but their Pac sos will likely be lower than big 12.
How far down will it be? UCF is an obvious dreg that we've lacked in recent years, but I feel aside from them, teams 1-13 will have potential to play into the month of March in some form or another.
Torvik ranks the nonconference opponents like this (check out the column with 311 for UW-GV) --
View attachment 118942
They're all bad. Just terrible. I thought we were going to try and upgrade our usual cupcakes to somebody more competitive (e.g., a MAC or a Sun Belt programs, ones with some players who could play at the P6 level, not these slappies that look like they might as well be a Division II team at this point). Maybe they wanted this season to start off easy or Iowa State simply can't afford to pay those mid-tier teams to come to Hilton for the RPI boost, but there's nothing challenging on this schedule outside of three in Orlando, DePaul, and Iowa.
Then the Big 12 schedule starts and rubs our face in the mud.
![]()
I get what you are saying, but that's going to be really, really hard on all those little schools that rely on their early season road games to fund their athletic programs.One of the things I think should change in CBB is to shrink the division 1 size. Too many games are played against completely mismatched opponents.
Globally undisputed makes me laugh. I feel like most Iowa fans I encounter refuse to acknowledge the Big 12 being the best as fact.We could still end up the top conference imo, but the days of being WAY above everyone else and globally undisputed pretty much every year is going to go away.
If you shrank DI to the FBS the Big East, MW, A10, Valley and WCC you'd improve the product instantly and make the regular season actually mean something.One of the things I think should change in CBB is to shrink the division 1 size. Too many games are played against completely mismatched opponents.