B12 Unbalanced Schedules (from the Williams & Blum conversation)

[BigJCy]

Big Ten Conference

The official athletics website for Big Ten Conference

bigten.org

"Beginning next season, both the Big Ten Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament fields will expand to 15 teams (from 14), a format that maintains the five-day schedule of the event, provides access to all teams in contention for postseason invitations, and will maintain a double bye for each of the top four seeds while seeds 5-9 will receive a single bye.

Both the men’s and women’s conference schedules will remain at 20 and 18 contests, respectively, for each school. This allows for non-conference scheduling flexibility, is consistent with peer schedule formats and maximizes opportunities for NCAA postseason berths. Single-play home/away locations will rotate annually, and two-play opponents will be determined with consideration for competitive balance, geography and rivalries. "

 

[CyPunch]

Helps to have the visual, I hadn't gotten around to compiling it.

Still seems odd to have odd number. It "rewards" finishing 9th instead of 10th.

I know they would want to avoid omitting too many teams, but if you're gonna shave the field, why not balance it. You still have four slots available on day 1.

I would do it in one of two ways.

Way 1
(Omits only bottom 2 teams)
Wednesday
12 v 13
10 v 15
11 v 14
9 v 16
Thursday
8 v 9/16
5 v 12/13
7 v 10/15
6 v 11/14

Way 2
(Omits bottom 4, day 1 is night session only)
Wednesday
11 v 14
12 v 13
Thursday
8 v 9
5 v 12/13
7 v 10
6 v 11/14

 

[Cyclonsin]

I'm eagerly awaiting the lawsuit from teams #16-18 for not being allowed to compete in an NCAA qualifying event.

They will be allowed to compete in a qualifying event. They had all of conference play to compete and qualify for the B1G tournament.

 

[Die4Cy]

I think if everyone is going to play when we reach 16 teams, they could go with two rounds of byes, 4 for the first round, 2 for the second round. 12 teams play and then reseed for the next round where 8 play. Then 8 play round three, 4 round four, and the championship would be round five. But the top two seeds would only need to play Friday through Sunday. Seeds 3 and 4 would have to win another game. At least it makes the regular season highly relevant.

Conference strength of schedule would determine how ties in record resolve for seeding. An unbalanced schedule should not be a reward in KC if someone has the same record but tougher road to it.

 

[Cardinal2001]

ooof, 5 days in a row, impressive to win from a pig tail

 

[CoachHines3]

sittin here watchin AZ/Colorsdo and BYU/KSU got me thinkin, with Big 12 bringing in Fox next year for basketball along with espn and the additional schools,:” do we see the traditional, Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Saturday schedule go away and maybe we’ll see more games on Thursday/Sunday as well? I’d almost think we’d have to.

 

[isuclone89]

sittin here watchin AZ/Colorsdo and BYU/KSU got me thinkin, with Big 12 bringing in Fox next year for basketball along with espn and the additional schools,:” do we see the traditional, Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Saturday schedule go away and maybe we’ll see more games on Thursday/Sunday as well? I’d almost think we’d have to.

No Sunday per BYU.

 

[alarson]

No Sunday per BYU.

That doesn't mean other teams couldnt end up there

 

[isuclone89]

That doesn't mean other teams couldnt end up there

True, but can't set it up assuming BYU won't make it. What happens if they make the game, switch it to a Monday?

 

[alarson]

True, but can't set it up assuming BYU won't make it. What happens if they make the game, switch it to a Monday?

Seemed to me he was talking about the regular season schedule, not the tournament

 

[isuclone89]

Seemed to me he was talking about the regular season schedule, not the tournament

Ahhh maybe, just reading all the tournament stuff before that.

 

[Clonehomer]

sittin here watchin AZ/Colorsdo and BYU/KSU got me thinkin, with Big 12 bringing in Fox next year for basketball along with espn and the additional schools,:” do we see the traditional, Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Saturday schedule go away and maybe we’ll see more games on Thursday/Sunday as well? I’d almost think we’d have to.

I hope not. Thursday/Sunday reeks of second tier basketball. Plus, it just makes the schedule a bit more difficult with making sure that you don’t have a Thursday/Saturday or a Sunday/Tuewday situation as rest becomes uneven then.

 

[alarson]

I hope not. Thursday/Sunday reeks of second tier basketball. Plus, it just makes the schedule a bit more difficult with making sure that you don’t have a Thursday/Saturday or a Sunday/Tuewday situation as rest becomes uneven then.

we're already there somewhat with Saturday\Monday turnarounds sometimes.

 

[Clonehomer]

we're already there somewhat with Saturday\Monday turnarounds sometimes.

But both teams playing have that turnaround. You could get some teams with a Saturday/Tuesday turnaround against an opponent that played Sunday.

 

[alarson]

But both teams playing have that turnaround. You could get some teams with a Saturday/Tuesday turnaround against an opponent that played Sunday.

I'm sure they could put conditionals into the scheduling to try to balance that out.

When we're at 16 teams playing 20 games or whatever, I assume a computer is doing some of the work to meet all the conditions wanted.

 

[larry]

True, but can't set it up assuming BYU won't make it. What happens if they make the game, switch it to a Monday?

Big12 tournament final is on Saturday night, not a problem for BYU.

 

[CoachHines3]

Ya I meant more regular season during the week. I guess we’re only adding 2 additional games a week (4 in total) so maybe the days won’t change much if we have other broadcast partner, plus espn+ (boo)

 

[1UNI2ISU]

Don't forget the availability of officials plays into this too. Thursdays and Sundays are typically lighter days so you've got a deeper bench of officials. Wouldn't shock me to see some of those.

I wouldn't rule out some Fridays either. FOX is dropping SmackDown to open Friday night up for College football and basketball and the Big Ten won't get all of the basketball spots I wouldn't think.

 

[trevn]

I think we may not go to a schedule like the Big 10 because we don’t own our own network and need to fill it with programming.