TheAsianSensation wrote:
In a 20-game conference schedule, the conference schedule jumps from 126 to 140. Each school has 8 non-con games left to schedule. In order to get from 140 to the same 238 games of inventory, each school needs to average 6 home games in the non-con (6*14=84, 84+140=238). Meaning each school has to sacrifice one home game and one road game compared to previous years. Note that the schools can't go on the road more....because that means the networks who are paying millions of dollars are now losing inventory.
Now which games do you think get sacrificed? Well, Michigan St isn't giving up their neutral site series with Kansas, Duke, UK, etc. Most elite programs aren't giving up their showcase games. Likewise, most teams aren't reducing the number of cupcakes they play. They still need a few easy wins a year (as much as we like to harp on SoS, it's perfectly normal to have 3 or 4 bums a year).
A prime example of this is Iowa.
Their current average opponent is 130 in the RPI - UNI's is 144. Here is Iowa's current OOC this year
Chicago State - 332
Alabama State - 334
Grambling State - 345
UL-Monroe - 290
Wyoming or South Dakota State - 117 or 140
Viginia Tech - 33 (ACC/Big 10 Challenge)
Iowa State - 100
Southern - 265
Drake - 287 - rotates with UNI every other year at a neutral site
Southern Utah - 336
Colorado - 77 (neutral)
Northern Illinois - 246
That's 223 average for the OOC. Taking out the MTE possibility and the ACC/B10 - games they don't schedule and it's 282. There is 1 top 100 team in there, and it's Iowa State which is a yearly game as part of an all sport series between the two schools.
Outside of that game their best gaame is Northern Illinois at 246 and the average is 304.
Go to 20 games and that Big 4 classic with UNI, Drake, Iowa State and Iowa is gone (currently contract expires in 2019 on it anyway so that will stop being a thing). Colorado type games probably go away as well.
The entire Big 10 follows that lead. When it comes to computers they start to push everyone but them out of the computer. Computers are built on trying to connect all teams. By playing less OOC games there are less ways to connect anyone but the conference teams. It becomes a circle of propping themselves up in a computer and a way for other teams to fall behind in a computer as well as with resume building games. Those games go away so you don't get the "We beat Team X from the B10". Those games go away from your RPI.
The move of the ACC and B10, with the Big East, PAC12, SEC and probably B12 not far behind, is nothing other than a way to strangle everyone else out of the NCAA tournament.