dutchcountry7

Along similar discussion... are we still banned from playing OOC games in North Carolina?

Looks like Bona already found a home.  https://twitter.com/MattNorlander/status/1313179017948921858

Have to think that we have one but just aren't ready to announce yet.  I suspect there will be a lot more teams wanting to get into events than there are slots this year.

Anyone notice how so many of our coaches have been packaged deals with recruits?

We sure have been paying a lot of coaches to bring players with them to Buffalo...

4 hours ago, promotherobot said:

Why shouldn't C-USA, Sun Belt, Mountain West and MAC create an alliance? They can set a rotation of OOC games each year, and could even hold a playoff between th 4 conference champs. You'd lose the big payday games you get from the big elite schools but maybe you make it back creating compelling TV events like a mid-major playoff that benefits all the schools?

They should play each other but they don't have the budget to do conference challenges

The issue is that most of those conferences only have between one and three teams that are going to benefit from the games.

Yes, Buffalo playing MTSU would be big.  But does it make sense for San Jose State and Eastern Michigan to play?  Neither team is getting an at-large.  It is expensive to fly.

That's why I was pushing for Oats to sign home/home deals with programs like Buffalo.  Good teams year after year that are always playing for their conference title.  But he wouldn't sign any deal that had Buffalo playing the first game in the series on the road.  We now know that is because he wasn't going to be around for the home game in the deal.

Edit:

And the mini tournament wouldn't work.  You have a limited number of games to play.  You would have to have every team schedule two fewer games so that they could play in a two game tournament.  But only four teams would play in the tournament.  So everyone gives up games and even less home games.  Not going to happen.

No one is tuning in to watch that tournament when it is the week of big rivalry games in major conferences.

3 hours ago, 121Merrimac said:

An actual former teammate could do this just as easily as a fake account.  It surprised me to hear that the NCAA ever consider student comments in their evaluations. 

Yes, they could.

But we should hold ourselves to a higher standard (and we did).

8 hours ago, Erie County said:

For the top 10-15 as stated, but once again, for the rest, it doesn't matter.

Scheduling matters for P5 and the bubble teams. 

Otherwise I'd like the conference scheduling to be as even as possible. 

Most importantly, the comment was in reference do this conference. Why does it even matter for the MAC? Let me know when there is at-large team.

This is the sat truth.

The MAC isn't a major conference and even in the rare occasions when there is an at-large contender it isn't a multi-bid league.  It doesn't really matter what OOC games because there aren't a handful of at-large contenders in conference on any given year.  We aren't the American, A10, MWC, or even the Southern Conference or CUSA.

Playing a fully balanced schedule is the best thing for the conference and we need better home games if students and fans are going to care. 

I wish him the best.  I want people to learn from their mistakes and get in the right track.  But he was a cheater and committed fraud.  
 

Let’s not act like it was a noble act. 
 

Maybe he will grow up.  He is getting another chance. Hope he learned his lesson and starts following rules. 

15 hours ago, 961819 said:

I’m happy for him, despite it all he was young and was just trying to be the best he could be for the program. 

SMU football boosters in the 80s... trying to be the best they could be for the program.

Dave Bliss at Baylor... trying to be the best he could be for the program.

Nevin Shapiro at Miami... trying to be the best he could be for the program.

UNC Afro-American department... trying to be the best they could be for the program.

2 hours ago, BullBoy said:

I know it doesn't sound very exciting, but I could see a situation where we might play St. Bomaventure and Canisius twice this year home and away.  I think it helps a lot from a money standpoint and it gets each team games.  I know its not super attractive, but it might need to happen for one year.

I don’t see what that wouldn’t be appealing most years.  
 

It would be great to play those two twice a year—especially if we could play early in the year and then late in the year when MAC games typically happen. 
 

1 minute ago, BrooklynBull said:

If you are counting the 3 out of conference games as the games in the Paradise Jam, they do not count as three games.  I believe they only count as two games for scheduling purposes.  Also my guess is the chance of UB going to St. Thomas is slim to none.  I do not see any schools leaving the contiguous 48 states for any similar events.

Teams can play 31 games with three coming in the tournament.  
 

there is no way we don’t schedule Bonas. We need that game. Can’t put off getting them at home one more year and there is no guarantee we meet them in the tournament.  
 

The tournament might not be played in STVI but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.  In 2017 the hurricane made it so it couldn’t be played and it was moved to Liberty university who was one of the teams in the tournament and offered to host.  
 

With Bonas joining us there are two local teams in the tournament so maybe we can get to host it or some local arena will get to host it since between the two of us we could sell some tickets.  Could work out better for us. 

2 hours ago, DooleyBull06 said:

Not starting an argument here but the reality is, even before coronavirus, the power conferences were moving to 20+ conference games. Add in conference vs conference battles like the ACC/Big Ten challenge, and non conference tournaments like the Maui invitational, the writing was on the wall. As a result of this, the number of non conference games for mid majors was dwindling. So yes, while I agree, we want variety and more importantly chances to boost our resume, the reality is power conferences don’t want that for mid majors. They want more opportunities for their teams to make the big dance. So for us, I rather play the worst team in the MAC West a second time than have Nazareth on our schedule. The MAC has always been playing catch up, I’ve said for a few years now that they should’ve engaged in a conference v conference battle. But nope. Now they are trying to be forward thinking. In doing so I still think they got it wrong. It should be a full round robin. But hey at least they are doing something and not getting completely left behind in the dust of coronavirus and major conference greed.

I think I saw mention that Ohio State has six games to schedule this year because all the others were scheduled for them in the different ways you mentioned. 
 

very few games out there to be had.  Which is why we play Nazareth and other no name teams. 
 

the reality is that if any MAC team can get a big game against a big name school or into a top tournament then all the other schools in the Mac would be happy to move the schedule around to accommodate those rare games. 
 

But instead of playing a few more MaC games we are all trying to fill our schedules and have no decent teams to play. 

Playing two more MAC games would have made the MAC one of only three conferences with complete double round robins.

It still would leave open slots for nine games OOC.

I agree with others that said they should just play 22 conference games.

Any word on who we are playing?

Any big games?

Will we play Canisius and Niagara?

Will we play St. Bona even though we could see them twice since they are in the tournament with us?

4 hours ago, mikescherrer8 said:

So we are on probation until April 2021, Does that mean we are not eligible for the Mac and ncaa tournament? 

There is no post season ban.  
 

They found the athletic department identified the issue and responded appropriately.  
 

One bad actor which was removed.  

Anyone who would try to connect this to the coaching staff clearly has an agenda.  
 

The task of getting the waiver documentation was delegated to an assistant and the assistant wasn’t getting what he needed.  Rather than speaking up, he didn’t want to fail at the task and look like he couldn’t do his job.  So he forged the documents and submissions.  
 

This was a young kid who felt he had a big break to land a good job and didn’t want to ask for help because he was afraid it would seem like he was in over his head.  

3 hours ago, ChubbyHubby said:

Is it just basketball that's on probation, and has to forego recruiting for 5 days in the fall, or all UB sports?  I didn't find that clear in the ruling.

Just men’s basketball. 

4 hours ago, UBlearns said:

I've read through both UB's story and the actual legal release, I'm a little confused.  Jenkins was trying to get a recruit's (presumably Mballa) transfer waiver through.  Jenkins then wrote a letter to the NCAA, from the perspective of the recruit's former teammate (presumably a former Texas Tech player who was also transferring) in support of Mballa's transfer waiver, and forged the former Texas Tech player's signature on the letter.  Then the letter was sent to the NCAA with the rest of the info for the transfer waiver?

Perhaps I don't know enough about the transfer waiver process, but I thought it was mostly contingent on the school from which the player is transferring (i.e. Texas Tech), their coaching staff and athletics administration.  But apparently teams also submit essentially letters of recommendation from the player's teammates?  Am I understanding this right?

The claim was that he was pushed out of the program by the staff and made sure that he wouldn’t feel welcomed back (harassed and abused you might say) to ensure they could give his scholarship to a more worthy player.  
 

So they needed evidence that his leaving TT wasn’t simply a typical transfer if he wanted to get a waiver.  

6 hours ago, rma said:

Somebody who's in their young 20's getting paid a shit ton of money without a single concern for their future career prospects.

Someone who believes the nonsense that “everyone is cheating in college basketball” is who.  

Well, even more buy games are vanishing.
 

https://mobile.twitter.com/JonRothstein/status/1251225198004764674

P5 teams are now asking other P5 teams to buy them to help balance their budgets. 

6 minutes ago, UB92 said:

Help me out, then.  Explain how such a rule would be voted on and who would vote (this is basketball).  Would all Div 1 teams have a vote?  Would it be based on conferences having one vote?  Or would this just be something the NCAA decides?  If the latter, then the major conferences would have an undue influence (obviously).  

 

It depends on how it was proposed and how the legislation was pushed.

If it was just proposed as a change to only the men's basketball championship, then it would go through the Men's Basketball Championship committee.  (Not favorable with the current membership).  http://web1.ncaa.org/committees/committees_roster.jsp?CommitteeName=1MBBOVERSIGH

If it was pushed as a broad legislative change that applied to basketball, it would go through the Division-I Council which is represented by all conference (and some other slots).  http://web1.ncaa.org/committees/committees_roster.jsp?CommitteeName=1COUNCIL

The power the Basketball Committee has is delegated by the Division-I council and can be recalled.

Also, the power the Division-I council has comes from the Member School Presidents and they can hold a meeting and vote to override the decisions of the council or to restructure the NCAA and the legislation (which gives much more power to mid-majors).

17 minutes ago, UB05 said:

I like the idea of playing every team in our conference twice, right now it feels wrong to have a few random teams you only play once and it wreaks havoc on tiebreakers and standings. Just end the West and East divisions. I also don’t care if we don’t play Niagara or Canisius every year, though I will be upset if we can’t play Bona every year because beating them has become one of my favorite traditions 

At least it would let us cut the Nazareth game.  I don't really care about playing Niagara or Canisius but Bonas is by far the biggest game every year at Alumni.  That game MUST stay on the schedule. 

I don't think this is going to be as bad as people make it out to be.  We will stop playing teams like Army and Saint Francis.  I am okay with that.

On ‎4‎/‎15‎/‎2020 at 5:36 PM, 121Merrimac said:

I think the half of the MAC that play 4ish non D1 games every year will be in real trouble...

I disagree.

Who do you think is behind this push?

Eastern Michigan played four non-D1 teams last year.  This was their OOC schedule last year.

• Vermont
• at Oakland
• Siena Heights
• at Michigan State $$
• Marygrove
• Madonna
• at Nebraska-Omaha
• at Penn State $$
• Rochester College
• Louisville $$
• at Coppin State
• Detroit
• North Florida

With the change in the schedule to 22 MAC games, I envision these games being changed to something like this:

• Vermont MIAMI-OH
• at Oakland
• Siena Heights
• at Michigan State $$
• Marygrove
• Madonna
• at Nebraska-Omaha OHIO
• at Penn State $$
• Rochester College
• Louisville $$
• at Coppin State AKRON
• Detroit
• North Florida BOWLING GREEN

EMU is much better off with the new schedule.

Edit:  I just realized I was looking at the 2016 schedules.  Anyways, for 2015-16 this would be the case.

On ‎4‎/‎15‎/‎2020 at 9:45 PM, UB92 said:

Who ever was talking about this above .500 rule was not in a major conference.  Why would they want it?  Expanding the conference season makes it more of haves vs have-nots and the bubble will be all sub-500 teams from the major conferences.  But that is the way the "haves" want it, of course.  

At some point, we have to get out of the MAC if we want to be part of the "haves".  

The rule can be voted in by the "have nots" without the "haves" being able to stop it.  Some sports already have the rule.  (See how Arkansas Tennis scheduled Tennessee State SIX TIMES in ONE DAY to get a winner record) https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/2018/04/24/why-tennessee-state-womens-tennis-played-arkansas-six-times-sec/544909002/

This seems to be something that is happening.

There really isn't any stopping it.  The only question is when it happens.

Buy games are paying less and less because there are so many low budget mid-major teams like us desperate for a paycheck while also wanting to play a big name program.

The A10 is looking into adding two games.  I heard that St. Bona is likely to have to drop one of their Big four games.  And it looks like we would need to drop Big four games to be able to play 22 conference games.  What game do you think gets dropped?

Akron played in two tournaments last year to save on travel.

Bowling Green played in two tournaments last year to save on travel and played two non-D1 games.

Kent State played two non-D1 games last year.

Ohio played two non-D1 games last year.

Miami played two non-D1 games last year.

Central Michigan played three non-D1 games last year.

Western Michigan played two non-D1 games last year.

Eastern Michigan played four non-D1 games last year.

The MAC schools are behind this.  They struggle to get games and want to build rivalries.  They are sick of paying to travel to play non-name D1 teams that no one in their region cares about.  They don't want to have to fill a schedule with non-D1 games.

Teams will still get wins in conference.  The worst team in the MAC typically has six conference wins.  Add in four more games and they likely have seven conference wins.  That is another win over a peer and more competitive games. 

This should be expected.  He always picks the safe bet for the mid-major auto bids.  A team that is regularly at the top and returns a lot of their players. 

Buffalo is always the safe bet in the MAC.