Baseball Scheduling Philosophy?

2,520 Views | 15 Replies | Last: 7 yr ago by 91AggieLawyer
MaroonMack
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While we wait on football to begin, how about an some offseason baseball questions?

  • How do you feel about RC's scheduling philosophy?
  • Without mentioning anything about TU, what would you change about how the non-conference schedule plays out, with regard to balancing RPI needs and maximizing value for the fans?

Curious what the board thinks.
twk
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I think we're doing fine. From a fan's perspective, everyone would like to see a bunch of marquee matchups, but the reality of the situation is that if you play one marquee home and home series every year (home one year, road the next), that's about all you can ask for up against an SEC schedule (10 weeks with no open dates--rather more taxing than what some other leagues have).
Lance Uppercut
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I think the conclusion we came to earlier in the year was that playing Hartford or Yale is fine, but having both on the schedule is a bit much. Pepperdine is historically a decent to good program, and the same with Fresno State (Fresno State ended up being an RPI boost this season).

We'll have the Minute Maid tournament this season, so that will take care of scheduling decent competition for one weekend.

The Aggies get plenty of "marquee" matches via SEC play, so making your non-conference too brutal isn't necessarily helpful. Total number of wins is something the committee looks at in terms of awarding host sites at the end of the year.

I would have been 100% behind this year's schedule if Hartford/Yale had been replaced with a team more likely to be a Top 100 RPI team.

As for Tuesdays, scheduling is based on geography. We get Prairie View, Houston, Rice, Texas Southern, Dallas Baptist, Houston Baptist, McNeese, Sam, SFA, Texas State etc. on a yearly basis because those are driving distance baseball games. We were recently playing TCU as well, and now we have Texas on the schedule.

One team I'm surprised hasn't been around as much recently is Lamar. They're about a 3 hour bus trip away, but longer trips haven't kept McNeese and Northwestern State from making continued appearances.
twk
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I think Lamar is holding out for home and home, as we used to do, but I don't think that is in the cards. It wouldn't hurt us to play an occasional Tuesday game on the road from an RPI standpoint, but it's just easier on the players to keep those games at Olsen.
TexasRebel
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Just win them all!!

If we give up a baserunner next season it'll be a disappointment.
TXAggie2011
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We could use some stiffening up of the schedule. It worked out OK this year because we had a particularly brutal cross-over schedule against teams in the East but we won't always be so fortunate.

We played Florida (1), South Carolina (8), and Vanderbilt (9). Certainly when we don't have that cross-over schedule, we could use a tougher non-conference schedule.

Our kind of schedule puts us on a bit of the back foot going into conference play. Makes the margin of error smaller.

We had 1 non-conference game against a top-25 team. That was Rice at 24.
We had 3 non-conference games against top-50 teams. Rice, Sam Houston State (34) and Northwestern State (46).

Florida had 6 top-13 non-conference games and the other national seeds mostly had similar schedules with more strong non-conference games.

And ultimately, the NCAA has shown a strong propensity over the years of using RPI over conference finish to decide which SEC teams receive national seeds and which do not. And our non-conference schedule is about half of our overall schedule...and again, when we don't schedule better, we're putting ourselves at a disadvantage without even playing a game.

Non-Conference Opponent's Strength of Schedule (50% of RPI)
Georgia: 13
Florida: 23
Ole Miss: 49
LSU: 51
Auburn: 104
South Carolina: 145
Kentucky: 147
Vanderbilt: 168
Texas A&M: 186
Tennessee: 202
Mississippi State: 206
Alabama: 228
Missouri: 240
Arkansas: 261


Non-Conference Opponent's Opponent's Strength of Schedule (25% of RPI)
Florida: 30
Georgia: 72
Vanderbilt: 79
South Carolina: 81
Alabama: 83
Ole Miss: 89
Texas A&M: 103
Mississippi State: 106
Arkansas: 109
LSU: 176
Kentucky: 177
Tennessee: 195
Auburn: 242
Missouri: 249
TXAggie2011
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AG

quote:
I think we're doing fine. From a fan's perspective, everyone would like to see a bunch of marquee matchups, but the reality of the situation is that if you play one marquee home and home series every year (home one year, road the next), that's about all you can ask for up against an SEC schedule (10 weeks with no open dates--rather more taxing than what some other leagues have).
When we play the best 4 programs the east SEC has to offer, yeah, it works. But we have to be mindful we won't always have that luxury.

We played the #1, #8, #9, and #37 RPIs in our cross-over series.

We avoided the #67, #82, and #126 RPIs in our cross-over series.
TXAggie2011
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Minute Maid tournament will help.

Getting Rice for more games seems the natural choice for schedule improvement.

But engaging TCU and DBU on a more regular basis would be big.

I really enjoyed playing the Longhorns and I hope that continues. They'll probably, normally be a good non-conference opponent.


We just haven't regularly been playing the best non-conference squads in our region, which is something you see on both coasts that we just haven't adopted.
ScoutBanderaAg956
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How does scheduling affect our ability to finish when it really counts - Super Regionals!
TXAggie2011
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quote:
How does scheduling affect our ability to finish when it really counts - Super Regionals!
TCU had a non-conference opponent's SoS (50%) of 64 and opponent's opponent's SoS (25%) of 18.

Coastal Carolina was at 7 and 2.
Arizona was at 57 and 53. They actually played a 3 game series at Rice.

Mustang1
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Saw that we are facing TCU at MMP on March 3rd at 7pm.
ensign_beedrill
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From a purely selfish perspective, I'd like to see a home and home series with CCU. I really like them and want to get out to visit their park!
Matsui
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It makes no difference.
Basketball and Chain
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quote:
Saw that we are facing TCU at MMP on March 3rd at 7pm.

Full schedule of the tournament: http://houston.astros.mlb.com/hou/ticketing/college_classic.jsp
Captain Pablo
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quote:
I think Lamar is holding out for home and home, as we used to do, but I don't think that is in the cards. It wouldn't hurt us to play an occasional Tuesday game on the road from an RPI standpoint, but it's just easier on the players to keep those games at Olsen.


When A&M goes to Beaumont, the game usually draws about 4000 people


People are standing all over the place
AgEng06
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quote:
quote:
Saw that we are facing TCU at MMP on March 3rd at 7pm.

Full schedule of the tournament: http://houston.astros.mlb.com/hou/ticketing/college_classic.jsp
Friday, March. 3, 2017

  • 12:05 pm Ole Miss at Baylor
  • 3:35 pm Texas Tech at Texas A&M
  • 7:05 pm TCU at LSU

Saturday, March 4, 2017

  • 12:05 pm Texas Tech at Ole Miss
  • 3:35 pm Baylor at LSU
  • 7:05 pm Texas A&M at TCU

Sunday, March 5, 2017

  • 11:05 am LSU at Texas Tech
  • 2:35 pm TCU at Ole Miss
  • 6:05 pm Texas A&M at Baylor

91AggieLawyer
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I'd like to see us play more Cal, Florida and AZ teams. Not necessarily the ones in the ACC or Pac whatever it is this week, but we'll see some pitchers and hitters who better mimic the SEC players than those on northern teams.
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