Baseball Non-Conference Opponent Wish List

4,858 Views | 118 Replies | Last: 6 yr ago by W
Capt. America
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I've been seeing a lot of folks complaining about our weak non-conference schedule and lower RPI as a result. Who would you guys like to see in addition to our regular schedule and who do we nix?

I almost immediately think of ULaLa and McNeese for Tuesday games and definitely beef up our west coast non-con for early weekend series.

What are some of y'all's thoughts?
cdowl38
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Big 10 teams that will have an inflated rpi at the end of the season
dermdoc
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Capt. America said:

I've been seeing a lot of folks complaining about our weak non-conference schedule and lower RPI as a result. Who would you guys like to see in addition to our regular schedule and who do we nix?

I almost immediately think of ULaLa and McNeese for Tuesday games and definitely beef up our west coast non-con for early weekend series.

What are some of y'all's thoughts?
Ask at the end of the year as we have the major part of our rpi schedule coming up. RPI only matters at the end of the season.
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dermdoc
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And I might add, it is a total crap shoot. Before the season, who would have thought that McNeese and Ulala would have helped our rpi more than Pepperdine and Rice? Hindsight is 20/20.
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twk
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The ideal non-conference opponent is a team from a decent RPI league, that's going to win their league, but will come to Olsen for a 3 game set without asking for a return trip, then let us sweep them. If you can find a team that fills that bill, let the coaching staff know.

Actually, with a little time and effort, you could probably identify those teams, but you'd find that most of them are situated a lot closer to our SEC brethren, and have no need to travel so far for a non-conference trip. So, we have to look for diamonds in the rough--teams willing to travel, but who will have a decent showing.
Capt. America
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Ulala has been pretty consistent over the past few years. I'm mostly thinking about kicking the likes of ACU and Incarnate Word mainly because they really don't do us any favors.
cdowl38
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dermdoc said:

And I might add, it is a total crap shoot. Before the season, who would have thought that McNeese and Ulala would have helped our rpi more than Pepperdine and Rice? Hindsight is 20/20.


Rice was one game
cdowl38
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Capt. America said:

Ulala has been pretty consistent over the past few years. I'm mostly thinking about kicking the likes of ACU and Incarnate Word mainly because they really don't do us any favors.



And also brown and bowling green. That was 6 games against very bad teams
dermdoc
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Didn't he say midweek games? And before the season, would you have been more rpi happy about having Rice as a weekend series or McNeese?

I am not adverse to trying to rpi bump the schedule. I think the rpi means nothing right now and also think there is no "sure rpi thing" until the season is played. Our season will be determined by what happens the next three weekends and probably would have no matter who we played pre season. And personally, I am not sure maybe losing a home series to a good team early on would have been great for a young team like this.

And I can not repeat enough, rpi only matters at the end of the season.
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Capt. America
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I would love to see how it would match up with a few other big weekend series for sure.
ensign_beedrill
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Wish list:

1. Home-and-home series with Coastal Carolina for the purely selfish reason that I want to go out and visit their park!

2. Home series (season opener?) with Quinnipiac. It's a fun name.
TempleAg97
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We just had some bad RPI luck this year, especially with Pepperdine and Rice. But I think we have to rethink the definite RPI killers like Bowling Green, Ivy League, and Incarnate Word, the kind that you know before the season even starts that WINNING those games are going to kill your RPI.

Having said that, if the Ags could have gotten one more out against TCU and Baylor, we might not even be having this discussion and as as already been mentioned, we have some super big RPI opportunities coming up.

The dividing line to host has always been about 40 wins. If the Ags win 40 and don't host, the schedule probably needs at least some tweaking.
jkag89
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It would not be all that hard to tweak the schedule which would generate a little more interest in both midweek and non-conference weekends and maybe have a few less RPI drags One of the service academies, while no guarantee of a RPI boost over what we scheduled this year out of conference, it would certainly be a fun weekend. B1G schools would also have name value and generally not be a SoS drag and might be able to fill a midweek game or two when doing their spring break trip. Maybe Notre Dame, while not a major player it is an ACC school. While not necessarily poor opponents, too many Southland Conference foes do not spark a lot of interest for the fans coming to Olsen. On the other hand, those nearby schools that might generate interest would expect a return trip which bumps up against trying maximizing home dates. OK, maybe it is a little more difficult to put together a good schedule that piques the interstate of the fans yet still fills the needs of the program.
cdowl38
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I said this in a different thread but maybe the weekend before conference starts we should play at least a decent team. Even though we barely beat brown in every game it would have been nice to play a better team to prepare for conference
dermdoc
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And if we beat the good teams that were on our schedule like TCU, Baylor, and tu we would be fine. And if we would have won one from Kentucky or one more from Vandy we would not be here. My point is it is not all scheduling. It is beating the good teams on your schedule.
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dermdoc
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cdowl38 said:

I said this in a different thread but maybe the weekend before conference starts we should play at least a decent team. Even though we barely beat brown in every game it would have been nice to play a better team to prepare for conference
We played Tech, Tcu, Baylor the weekend before conference. Name an opponent who could have given us a better test or potential for rpi boost than those.

Edit that was two weekends before conference. And frankly, I think at that point if we had played a team much better than Brown we would have lost the series or have been swept. And possibly given up on the season.
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W
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does everyone agree that it's time to jettison Pepperdine?
W
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while the Ags' final RPI & SoS is yet to be determined...A&M's non-conference RPI & SoS is just about locked in with only 2 non-conference games to go.

the non-conference RPI is #57
the non-conference SoS is #213

it's crazy to think that A&M could win 40 games during the regular season (including 18 SEC games)...and not be a host
dermdoc
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W said:

does everyone agree that it's time to jettison Pepperdine?
Sure. Who do you replace them with? There are very few teams that have venues folks want to travel to unless you are crazy like us. And who guaranteed helps out your rpi? And remember, as we have seen this year, when you play your good preseason rpi teams or good conference rpi teams at home, you have to win.
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dermdoc
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Do you jettison Rice too?
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Wicked Good Ag
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Pepperdine is done with a home and home

Get rid of incarnate word and prarire view as those are RPI killers always.

Do we have a contract with the Ivy League ? And if so when does it expire ?

You know we are getting a northern team first weekend and it doesn't matter who because people are excited about Aggie baseball starting back up but get someone a bit more profile like a Big 10 team but hell Penn State from a couple of years ago doesn't have a good RPI either

IF going west coast Stanford, Long Beach State or San Diego would be good. From east coast Coastal Carolina or an ACC team



dermdoc
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Wicked Good Ag said:

Pepperdine is done with a home and home

Get rid of incarnate word and prarire view as those are RPI killers always.

Do we have a contract with the Ivy League ? And if so when does it expire ?

You know we are getting a northern team first weekend and it doesn't matter who because people are excited about Aggie baseball starting back up but get someone a bit more profile like a Big 10 team but hell Penn State from a couple of years ago doesn't have a good RPI either

IF going west coast Stanford, Long Beach State or San Diego would be good. From east coast Coastal Carolina or an ACC team




Fine with all that. But who do you get where you do not have to do a home and home for other two weekends? Or are you okay with giving up a home series at Olsen? And personally, I think season ticket holders and especially Dugout Club members should have the most impact on losing a home series every other year. It is their monetary investment.
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TXAggie2011
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It is not a total crapshoot.

Our non-conference RPI and SOS tends to not be all that strong while it tends to be strong for some other schools. And it's not all that hard to look at various schedules and see why.

Last year, for example, our non conference SoS was 186 on selection day with an opponents' opponent's SoS of 103.

And we didn't just get unlucky. For example, no one should have been expecting Pepperdine to be a strong team. Quite frankly, no one should have been counting on Rice; they've been sliding for a few years now.
Emilio Fantastico
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TempleAg97 said:

We just had some bad RPI luck this year, especially with Pepperdine and Rice. But I think we have to rethink the definite RPI killers like Bowling Green, Ivy League, and Incarnate Word, the kind that you know before the season even starts that WINNING those games are going to kill your RPI.

Having said that, if the Ags could have gotten one more out against TCU and Baylor, we might not even be having this discussion and as as already been mentioned, we have some super big RPI opportunities coming up.

The dividing line to host has always been about 40 wins. If the Ags win 40 and don't host, the schedule probably needs at least some tweaking.
This! Is there any way to recalculate RPI to see how big of an impact that would've had?
dermdoc
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And we lost to all the good rpi teams on our preseason schedule except for tech. It is not just the schedule is all I am saying. And are you a season ticket holder? I'd be willing to wager most would be against giving up a home series.

This is not as easy as it seems.
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cdowl38
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Im fine with maybe opening up the season with garbage like we usually do but after that we need to be playing better teams. Im not saying we need to play the best teams but competition that is better than what we have been playing. Whats annoying too is when we are in an off year for the Minute-Maid tourney we replace that with another garbage series.


This year playing Prairie View and Incarnate word back to back and then following that up with Rio Grande does not make for good baseball. Plus those teams are RPI KILLERS. PVAMU is RPI 281
TXAggie2011
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Yes. That's pretty easy to calculate. It would change our winning percentage.

But that's only 25% of the RPI calculation and across a 50 game season one more win, one less loss isn't a huge thing.
dermdoc
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Agree on the midweek games. But again, any decent team is going to want a home and home which decreases the number of home games and season ticket value.

You could play UofH, Baylor, etc. midweek probably but you lose home games,
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cdowl38
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I would like to see a series against the RPI inflated Big 10. I think that Michigan, Indiana, Nebraska, Minnesota, or Maryland would all be good teams to play against. Those teams have to travel in February anyways and they benefit from playing so many road games that their RPI is always high.
cdowl38
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dermdoc said:

Agree on the midweek games. But again, any decent team is going to want a home and home which decreases the number of home games and season ticket value.

You could play UofH, Baylor, etc. midweek probably but you lose home games,


The northern teams can't do a home and home because of weather.

If other teams want to do a home and home, I'm fine with it. If we played the away series the same year that we are not in the Minute Maid tourney it would not decrease any home games
TXAggie2011
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dermdoc said:

And we lost to all the good rpi teams on our preseason schedule except for tech. It is not just the schedule is all I am saying. And are you a season ticket holder? I'd be willing to wager most would be against giving up a home series.

This is not as easy as it seems.


I never said it would be easy to change the program's scheduling philosophy. That's another issue I wasn't speaking to.
dermdoc
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cdowl38 said:

dermdoc said:

Agree on the midweek games. But again, any decent team is going to want a home and home which decreases the number of home games and season ticket value.

You could play UofH, Baylor, etc. midweek probably but you lose home games,


The northern teams can't do a home and home because of weather.

If other teams want to do a home and home, I'm fine with it. If we played the away series the same year that we are not in the Minute Maid tourney it would not decrease any home games
That would be fine for me. But remember, most of the season ticket holders can drive easily to Minute Maid. Maybe a weekend series with U of H?

And may I ask if you have season tickets?
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cdowl38
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I don't have season tickets


We played at Pepp last year and a few years ago didnt we play at CS Fullerton and Fresno St? I mean its just 3 games and with the coverage of college baseball now we usually are able to watch the game.
cdowl38
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I get that people do not want to give up 3 home games but are 3 away games against a good team better than slaughtering a garbage team like Bowling Green? It is not even good baseball when their pitchers can't throw strikes and top out at 84 mph


I know it was a Tuesday game but was it last year that we beat someone 21-1 and their team had 7 errors? Thats not good baseball
fightintxag13
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Someone calculated it yesterday in another thread, and it came out that one more win against either TCU or Baylor (neutral site) would put us at 28 rather than 35 right now. If we had won one more road game (Vandy, LSU, UTA) then that ranking would be even higher since it would count for more.
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