Without trying to sound like a turd, I just think your philosophy on the schedule is very much affected by if you have season tickets. My wife and her friends love the midweek games and do not want to lose some to go to places like Waco.

And actually, any Dugout Club members could express the scheduling thoughts directly with Coach Childress.

From a "home game value" standpoint, I'd happily trade 2 Prairie View games, or Incarnate, or whatever for 1 Baylor game. Or TCU. Or whoever.

Plus the ability to appeal to the larger fan base around the state.

I really, really doubt many season ticket decisions are swaying on losing a home game against true bottom feeders.

cdowl38 said:

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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

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For those with season tickets, it is still fun. Or at least for the folks I know.

My thought is we just need to trade one of bowling green or brown for an decent, perennial top 100ish school.

I think our mid-week schedule is fine. There are enough decent teams in the area it makes sense to play a schedule similar to this year. I would have preferred us playing a UH insead of a Prairie view/Incarnate Word/UTRGV/ACU. They are close and usually decent.

We like to play all but 1 non-conference series at home because we make more money playing at home. In a non-football sport, I'm okay with us trying to do everything we can to make sure the sport breaks even.

Here is how I envision our non-conference series weekend schedule looking like.

Weekend 1 - Home northern team. Bowling Green/Brown/Yale. I'd prefer someone who is consistently at the top of their league. Dartmouth, UIC, Kent State
Weekend 2 - Home Decent, consistent Top 100ish team. Pepperdine will do. Really most teams from the West Coast conference or Big West fit into this category.
Weekend 3 - Home/Away series versus Top 50ish team or Tournament when the series is at home.
Weekend 4 - Similar to weekend 2. There are plenty of smaller schools that are consistently decent. Tulane, ULaLa, New Orleans, SEMO. Hell, playing a series against a decent Texas school like UH, SHSU or Texas state would be better than another brown or bowling green.

This would not be the most difficult non-conference schedule, but I think it would allow us rack up some wins while also being tested enough to see where we need to improve going into conference play.

TXAggie2011 said:

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From a "home game value" standpoint, I'd happily trade 2 Prairie View games, or Incarnate, or whatever for 1 Baylor game. Or TCU. Or whoever.

Plus the ability to appeal to the larger fan base around the state.

I really, really doubt many season ticket decisions are swaying on losing a home game against true bottom feeders.

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Do you ha e season tickets? Do you go to midweek games?

themissinglink said:

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My thought is we just need to trade one of bowling green or brown for an decent, perennial top 100ish school.

I think our mid-week schedule is fine. There are enough decent teams in the area it makes sense to play a schedule similar to this year. I would have preferred us playing a UH insead of a Prairie view/Incarnate Word/UTRGV/ACU. They are close and usually decent.

We like to play all but 1 non-conference series at home because we make more money playing at home. In a non-football sport, I'm okay with us trying to do everything we can to make sure the sport breaks even.

Here is how I envision our non-conference series weekend schedule looking like.

Weekend 1 - Home northern team. Bowling Green/Brown/Yale. I'd prefer someone who is consistently at the top of their league. Dartmouth, UIC, Kent State
Weekend 2 - Home Decent, consistent Top 100ish team. Pepperdine will do. Really most teams from the West Coast conference or Big West fit into this category.
Weekend 3 - Home/Away series versus Top 50ish team or Tournament when the series is at home.
Weekend 4 - Similar to weekend 2. There are plenty of smaller schools that are consistently decent. Tulane, ULaLa, New Orleans, SEMO. Hell, playing a series against a decent Texas school like UH, SHSU or Texas state would be better than another brown or bowling green.

This would not be the most difficult non-conference schedule, but I think it would allow us rack up some wins while also being tested enough to see where we need to improve going into conference play.

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Thats what Im saying too. In off years of the Minute Maid tourney if we played an away series it would not lose any home games and it would help our RPI

I think that Vandy's non conference schedule this year is similar to what we should have

fightintxag13 said:

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Someone calculated it yesterday in another thread, and it came out that one more win, regardless of which game it was, would put us at 28 rather than 35 right now.

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Maybe that's right with how sensitive it is right now. But that boost will get smaller with another 4 weeks of games.

It doesnt change the SoS calculation and for a discussion about scheduling, talking about not losing to someone isn't all that helpful.

What would be more interesting to me would be seeing about replacing a loss to TCU woth another win against a not so good team would be.

Point being we have a lot of wins that hurt our RPI nonetheless.

themissinglink said:

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My thought is we just need to trade one of bowling green or brown for an decent, perennial top 100ish school.

I think our mid-week schedule is fine. There are enough decent teams in the area it makes sense to play a schedule similar to this year. I would have preferred us playing a UH insead of a Prairie view/Incarnate Word/UTRGV/ACU. They are close and usually decent.

We like to play all but 1 non-conference series at home because we make more money playing at home. In a non-football sport, I'm okay with us trying to do everything we can to make sure the sport breaks even.

Here is how I envision our non-conference series weekend schedule looking like.

Weekend 1 - Home northern team. Bowling Green/Brown/Yale. I'd prefer someone who is consistently at the top of their league. Dartmouth, UIC, Kent State
Weekend 2 - Home Decent, consistent Top 100ish team. Pepperdine will do. Really most teams from the West Coast conference or Big West fit into this category.
Weekend 3 - Home/Away series versus Top 50ish team or Tournament when the series is at home.
Weekend 4 - Similar to weekend 2. There are plenty of smaller schools that are consistently decent. Tulane, ULaLa, New Orleans, SEMO. Hell, playing a series against a decent Texas school like UH, SHSU or Texas state would be better than another brown or bowling green.

This would not be the most difficult non-conference schedule, but I think it would allow us rack up some wins while also being tested enough to see where we need to improve going into conference play.

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So basically the difference in your schedule and this year's would be week 4, correct? Instead of Brown, someone like the teams you mentioned. The problem again becomes home and away for season ticket holders. You might be able to get a New Orleans, or SE Mizzou state to come down and not be repaid with a home visit.

UCONN could be another good RPI inflated team that could come down and we would probably not have to go there.

I think a series against DBU would be a good idea with how well their program has performed the last few seasons. I bet we could get away without having to do a home and home. ULaLa is also at the top of my list to see in a weekend series, but then again we'll have to do home and home with them.

dermdoc said:

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TXAggie2011 said:

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From a "home game value" standpoint, I'd happily trade 2 Prairie View games, or Incarnate, or whatever for 1 Baylor game. Or TCU. Or whoever.

Plus the ability to appeal to the larger fan base around the state.

I really, really doubt many season ticket decisions are swaying on losing a home game against true bottom feeders.

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Do you ha e season tickets? Do you go to midweek games?

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I don't have baseball season tickets but it's not like I am oblivious to the reasons why I buy and enjoy the season or non-season tickets to the seasons and games I do have.

I would be happier with an exciting opponent every other season during the midweek rather than a scrub every season during the midweek.

And I really, really doubt I'm on an island there.

The midweek games are going to be local teams no matter what. Some are going to be scrubs and some are going to be good so it evens out.

If you look at all the decent teams/ programs' schedules they all have at least one away non-conf series, its just how it is.


I don't see why season ticket holders should be so mad about losing 3 games they can attend every other year (assuming they attend the minute maid tourney)

But don't get me wrong, I am sure the listed attendance of 3600 enjoyed midweek game #2 with UTRGV last month.

It seems a&M has to schedule auto wins in every sport. Football I'm fine with playing only one good non conference game but in basketball and baseball they need to realize that SOS and RPI are big determinants on seeding


Look at vandy this year in basketball. They made the tournament becaus of rpi

In 2013, we played 2 weekends away from College Station in the non-conference as well as an SEC schedule. We also went on the road multiple times during the midweek.

Our season ticket base didn't shatter.

Heck, last time I mentioned it I'm not sure Dermdoc even remembered that.

Offer Binghamton a return trip to Olsen to begin the year.

TXAggie2011 said:

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In 2013, we played 2 weekends away from College Station in the non-conference as well as an SEC schedule. We also went on the road multiple times during the midweek.

Our season ticket base didn't shatter.

Heck, last time I mentioned it I'm not even sure Dermdoc even remembered that.

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And that year we made the tournament because of our RPI and SOS. We were barely above .500

Was that the year that we played at Fresno state and crashed the web cam site?

I believe we played in Fullerton and at Minute Maid that year.

Maybe it was the next year we played at Fresno state?

Yes, I believe so.

another option you could is the 4 game series. seems like the sips like that option.

As a season ticket holder I'm fine with how Rob schedules. It's not about the schedule, it's about taking care of business. Play X schools isn't getting us to Omaha. It's how we handle our business throughout the season.

Yes. It doesn't have to be a school in the area though. Another norther school would work, provided they aren't perennial crap team like Bowling Green or Brown. A Michigan, Nebraska, Minnesota, Ohio State or Indiana would work from the Big 10. West Virginia plays a northern-like schedule. Missouri State is usually pretty good. Creighton is bad this year but they are usually pretty strong.

There is no way to ensure a team you schedule a weekend series with doesn't have a bad year, but scheduling 2 teams that are usually bottom feeders in crappy leagues will result in a disaster like this year's non-conference SOS.

Having a good schedule is almost like a "backup" plan. 2013 is the perfect example because we would not have made the tournament if we played the schedule we have this year

themissinglink said:

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Yes. It doesn't have to be a school in the area though. Another norther school would work, provided they aren't perennial crap team like Bowling Green or Brown. A Michigan, Nebraska, Minnesota, Ohio State or Indiana would work from the Big 10. West Virginia plays a northern-like schedule. Missouri State is usually pretty good. Creighton is bad this year but they are usually pretty strong.

There is no way to ensure a team you schedule a weekend series with doesn't have a bad year, but scheduling 2 teams that are usually bottom feeders in crappy leagues will result in a disaster like this year's non-conference SOS.

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I actually agree completely(and you include ACC teams and schools like Coastal) and you could stagger the away series with Minute Maid. I would like the trips. And with all due respect 2011, I think the vast majority of season ticket holders would disagree with you. And you could join the Dugout Club and voice your concerns. But to be brutally frank, season ticket holders wishes should take precedence over folks who are not imho. If that makes me a turd, sorry. But they are the financial lifeblood of the program.

cdowl38 said:

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Having a good schedule is almost like a "backup" plan. 2013 is the perfect example because we would not have made the tournament if we played the schedule we have this year

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It's helpful if you're on the bubble, it's helpful if you want to host a regional, or get a national seed.

I wouldn't deny that if we finish with 16-17 SEC wins and beat most of who we should beat in non-conference, we'll find a nice middle spot in the post-season. But it's trickier after that.

I'm sure I'd have a bigger voice if the baseball team got more money from me.

Especially if I come to the midweek games most season ticket holders don't bother to show up to.

Frisco Classic will be held on the third weekend

If we have a northern team and an Ivy League team then that is the first two weekends. If those can be combined maybe we can get a home and home started with ULL and then have a west coast team home and home

If Ivy then the only team we haven't seen yet lately that has a decent rpi is Cornell but who knows if that will hold true next year. A Harvard series looking at RPI over the years would kill us like Bowing Green

Pepperdine is an unfortunate outlier. Solid program who happened to have a crappy year like Rice

If an RPI boost is what we are looking for then an ACC SEC challenge would take care of that problem.

I think you can find other State of Texas opponents besides Incarnate Word and Prairie View which are always in the 200+ range. Lamar McNeese Utsa could al work

A few principles to keep in mind:

1. The key to getting the most bang for your buck, RPI wise, is to play the highest possible RPI team, in the highest possible league, with the least schedule overlap between you and the other teams on your schedule (lack of diversity depresses RPI automatically--if you play the same group of teams that everyone on your schedule plays, your opponents winning percentage will gravitate toward .500, regardless of results).

2. We aren't going to play more than one non-conference road series in any given year, and we are not likely to play any in year where we play a tournament.

3. Teams don't get a big guarantee to come play a weekend series, so they either have to be motivated to come to town (fleeing bad weather, usually), or have an easy trip (which implicates scheduling principle #1).

4. Mid-week opponents really aren't motivated to spend time and money to travel; thus if you have a quality local non-conference opponent, there is a strong incentive to schedule them mid-week rather than for a weekend series.

I generally agree with you. I respect derm, and understand the point he's making, but I think he overstates it a little. Maybe not for him personally, but for the normal fan. Generally we're talking about a shift of just a few games to make a pretty decent difference. I would gladly take a mid-week home and home with Baylor/Rice/DBU/Texas over 2 games at home with UT-RGV or PVAMU. If you do that 2x a year then you're losing 2 home games mid-week. But 2 games versus Baylor is very different from an RPI than playing Prairie View. We have at least FIVE games against 230+ RPI teams this year and we KNEW going into the season that every single one of them would be that bad. Cut that from 5 to 3. Replace those 2 with a home and home with Baylor (#14), Houston (#24), DBU (#48), TCU (#9), Texas (#26), Rice (#78), hell even Sam Houston (#82). Those games are all conveniently located and would be a nice RPI boost. Yes, you're more likely to lose them but that is a chance you take. When you lose to one of the terrible teams (which we've done on more than one occasions) it's a real killer. If you dump PVAMU and Incarnate Word and replace that with a Home/Home with Baylor then Season ticket holders have lost A GRAND TOTAL OF ONE GAME. And they've gained a mid-week home game against a major conference team with (probably) historic rivalry implications. I don't know a ticket holder in their right mind that wouldn't trade a 2-fer of UT-RGV for a home and home with a former SWC/BigXII rival.

Then I think we need to tweak ONE of our four pre-conference series.

Historically we've looked for 3 home series and 1 road/neutral site series. The formula for that has been something like:

1) Home - dumpster fire
2) Home - West Coast (another home dumpster fire if it's the @ West Coast rotation)
3) Away - West Coast OR Neutral Site Tourney
4) Home - trash can fire (not good, but not as terrible as weeks 1/2)

2017: 1) Bowling Green; 2) Pepperdine; 3) MinuteMaid; 4) Brown
2016: 1) Hofstra; 2) @ Pepperdine; 3) Yale; 4) Fresno
2015: 1) Holy Cross; 2) PennSt; 3) Dartmouth; 4) MinuteMaid
2014: 1) Northeastern; 2) Sacramento St; 3) @ Fresno; 4) LaTech
2013: 1) UI-C; 2) Pepperdine; 3) Minute Maid; 4) @ Fullerton
2012: 1) UI-C; 2) Holy Cross; 3) Michigan St; 4) Fullerton

I went back to 2012 to make sure I included Fullerton. Those Fullerton teams were ranked #8/11 in back to back years. That is a pretty big outlier in our scheduling and, I would guess, was scheduled before our move to the SEC.

First, I think we should beef up that West Coast Home/Home. Play it the 2nd week (if home/MinuteMaid year) or 3rd week (when @ Cali). But make it a real team. UCLA, Fullerton, Oregon, OregonSt.

To get a home series without a return trip almost guarantees you have to go North to find a team. So instead of going Ivy League, get a Big10 team. You don't have to get Ohio State, but for goodness sake don't go get a perennial bottom of the barrel Colonial, Horizon, or Big Sky team either. If you can trade 3 home games against #230 for 3 games against #150 that is a help. Then dump the absolute dregs of the Texas scene (PVAMU, Incarnate Word, Abilene Christian) and schedule that home and home against a (traditionally) Top50 Texas team.

Some years you're going to play the game and get hosed. When we scheduled Rice for '17, no one expected their numbers to be terrible... oh well, you win some, you lose some. But if you schedule a team that is historically terrible you can't be surprised when they turn out to be an RPI killer. You schedule with historical knowledge and hope for the best. I think Pepperdine is proving that they are falling into that 'bad' category more often than not.

My ideal schedule would be something like:

Week 1 - HOME - I don't care. Midlothian Middle School. Score a million runs and let Jace get an at bat in the 8th inning of Game 3.

Week 2 - HOME - Upper end of a bad league. St. John, Seton Hall, Kent State something like that.

Week 3 - AWAY/NEUTRAL - @ West Coast (Upper 1/2 Pac 12 or Big West team) or @ Minute Maid

Week 4 - HOME - Nebraska/Indiana/Maryland. A good team. Probably an annual conference contender in a major (but not elite) conference.

Quote:

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Pepperdine is an unfortunate outlier. Solid program who happened to have a crappy year like Rice

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Gonna be something like Pepperdine's 3rd or 4th losing season in 8 years.

TXAggie2011 said:

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But don't get me wrong, I am sure the listed attendance of 3600 enjoyed midweek game #2 with UTRGV last month.

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All those season ticket holders that enjoy those games were just wearing their green seat camoflauge, thats why you couldn't see but 100 of them littered throughout 101-113 and the boxes.

Yep.... If Pepperdine was on the stock market I don't think anyone would encourage you to invest in it despite how they performed 10 years ago.

After a run of 7 straight tourney appearances from 2002-2008 the Waves have made the tourney 3 of the past 8 seasons, staring hard at 3 out of 9.

Quote:

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2017: 1) Bowling Green; 2) Pepperdine; 3) MinuteMaid; 4) Brown
2016: 1) Hofstra; 2) @ Pepperdine; 3) Yale; 4) Fresno
2015: 1) Holy Cross; 2) PennSt; 3) Dartmouth; 4) MinuteMaid
2014: 1) Northeastern; 2) Sacramento St; 3) @ Fresno; 4) LaTech
2013: 1) UI-C; 2) Pepperdine; 3) Minute Maid; 4) @ Fullerton
2012: 1) UI-C; 2) Holy Cross; 3) Michigan St; 4) Fullerton

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2013 was the only decent non con imo for the weekend series.

Every other year, there was one of 2 teams that should have been replaced with a Minnesota/Ohio State/Indiana/Michigan/Long Beach/Arizona/ASU, etc.

And I dont care if that means in the Minute Maid year, we have to travel one weekend to make that happen. Minute Miad isn't really traveling anyway.

I think we need to ditch the Minute Maid tournament. They're not really friendly to fans and this year especially I felt like I wasn't really welcome there. It's like having a ballpark full of fans is an inconvenience to them rather than their goal. If they don't want us there, let's just not go.