2018-19 Schedules

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Some schedules are slowly leaking out for the upcoming season.


* West Chester will play at West Liberty on Nov. 10 (West Virginia Wesleyan on Nov. 9) and host Bowie State on Nov. 20. West Chester visits IUP on Tuesday, Dec. 18. WCU is also playing non-conference games against Holy Family, Goldey-Beacom, Chestnut Hill, Wilmington and some school named Williamson College of the Trades.

* Wheeling Jesuit travels to Seton Hill

* Kutztown opens the season at West Liberty on Nov. 9

[ctrabs74]

Re: 2018-19 Schedules

Some schedules are slowly leaking out for the upcoming season.


* West Chester will play at West Liberty on Nov. 10 (West Virginia Wesleyan on Nov. 9) and host Bowie State on Nov. 20. West Chester visits IUP on Tuesday, Dec. 18. WCU is also playing non-conference games against Holy Family, Goldey-Beacom, Chestnut Hill, Wilmington and some school named Williamson College of the Trades.

* Wheeling Jesuit travels to Seton Hill

* Kutztown opens the season at West Liberty on Nov. 9

That Williamson College of the Trades has to be an exhibition, because they're in the NJCAA - yes, a juco. There's no way that could count as an official game for NCAA rankings purposes, though the West Liberty and Bowie State games should more than make up for the non-conference slate.

Also, keep this in mind as PSAC schedules are released (from the April 2018 PSAC Athletic Administrators meeting):



The three Western schools affected by the random crossover/non-countable (for conference standings purposes) are Edinboro, Gannon and Mercyhurst, according to the PSAC's 2018-2019 master schedule (which has not been updated to reflect Cheyney's departure).

[Golden89]

Re: 2018-19 Schedules

That Williamson College of the Trades has to be an exhibition, because they're in the NJCAA - yes, a juco. There's no way that could count as an official game for NCAA rankings purposes, though the West Liberty and Bowie State games should more than make up for the non-conference slate.
.

Just playing devli's advocate ... don't the games against the Penn State branch campuses count (e.g. PSU-Greater Allegheny)? They are not four year schools either and I just noticed that WCT played PSU-GA last year and the game counted. They played Central Penn (as did Clarion I believe) and that game also counted. Is there a chance that the game against WCT could actually count? I would so love the game to count solely for the reason that we could make fun of West Chester all year because they played a school named Williamson College of the Trades.

Edit: Did further research ... My guess is that he WCU - WCT game looks legit. Aside from conference challenges which don't count in the standings West Chester has 26 games on their schedule, which is the right on the NCAA max. It is on December 5, which would be an odd date for an exhibition. My calendar is marked. Hope that West Chester streams the game.

We may see a few more of these odd matchups with PSAC east schools given the sudden opening of two dates with Cheyney's abrupt departure from the conference.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: 2018-19 Schedules

Conference challenge games certainly count.

D3 games pad your record but do not count toward regional rankings or playoffs. They are glorified stat padders. In many examples they hurt you more than help.

[ctrabs74]

Re: 2018-19 Schedules

Just playing devli's advocate ... don't the games against the Penn State branch campuses count (e.g. PSU-Greater Allegheny)? They are not four year schools either and I just noticed that WCT played PSU-GA last year and the game counted. They played Central Penn (as did Clarion I believe) and that game also counted. Is there a chance that the game against WCT could actually count? I would so love the game to count solely for the reason that we could make fun of West Chester all year because they played a school named Williamson College of the Trades.

Edit: Did further research ... My guess is that he WCU - WCT game looks legit. Aside from conference challenges which don't count in the standings West Chester has 26 games on their schedule, which is the right on the NCAA max. It is on December 5, which would be an odd date for an exhibition. My calendar is marked. Hope that West Chester streams the game.

We may see a few more of these odd matchups with PSAC east schools given the sudden opening of two dates with Cheyney's abrupt departure from the conference.

Penn State branch campuses are four-year campuses as I understand it. Apparently, WCT is a four-year school (they at least have juniors and seniors on the roster), so there's that, I guess.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: 2018-19 Schedules

Penn State branch campuses are four-year campuses as I understand it. Apparently, WCT is a four-year school (they at least have juniors and seniors on the roster), so there's that, I guess.

Right but they are still D3 schools so other than making your record appear better they are not calculated in to the playoff calculations.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: 2018-19 Schedules

Here's another year of Bowie playing anybody, anywhere:

Non-conference:

@ IUP
Bloomfield
@ West Chester
Newberry
Augusta
@Gannon
Shippensburg
@U of DC

[Fightingscot82]

Re: 2018-19 Schedules

Only 5 of 20 Penn State branches are DIII - the rest are USCAA. I'm all for playing whomever to get a full schedule. At this level nobody really cares. Most people think the divisions are separated by how "good" you are. Give your team a full schedule. Plus, with the wide range of competitiveness within our own conference how much worse could a DIII game be? There are some really great DIII schools within Pennsylvania that I believe give an education that outweighs the combination of education & cost for most DII schools particularly if a family values a faith-based education.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: 2018-19 Schedules

Some more non-Conference games:

Nov. 9
Slippery Rock vs Notre Dame (at Fairmont)
Cal at Fairmont
Nov 10 (reverse)

Gannon plays at ND in Dec



Nov. 24
Virginia State at Wheeling Jesuit

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: 2018-19 Schedules

Only 5 of 20 Penn State branches are DIII - the rest are USCAA. I'm all for playing whomever to get a full schedule. At this level nobody really cares. Most people think the divisions are separated by how "good" you are. Give your team a full schedule. Plus, with the wide range of competitiveness within our own conference how much worse could a DIII game be? There are some really great DIII schools within Pennsylvania that I believe give an education that outweighs the combination of education & cost for most DII schools particularly if a family values a faith-based education.

Nothing to do with education. Strictly basketball related. For teams that don't care about the postseason ... schedule all they want. It's burnt teams before come selection day. It helped Clarion from being winless last year.

[Golden89]

Re: 2018-19 Schedules

Conference challenge games certainly count.

D3 games pad your record but do not count toward regional rankings or playoffs. They are glorified stat padders. In many examples they hurt you more than help.

My understanding is that conference challenge games do not count toward the max of 26. Gannon plays two extra regular season games in each year that they have a conference challenge.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: 2018-19 Schedules

I think I misunderstood what you were saying by 'count'.

Yes, they count toward the allotment of games. They (non D2) games don't calculate in to regional rankings, SOS or playoff metrics ... that's what I meant by saying they don't count.

I guess if you have no other choice ... playing a PSU branch or similar is better than nothing. Glorified practice in most cases.

Carlow in Pittsburgh has become the new PSAC D3 game ... They appear on many schedules again this upcoming year.

IUP and Gannon haven't scheduled D3 (or non D2) in a very long time. Thankfully.

Rock keeps scheduling that Ohio Eastern team twice a year for like 135-50 smackdown stat fillers.

[ctrabs74]

Re: 2018-19 Schedules

Here's another year of Bowie playing anybody, anywhere:

Non-conference:

@ IUP
Bloomfield
@ West Chester
Newberry
Augusta
@Gannon
Shippensburg
@U of DC

Wow. Much respect to Bowie, because even if a couple of those teams end up having a down season in 2018-2019, that's a brutal out-of-conference schedule. They're also playing in a CIAA-MEC conference challenge tip-off tourney at Charleston. It's not clear who the other MEC team will be, but that just adds to the grind.

[PSAC76]

Re: 2018-19 Schedules

Why do Gannon and IUP not play any non d2's?

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: 2018-19 Schedules

Why do Gannon and IUP not play any non d2's?

Simple answer is they have the money to bring in D2 opponents in non-conference games. The next part of that is both have post-season expectations every season so playing a D3 (or similar) does nothing for their metrics at the end of the year. It is essentially nothing but a standings padder for the history books. Thirdly, Joe Lombardi and John Reilly probably see zero benefit of playing such a game. Both like to play very difficult non-conference schedules.

You'll notice IUP and Gannon rarely play 'away' non-conference games. It happens but ususally (maybe) once a year. Unless an IUP or Gannon is signing on with another top program (think the IUP vs Fairmont State series) they will almost always host the game or it will be a contract in the range of, say, 3 games in Indiana and one game at your gym.

This isn't unique to IUP and Gannon. Take a West Liberty, etc., ... they don't play road non-conference games. Very, very rarely if ever.