Non Conference Schedule

[tubaguy08]

https://www.d2football.com/around-th...k-two-preview/
I know we have talked about this at nausea but Chuck and the others on Inside D2 Football make excellent points. College is suppose to be about new experiences. Some of these athletes have never been on a plane before. I know Will and the league office do a wonderful job but I would argue that silo scheduling is not only easy but also lazy. He stated at media day that he thinks that the conference will win a national championship within 5-10 years. How do you know that when you don’t play the best competition around D2? I know @ArmoWood has laid out a model and maybe we can get that going again. I’ll get off my soap box and let people discuss. Should the conference have non conference games? If so, why and if not why.

[OBUGrad]

https://www.d2football.com/around-th...k-two-preview/
I know we have talked about this at nausea but Chuck and the others on Inside D2 Football make excellent points. College is suppose to be about new experiences. Some of these athletes have never been on a plane before. I know Will and the league office do a wonderful job but I would argue that silo scheduling is not only easy but also lazy. He stated at media day that he thinks that the conference will win a national championship within 5-10 years. How do you know that when you don’t play the best competition around D2? I know @ArmoWood has laid out a model and maybe we can get that going again. I’ll get off my soap box and let people discuss. Should the conference have non conference games? If so, why and if not why.

You offering up the money to pay for that charter flight?

[BulldogLB]

I would have loved to have gotten the chance to play teams like West Texas, or Eastern New Mexico, or some of the other Texas schools (which would be a shorter bus ride from Weatherford than the Arkie schools are). My solution would be to have the two state’s schools play each other every year, and rotate playing 3 games against the opposite state schools. That would give you 3 OOC games a year. Convince the MIAA to do the same thing, and we are cooking with gas. Probably will never happen though, cause you’re right, these conference commissioners don’t care.

[TigerGuy]

You offering up the money to pay for that charter flight?

Ditto. That sounds amazing, but money for a charter flight (at least for the OK schools) sounds like an idea from an alternate universe.

[Baldsexy]

What about doing it the way we did it in our bowl game last season. Maybe for 1 or 2 games per season meet an out of conference team at a neutral site halfway between the two schools? Yes both teams would lose the home field advantage. But being an out of conference game it's basically an exhibition game. FBS teams play their bowl games at neutral cites. The NFL plays games in Loundon and Mexico. I think the kids would love it if it meant seeing new places and teams. We went to some out of conference teams to scrimmage in the spring following the missed Covid season and it was a lot of fun. True it could mean some scheduling headache with having to most likely play in some high school stadiums. But honestly some of the bigger high school stadiums are bigger and nicer than ours is.

[Chuck Bitner]

I completely understand why conferences do it the way the GAC, MIAA and NSIC are doing it. Especially with a 12 team league, every team plays the same schedule. It's easy and it limits logistical expenses. Both are very important to the small admin teams in a D2 athletics department. As much as we love the out of conference games, they are not easy to schedule and the closed conference makes a lot of sense. But it does eliminate some great opportunities. I doubt anyone from Mines regrets making that trip to Grand Valley.

[tubaguy08]

I completely understand why conferences do it the way the GAC, MIAA and NSIC are doing it. Especially with a 12 team league, every team plays the same schedule. It's easy and it limits logistical expenses. Both are very important to the small admin teams in a D2 athletics department. As much as we love the out of conference games, they are not easy to schedule and the closed conference makes a lot of sense. But it does eliminate some great opportunities. I doubt anyone from Mines regrets making that trip to Grand Valley.

I understand your point but hear me out. Theoretically could the NCAA mandate that all schools in D2 have to play out of conference games? This way the playoff committee could get a better picture on teams for playoff seeds. Let’s not kid ourselves the NCAA has lost the FBS sector of college football. Why not take that money and energy and invest it in Division 2? Just thinking pie in the sky and out loud here. And if I had the money for the charter flight I would totally pay it but also for the band and cheerleaders too.

[NattyStateFan]

I understand your point but hear me out. Theoretically could the NCAA mandate that all schools in D2 have to play out of conference games? This way the playoff committee could get a better picture on teams for playoff seeds. Let’s not kid ourselves the NCAA has lost the FBS sector of college football. Why not take that money and energy and invest it in Division 2? Just thinking pie in the sky and out loud here. And if I had the money for the charter flight I would totally pay it but also for the band and cheerleaders too.

No, the NCAA cannot mandate that D2 teams play OOC games.

The playoff committee could get a better picture of playoff teams and seedings, but I think that would be to a very small extent. It would imagine it would take a top 1-3 team from Conference A playing a top 1-3 team from Conference B. It could also hurt teams based on the opponents they would be facing OOC.

For every OOC game scheduled, in a 12 team league, your losing equal in conference games. Let’s be honest, if UAM schedules Pitt State, and SNU is off the schedule, who is going to come out happy? Now, if UAM schedules Northeastern Oklahoma State, and Harding doesn’t make the schedule, you have a good situation for UAM. Yes, UAM and Harding are in state schools, but those teams were used for reference.

For the record, I would love to see OOC games scheduled. It’s great for small college football.

[OldBison]

I’ve always been in favor of OOC scheduling for the GAC. Harding now has the financial backing to handle travel expenses for an OCC game. I like Bulldog’s idea of OK schools playing each other. Arkansas schools playing each other with a rotating schedule of crossover and OCC games. This would only make the GAC stronger.

[Armo Wood]

Here is an excerpt from a column I wrote back in 2015. I believe this is what tubaguy08 is referring to. For context, this was about scheduling non-conference games when the NCAA announced that the SRs would be changing to the now current configuration that went into effect in 2017.

"...The GAC needs to do away with conference-only scheduling starting in 2017. It can do this by forming a 2-game scheduling alliance with the MIAA. Reasons for the scheduling alliance are as follows:

1. The MIAA is a Power 4 conference and playing some of their top teams will help the GAC SOS. Granted, the GAC teams will need to win games. While some will say the risk of playing top teams from a top conference like the MIAA means the GAC may only get 1 team in the playoffs, not playing non-conference games ensures the GAC will only get 1 team in the playoffs every year.

2. Playing the MIAA will force the GAC teams to get better. Also, it will give GAC teams a taste of what to expect come playoff time, i.e., better preparation.

3. Scheduling the MIAA means the games are clearly in-region non-conference games.

If forming a scheduling alliance with the MIAA is not possible, then the GAC should look to forming a scheduling alliance with the LSC for similar reasons to those listed above. Additionally, the LSC needs non-conference games to fill out their schedules and under the NCAA guidelines, in the link provided above, games against any LSC opponent (both the Texas and New Mexico schools) would qualify as in-region non-conference games.

How would the GAC put this into practice and how would it affect the champion?

By having 2 non-conference games, the GAC is just substituting out a pair of games against travel partners. For example, Henderson and Ouachita would play an MIAA or LSC team in lieu of East Central and Southeastern Oklahoma. The GAC could rotate which travel partners do not play every two years so that way it changes up who plays who in given years. To illustrate let’s use the Henderson and Ouachita schedule again, below is a four year rotation example of teams Henderson and Ouachita would play:

Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4
MIAA or LSC team	MIAA or LSC team	MIAA or LSC team	MIAA or LSC team
MIAA or LSC team	MIAA or LSC team	MIAA or LSC team	MIAA or LSC team
Northwestern Oklahoma	Northwestern Oklahoma	Northwestern Oklahoma	Northwestern Oklahoma
Southwestern Oklahoma	Southwestern Oklahoma	Southwestern Oklahoma	Southwestern Oklahoma
Arkansas Tech	Arkansas Tech	Arkansas Tech	Arkansas Tech
Harding	Harding	Harding	Harding
Arkansas-Monticello	Arkansas-Monticello	Arkansas-Monticello	Arkansas-Monticello
Southern Arkansas	Southern Arkansas	Southern Arkansas	Southern Arkansas
Oklahoma Baptist	Oklahoma Baptist	East Central	East Central
Southern Nazarene	Southern Nazarene	Southeastern Oklahoma	Southeastern Oklahoma
Henderson/Ouachita	Henderson/Ouachita	Henderson/Ouachita	Henderson/Ouachita

Notice that in this scenario that in the first two years Henderson and Ouachita play Oklahoma Baptist and Southern Nazarene, but not East Central and Southeastern Oklahoma. Starting in year three they rotate, so Henderson and Ouachita play East Central and Southeastern Oklahoma but not Oklahoma Baptist and Southern Nazarene. The reason for the two year rotation is to allow for each team to play at home against one another, i.e., in year one Ouachita plays at Oklahoma Baptist and in year two Ouachita plays Oklahoma Baptist at home. The conference could also make the same arrangements in its scheduling alliance with the MIAA or LSC, so everybody gets a home against an out of conference opponent. Example: Henderson plays at the MIAA or LSC team year one, then the MIAA or LSC team plays at Henderson in year two. To keep teams from having the same matchups every year, the scheduling alliance could rotate the opponents every two years as shown above.

How does the GAC address the issue of a tie in the conference standings between teams that did not play one another?

The GAC could use the non-conference record as the tie-break. If the non-conference record is also a tie, then the GAC could decide based upon additional criteria such as which GAC team played stronger MIAA or LSC teams and where the wins/losses occurred, at home or on the road.

In the end the GAC has two choices. It can either be proactive and look at ways to strengthen itself for the long term, or the GAC can sit back and hope things play out in its favor over time. If the GAC chooses to sit back, it runs the risk of finding itself with post-season worthy teams sitting on the outside looking in..."

[the Northeasterner]

Ikeep it up I'm on the OOC bandwagon on miaa site as well