Out-of-Conference Scheduling for GAC

[Predatory Primates]

Or maybe an Arkansas school or 2 heads North to the MIAA?

[BisonBones]

Or maybe an Arkansas school or 2 heads North to the MIAA?

Yeah. I'm pretty sure breaking up the old AIC won't ever happen again.

[WonderboysATU]

Didn’t realize the GSC was losing so many to division 1. Would be interesting if a merger of some kind could take place. OKBU and SNU have done their part of improving. If the other OK schools can follow suit and ATU of course then that could really improve the conference. GAC gotta try to get with the times or it’ll just always be considered a weak conference.

[BisonDivot]

The GAC was formed over 10 years ago for two main purposes: 1. Create a conference that every school had football. 2. Reduce travel.

The GSC and LSC both had these “problems”. You had schools that didn’t sponsor football but annihilated all other sports due to pouring funding in them that other schools were pouring into football. The other problem was home and home games across the conference in a truly spread out area - i. e. Russellville, Arkansas to Pensacola, Florida for soccer, volleyball, basketball, etc.

[OBUGrad]

The GAC was formed over 10 years ago for two main purposes: 1. Create a conference that every school had football. 2. Reduce travel.

The GSC and LSC both had these “problems”. You had schools that didn’t sponsor football but annihilated all other sports due to pouring funding in them that other schools were pouring into football. The other problem was home and home games across the conference in a truly spread out area - i. e. Russellville, Arkansas to Pensacola, Florida for soccer, volleyball, basketball, etc.

Bingo.

If they ever expand (which I doubt happens anytime soon) it would have to be to schools in geographic footprint, or close to it. Like Delta State, UCO, maybe SW Baptist, etc.

I bet Delta State would join in a heartbeat. They have some long roadtrips.

[Bisonfan from FLA]

What about a plan that would open up two out-of-conference games for the GAC, keeping the Rivalry Week games at the end of the season? Here is the idea.

Have a rotating schedule where you are skipping of one game from an Arkansas school and one game from a Oklahoma school each year. Keeping the rivalry week would mean every four years your school does not play a team from your state; your school would miss playing a school from the other state every six years.

This keeps the reduced travel for your in-state games but allows the school to look for two OCC games in border states. Such travel costs would be similar to the reduced cost of not going to one game in the other state in your conference.

Arkansas school could have similar travel costs to play Lane College (TN), Delta State and Mississippi College (MS), West Alabama and Stillman (AL), Missouri Southern, SW Baptist, Missouri S&T, Lincoln (MO)
Oklahoma schools could have similar travel costs to play Oklahoma Panhandle, Pitt State, Emporia State, Ft. Hays State (KS), West Texas A&M, Midwestern (TX).

Improves the strength of schedule argument as well as the conferences have crossover to play other teams, reducing the "who does your team play but your own conference/ we are better than you because..." argument as well.

Would be interesting to see what other options you could add to this discussion. It could be that some system/idea/plan might even be enough to cause those admin/overlords/head honcho's to actually give some thought to ending the silo conference in the GAC.

[NWFanatic]

With LU & NSU leaving the MIAA NWMSU has potential open dates weeks 8 & 9.

[Bisonfan from FLA]

Yep, now that the MIAA will be semi-silo for the near future it might be the impetus to make the GAC officals give some strong thought to finding a plan to exit the silo system.

[Predatory Primates]

I think Pitt has 4 and 10

[LukeMcConnell1]

SWOSU HC McCoy (interim) out. SWOSU announced coaching search … again.

https://swosuathletics.com/news/2023...all-coach.aspx

No surprise there. I think Kirkland could've been good, but he was a fast riser.

[LukeMcConnell1]

To put it simply. No. No appetite for it.

Also what would you do? An Arkansas division and Oklahoma division? I mean it would be so unbalanced from a strength perspective it would be ridiculous.

If you don’t do that you have to break the AR schools apart so they might not even get to place everyone a year which kills some of the longtime natural rivalries.

This conversation comes up every offseason and it’s fun to play the what if game, but reality is nothing is changing. Unless some teams drop football or they add teams.

Agreed, I've never gotten the impression there's any appetite for it. Frankly, it's clear the bigger names in the league don't want it or else it'd probably be more likely to happen. We can talk all day about how Harding, HSU and OUA are not as battle-tested come playoff time because of the weaker league, but we also can't deny it's a pretty simple path to the playoffs for those schools as well each year that they're probably not willing to give up.

IF divisions were to happen, an Arkansas and Oklahoma would be ridiculously unbalanced, but perhaps that's a motivational tool for the Oklahoma schools that are languishing. Win the division and have an anything-could-happen-game for the playoffs? That's a pretty sweet deal. However, it makes more sense to have a random collection of three Oklahoma and three Arkansas in each division. If you're already going to be crossing the border for some games, why not just make it random while trying to preserve the rivalry week games?

I think, simply put, the GAC likes the schedule as is because it's simple. Everyone knows what's happening, no extra effort needed for scheduling. We can certainly debate the mindset behind that, but these are all small schools with coaches doing all the behind the scenes stuff for their programs. Adding scheduling OOC games to their plate might be too much for some schools.

And, at least this year, it appears what Commissioner Will Prewitt said at GAC Media Day this year does ring true. I asked about silo scheduling and he said that in the eyes of those who matter (the committee), the GAC hasn't been hurt by perception. And we saw that with Harding getting the 1-seed this year when there were plenty of questions on this board about them holding on to that spot because of SOS. Now, he did say there are conversations happening and maybe a few years from now things change, so we'll definitely see.

[OldBison]

I agree there doesn’t seem to be a strong push coming from the administrations at Harding, OBU, Henderson, SAU to do what it takes to pursue OC scheduling. What prompted my original question was curiosity about what led NEOSU to drop out of the MIAA. Was something their administrated wanted or was it something the institutional reps in the MIAA pressured their commissioner to pursue? Maybe some the MIAA fans who post on the GAC site have some insight.

[Predatory Primates]

I agree there doesn’t seem to be a strong push coming from the administrations at Harding, OBU, Henderson, SAU to do what it takes to pursue OC scheduling. What prompted my original question was curiosity about what led NEOSU to drop out of the MIAA. Was something their administrated wanted or was it something the institutional reps in the MIAA pressured their commissioner to pursue? Maybe some the MIAA fans who post on the GAC site have some insight.

the Northeasterner would probably have some ideas on it.

[GorillaTeacher]

I agree there doesn’t seem to be a strong push coming from the administrations at Harding, OBU, Henderson, SAU to do what it takes to pursue OC scheduling. What prompted my original question was curiosity about what led NEOSU to drop out of the MIAA. Was something their administrated wanted or was it something the institutional reps in the MIAA pressured their commissioner to pursue? Maybe some the MIAA fans who post on the GAC site have some insight.

I can't imagine being pushed out would be the word. Maybe they were simply told, that "if you wanted to explore other options, we wouldn't stop you." However with a new AD and President, I think it was prime time a change to be made. I speculate, without evidence, that football may not be in their future. I don't really consider the GLVC their peer schools, but I could be wrong, I mean LU went there. I don't think they have the budget to be LSC with the amount of travel they would have to endure. GAC is closed. I dont think the RMAC would be good fit geographically.

[Brandon]

We can talk all day about how Harding, HSU and OUA are not as battle-tested come playoff time because of the weaker league, but we also can't deny it's a pretty simple path to the playoffs for those schools as well each year that they're probably not willing to give up.

And, at least this year, it appears what Commissioner Will Prewitt said at GAC Media Day this year does ring true. I asked about silo scheduling and he said that in the eyes of those who matter (the committee), the GAC hasn't been hurt by perception. And we saw that with Harding getting the 1-seed this year when there were plenty of questions on this board about them holding on to that spot because of SOS.

That's why changes need to be made to the criteria for the playoffs.