In the wake of Humboldt...

[ccmoney8]

Is there any team you wish the RMAC would add if you had your "druthers" to get to 12 teams and a full 11-game schedule and prevent open dates and fortify everyone's strength of schedule?

Anyone against adding, for some reason?

Anyone know anything might be in the works?

The ones that seem to make the most sense, with the GNAC dwindling down to 4, would be Azusa and Central Washington. But West Texas could also make sense, depending on how the world evolves over the next year or two.

[ctrabs74]

Re: In the wake of Humboldt...

Is there any team you wish the RMAC would add if you had your "druthers" to get to 12 teams and a full 11-game schedule and prevent open dates and fortify everyone's strength of schedule?

Anyone against adding, for some reason?

Anyone know anything might be in the works?

The ones that seem to make the most sense, with the GNAC dwindling down to 4, would be Azusa and Central Washington. But West Texas could also make sense, depending on how the world evolves over the next year or two.

I would think that the only way you get Central Washington to become an RMAC football affiliate would be if both Simon Fraser and Western Oregon were included as part of the package. A 14 team league might not be optimal, but it could work. The PSAC had a 14 team league with two divisions of seven teams for most of its existence until their initial expansion in 2008 when Gannon and Mercyhurst joined the then charter members of the league (which were the 14 Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education colleges).

Presuming Azusa Pacific ends up in the LSC instead of the RMAC, you'd potentially have a 14 team RMAC and a 10 team LSC in the same region, which opens up the possibility of intra-region, inter-conference contests on the first two weeks of the regular season. Then, while the LSC goes into conference play, the RMAC could put together the following scheduling scheme:

Weeks 1-2: RMAC vs. LSC
Weeks 3-4: Inter-divisional games
Weeks 5-11: Three intra-divisional games per division and one cross-division game

This way, you avoid open dates without going to a silo schedule scheme like the MIAA and GAC (I wouldn't call the NSIC's scheduling scheme a true 'silo' schedule in that teams don't face the same opponents in inter-divisional play) and you can potentially fortify everyone's strength of schedule, which, remember, weighs not only opponent's winning percentage, but also the opponent's opponent's winning percentage. In other words, let's say that Pueblo opens the season with TAMU-Commerce and Angelo State; Pueblo not only gets the bump from Commerce's SOS, but also from the rest of the teams on Commerce's schedule (which would, essentially be, the entire LSC).

Then again, there's talk that the LSC is about to reach a scheduling alliance agreement with the remaining GNAC schools, so this discussion might be moot for 2019 and/or 2020. But, it's an idea worth exploring in the future, should the RMAC choose to go that route.

[Runnin' Cat]

Re: In the wake of Humboldt...

If you have true silo scheduling, your SOS will be .500.

[twolfbenchwarmer]

[ccmoney8]

Re: In the wake of Humboldt...

I would think that the only way you get Central Washington to become an RMAC football affiliate would be if both Simon Fraser and Western Oregon were included as part of the package. A 14 team league might not be optimal, but it could work. The PSAC had a 14 team league with two divisions of seven teams for most of its existence until their initial expansion in 2008 when Gannon and Mercyhurst joined the then charter members of the league (which were the 14 Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education colleges).

Presuming Azusa Pacific ends up in the LSC instead of the RMAC, you'd potentially have a 14 team RMAC and a 10 team LSC in the same region, which opens up the possibility of intra-region, inter-conference contests on the first two weeks of the regular season. Then, while the LSC goes into conference play, the RMAC could put together the following scheduling scheme:

Weeks 1-2: RMAC vs. LSC
Weeks 3-4: Inter-divisional games
Weeks 5-11: Three intra-divisional games per division and one cross-division game

This way, you avoid open dates without going to a silo schedule scheme like the MIAA and GAC (I wouldn't call the NSIC's scheduling scheme a true 'silo' schedule in that teams don't face the same opponents in inter-divisional play) and you can potentially fortify everyone's strength of schedule, which, remember, weighs not only opponent's winning percentage, but also the opponent's opponent's winning percentage. In other words, let's say that Pueblo opens the season with TAMU-Commerce and Angelo State; Pueblo not only gets the bump from Commerce's SOS, but also from the rest of the teams on Commerce's schedule (which would, essentially be, the entire LSC).

Then again, there's talk that the LSC is about to reach a scheduling alliance agreement with the remaining GNAC schools, so this discussion might be moot for 2019 and/or 2020. But, it's an idea worth exploring in the future, should the RMAC choose to go that route.

I fully endorse this plan. It maximizes the D2 "regional" concept by giving a better account of who the top 7 teams in the region are. Every team in the region would be connected by at least 4-5 data points.

[ccmoney8]

Re: In the wake of Humboldt...

If you have true silo scheduling, your SOS will be .500.

So you protect your SOS from the Highlandses, the Kingsvilles, etc, scheduling Our Lady of the Infinite Sadness. Or just having open dates or playing D1 payday games, which are probably just as bad.

The bad news is, the ceiling is .500. The good news is, the floor is .500!

I'm no bracketologist, but it seems like the larger conferences, and the ones like MIAA, GLIAC, NSIC who have closed schedules, have managed to protect their berths in this way, even when they don't have the best teams.

[twolfbenchwarmer]

[ccmoney8]

Re: In the wake of Humboldt...

Sure, the only way to end up exactly at .500 is 12 teams. I didn't quite understand the sentence before that, but I'm not saying your schedule is going to lift you over other teams automatically, but rather that your SOS will be more consistent. Or to put it differently, you are less vulnerable to flaws in your opponents' scheduling, the more conference games you ALL play.

[DIIguru]

Re: In the wake of Humboldt...

A. Pacific to the LSC sooner than later and GNAC folds