C-USA Hoops: New Conference USA Scheduling Explained, How does it affect the Tops?
On Tuesday, Conference USA announced a new scheduling process for men’s basketball starting this season. The announcement was made in order…
On Tuesday, Conference USA announced a new scheduling process for men’s basketball starting this season. The announcement was made in order to improve the conference’s chances at getting an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament.
ESPN commentator and former collegiate head coach Mark Adams worked with the conference to develop the new plan. On Twitter, Adams said:
In case you missed the big announcement, here’s how it will work: The conference schedule will be 18 games. The first 14 games will be the same as years past — WKU will play each conference team once and its’ “travel partner,” (Marshall) twice, all pre-determined as is tradition.
After that, it gets interesting. After the 14 games are played, the teams will be placed into three different groups: One group will have the teams that are, at that time, in 1st-5th in the conference standings, the second will have those that are 6th-10th and the final will have those that are 11–14th.
The teams will then play each of the teams in their pod once more to finish the last three weeks of the regular season. Like Adams said, the goal is to create “more meaningful” conference games in February and the early part of March.
So, here’s how it’ll work: The #1 seeded team would host the #2 and #3 ranked teams, while going on the road to the #4 and #5 ranked team. The #2 ranked team would host the #3 and #4 while traveling to the #1 and #5, and so on.
As far as the conference tournament, seeding will be affected by the change. Once the pod deadline passes, a team’s seed cannot fall below that in the conference tournament, but it could rise to the highest peak in that respective pod.
For example, if UAB is the #7 team and placed in the middle pod, the best they could do seedwise in the Conference USA tournament would be #6 and the worst would be #10.
So, what does this mean for WKU? Well, if this process would have been in place at the end of last season, the Tops would have traveled to MTSU and Old Dominion while hosting Marshall and UTSA.
As far as next season goes, it could be very interesting. The first thing that comes to mind is that WKU is almost guaranteed to play Marshall three times in the regular season; assuming that both finish in the top five. This obviously can put WKU at a major advantage or could put them at a major disadvantage.
If, for instance, the Tops win all three against Marshall, it could increase their chances at a potential at-large bid come March. On the other hand, Jon Elmore is returning, so playing the probable preseason conference #1 three times doesn’t sound too appealing.
Another thing I really do not like about the change is what it does with the MTSU game. While it does still guarantee one game, it obviously does not guarantee a second. In addition to that, if two games were played in a season, there is the possibility that both could be in Diddle or both could be in Murfreesboro. That is not good for the 100 Miles of Hate rivalry.
Overall, I think this move is really good for Conference USA college basketball. The league is, in a lot of ways, behind the eight ball when it comes to being the premiere Group of Five conference in the NCAA. I think that this sets them apart.
Will it work? Your guess is as good as mine, but I think they need to do anything to try and improve their standing among other conferences across the nation. I really think this does it.
Adams said that the committee wants meaningful games in February and March. I’m not sure there will be more entertaining games than assumably the Moonshine Throwdown part three or a second game of the 100 Miles of Hate.