next years schedule

[bills07]

A couple more home dates:

Saturday, December 5 vs. Southern Illinois

Wednesday, December 16 vs. Belmont

[p diddy]

A couple more home dates:

Saturday, December 5 vs. Southern Illinois

Wednesday, December 16 vs. Belmont

Word on the street is that we're headed to Georgia next year to start a home and home with the Dawgs.

[GOSLU68]

Word on the street is that we're headed to Georgia next year to start a home and home with the Dawgs.

Those are the kinds of home and home improvements that will draw crowds. We need Vanderbilt, Air Force, Gonzaga, Georgetown, etc

[DoctorB]

I believe that the series with Georgia would begin in 2010 -- just to clarify Diddy's reference to NEXT year--yes?

ps -- what's with that rather odd grouping of teams, GoSLU -- i.e. Vanderbilt, Air Force, Gonzaga, Georgetown -- I get the GU connection, plus Gonzaga -- is there some indication we might play the other 2?

[drkelsey55]

I believe that the series with Georgia would begin in 2010 -- just to clarify Diddy's reference to NEXT year--yes?

ps -- what's with that rather odd grouping of teams, GoSLU -- i.e. Vanderbilt, Air Force, Gonzaga, Georgetown -- I get the GU connection, plus Gonzaga -- is there some indication we might play the other 2?

I don't know about Air Force but, Vanderbilt's coach is from Collinsville.

[Clock_Tower]

Those are the kinds of home and home improvements that will draw crowds. We need Vanderbilt, Air Force, Gonzaga, Georgetown, etc

Georgia?? Excuse me while I yawn.

OK, I get it that Georgia is an SEC/BCS school but why would this game draw any crowds. Last I checked, Georgia has never won anything, they have no national following, they are in the bottom half of the SEC, they are over 8 hours away from and not exactly a geographic rival, we have never been in a conference with them and they are are large/rural/state university while we are a small/urban/private school. What am I missing?

[drkelsey55]

Georgia?? Excuse me while I yawn.

OK, I get it that Georgia is an SEC/BCS school but why would this game draw any crowds. Last I checked, Georgia has never won anything, they have no national following, they are in the bottom half of the SEC, they are over 8 hours away from and not exactly a geographic rival, we have never been in a conference with them and they are are large/rural/state university while we are a small/urban/private school. What am I missing?

You've got to start some where!

[kevinfootes]

Georgia?? Excuse me while I yawn.

OK, I get it that Georgia is an SEC/BCS school but why would this game draw any crowds. Last I checked, Georgia has never won anything, they have no national following, they are in the bottom half of the SEC, they are over 8 hours away from and not exactly a geographic rival, we have never been in a conference with them and they are are large/rural/state university while we are a small/urban/private school. What am I missing?

Do you expect us to go from almost nothing to drawing top-tier BCS schools to Chaifetz? I think Georgia is an excellent opponent for us. They play in an outstanding confernece and ought to help the rpi. I'm sure someone on here can go through the archieves, but IMO big-name opponents should help with attendance provided the game isn't played at some bad date or time. If SLU is playing a 7 PM game on a Saturday against Georgia or Savannah State, which do you think will draw the bigger crowd, get a mention on ESPN, get the bigger writeup in the local papers, get better coverage on local tv news, etc.?

If you look into it, most BCS teams are larger state schools, not small/urban/private universities. Also, while SLU may not have the enrollment of Ohio State or Texas, I wouldn't say our enrollment is small. In general I gree with your point, but you can find examples of really good teams that have much smaller enrollment than SLU.

Besides, things can change quickly. Georgia made it to the big dance in 2008 (by winning the conference tourney). They made it 6 times between 1990-2002. As SLU fans, I don't see how we can look down at a program like Georgia.

[kevinfootes]

I don't know about Air Force but, Vanderbilt's coach is from Collinsville.

Air Force has 2 trips to the big dance in the last 45+ years. I wouldn't mind playing them, but I don't see why they'd make someone's top 4 ideal opponents.

[MusicCityBilliken]

Georgia?? Excuse me while I yawn.

OK, I get it that Georgia is an SEC/BCS school but why would this game draw any crowds. Last I checked, Georgia has never won anything, they have no national following, they are in the bottom half of the SEC, they are over 8 hours away from and not exactly a geographic rival, we have never been in a conference with them and they are are large/rural/state university while we are a small/urban/private school. What am I missing?

Funny, they say the same thing down here in ACC/SEC country about us.

I for one would love for us to schedule more SEC or ACC schools. Top or bottom who cares. Bringing in schools from the major power conference add to the prestige SLU's program. 12 out the last 20 NCAA champions were either a ACC or SEC schools.

[billiken_roy]

Georgia?? Excuse me while I yawn.

OK, I get it that Georgia is an SEC/BCS school but why would this game draw any crowds. Last I checked, Georgia has never won anything, they have no national following, they are in the bottom half of the SEC, they are over 8 hours away from and not exactly a geographic rival, we have never been in a conference with them and they are are large/rural/state university while we are a small/urban/private school. What am I missing?

subbing a georgia on the schedule in place of some dumb A buy game will be undoubtedly be a help to rpi opportunities. even if georgia isnt good that particular year we play, remember part of the rpi formula deals with the schedule of the opponents as well. since georgia is going to be playing a likely top 6 rpi sec conference schedule, that beats some 25th ranked conference opponent's opponents. whether anyone of authority wants to admit it or not, the rpi is still the only way to get at large berths especially from a non bcs schools.

now granted we need to win games like that or they wont help the rpi, but the truth is winning vs prarie view or north carolina at&t isnt going to help regardless of what we do.

now if we substitute georgia for say nebraska or one of our other better non buy games, then i agree. yawn.

[Clock_Tower]

Do you expect us to go from almost nothing to drawing top-tier BCS schools to Chaifetz? I think Georgia is an excellent opponent for us. They play in an outstanding confernece and ought to help the rpi. I'm sure someone on here can go through the archieves, but IMO big-name opponents should help with attendance provided the game isn't played at some bad date or time. If SLU is playing a 7 PM game on a Saturday against Georgia or Savannah State, which do you think will draw the bigger crowd, get a mention on ESPN, get the bigger writeup in the local papers, get better coverage on local tv news, etc.?

If you look into it, most BCS teams are larger state schools, not small/urban/private universities. Also, while SLU may not have the enrollment of Ohio State or Texas, I wouldn't say our enrollment is small. In general I gree with your point, but you can find examples of really good teams that have much smaller enrollment than SLU.

Besides, things can change quickly. Georgia made it to the big dance in 2008 (by winning the conference tourney). They made it 6 times between 1990-2002. As SLU fans, I don't see how we can look down at a program like Georgia.

OK. Let me spell it out a little more.

Am I pleased we are playing Georgia over Savannah State, of course. I didn't realize, though, that it all comes down to scheduling either Georgia or Savannah State. I also understand that UCLA, Duke and N. Carolina are not waiting for us to before making their schedules as well. Instead, not only would I rather see (and more importantly - my response to the thread was what team would draw big crowds) Boston College, DePaul, Marquette, ND, Georgtown (not all big name schools are rural state universities) and I would like to see us play teams from our many prior conferences such as Memphis, Cincy, Louisville, etc. Why not more regional SEC teams like Vanderbilt or Arkansas? IMO, all of these would draw bigger crowds than Georgia.

Is it just me or is there a real reason why SLU is not playing any teams we have previously played? We had a great rival with X during the Grawer years, moved to Great Midwest/Conf USA and then never played X again until the A-10. Other than Brad's last minute schedule filler of a home/home with Houston, why have we played no one from Conf USA (other than UNC Charlotte)? I truly am disappointed that SLU has absolutely no plan or big picture behind its scheduling. If the Big East implodes as well all hope, will anyone even consider us? "Games that will draw fans" take time to develop.

I give credit to SLU for getting a BCS school. Other than that, I give SLU a failing grade.

Maybe we will start playing Houston if the interview goes well.

[Clock_Tower]

subbing a georgia on the schedule in place of some dumb A buy game will be undoubtedly be a help to rpi opportunities. even if georgia isnt good that particular year we play, remember part of the rpi formula deals with the schedule of the opponents as well. since georgia is going to be playing a likely top 6 rpi sec conference schedule, that beats some 25th ranked conference opponent's opponents. whether anyone of authority wants to admit it or not, the rpi is still the only way to get at large berths especially from a non bcs schools.

now granted we need to win games like that or they wont help the rpi, but the truth is winning vs prarie view or north carolina at&t isnt going to help regardless of what we do.

now if we substitute georgia for say nebraska or one of our other better non buy games, then i agree. yawn.

Just replied before I read your post so I won't repeat here.

Just to further add, though, other than Georgia being a legitimate game for me - a season ticket holder who wants to see the best ball we can and who wants to get his money's worth, I see no local interest causing any non-season ticket holder/local St. Louis fan to decide to go buy ticket for this SLU-Georgia game. Just me? Few local Alumni. Few Georgia Bulldog fans here in town....

[billiken_roy]

Just replied before I read your post so I won't repeat here.

Just to further add, though, other than Georgia being a legitimate game for me - a season ticket holder who wants to see the best ball we can and who wants to get his money's worth, I see no local interest causing any non-season ticket holder/local St. Louis fan to decide to go buy ticket for this SLU-Georgia game. Just me? Few local Alumni. Few Georgia Bulldog fans here in town....

baby steps after the scheduling set backs of the last few seasons.

i will say this, if any of us have to try to give away tickets because of conflicts or something, i got a better chance of getting someone to take the georgia game over north carolina at&t.

i think all in all we agree. yes georgia is better than a million bye games, but we really can do better. good job, let's hope the results continue to get better. dont take georgia as "the best we can do".

or course what remains to be seen is if the number of buy games will be reduced. like i said above if this just replaces say a current non buy game, then we accomplished nothing with this.

[Cowboy]

-it takes two to tango

[billiken_roy]

-it takes two to tango

true, wonder why schools tango'd with slu in the prior years more than now? what changed? still putting the same billiken teams on the floor with comparable records.

[kshoe]

true, wonder why schools tango'd with slu in the prior years more than now? what changed? still putting the same billiken teams on the floor with comparable records.

What changed? Two things:

1) CUSA to A-10.

2) Comparing the Billikens of 94-2000 where we went to the NCAA tourney 4 times is not the same as comparing the Billikens of 2001-09 which have struggled to be NIT bubble teams.

I know who you want to blame but it is just wrong to do so.

[kevinfootes]

OK. Let me spell it out a little more.

Am I pleased we are playing Georgia over Savannah State, of course. I didn't realize, though, that it all comes down to scheduling either Georgia or Savannah State. I also understand that UCLA, Duke and N. Carolina are not waiting for us to before making their schedules as well. Instead, not only would I rather see (and more importantly - my response to the thread was what team would draw big crowds) Boston College, DePaul, Marquette, ND, Georgtown (not all big name schools are rural state universities) and I would like to see us play teams from our many prior conferences such as Memphis, Cincy, Louisville, etc. Why not more regional SEC teams like Vanderbilt or Arkansas? IMO, all of these would draw bigger crowds than Georgia.

Is it just me or is there a real reason why SLU is not playing any teams we have previously played? We had a great rival with X during the Grawer years, moved to Great Midwest/Conf USA and then never played X again until the A-10. Other than Brad's last minute schedule filler of a home/home with Houston, why have we played no one from Conf USA (other than UNC Charlotte)? I truly am disappointed that SLU has absolutely no plan or big picture behind its scheduling. If the Big East implodes as well all hope, will anyone even consider us? "Games that will draw fans" take time to develop.

I give credit to SLU for getting a BCS school. Other than that, I give SLU a failing grade.

Maybe we will start playing Houston if the interview goes well.

I don't argue with your desired schedule, but the fact is that those teams you mention would have to want to play us. That's the problem...I don't think they want to play us in a home and home. If you look at Marquette's scheudle, they play almost no true road games outside of conference. They'll typically play a neutral site tourney and maybe play a game in Madison. That's about it. When we were in the old CUSA we had a little more power to schedule games against BCS-type opponents. Those days are gone.

It was just a couple of weeks ago that RM was telling people they were very close to playing Villanova. As it turns out, Villanova didn't want to come here.

I think we'd all like to see the teams you mentioned on the schedule, but at this point I think we have to take games against any BCS teams willing to play a home and home with us. If RM starts winning 20 games, things may ease up a bit.

[kevinfootes]

baby steps after the scheduling set backs of the last few seasons.

i will say this, if any of us have to try to give away tickets because of conflicts or something, i got a better chance of getting someone to take the georgia game over north carolina at&t.

i think all in all we agree. yes georgia is better than a million bye games, but we really can do better. good job, let's hope the results continue to get better. dont take georgia as "the best we can do".

or course what remains to be seen is if the number of buy games will be reduced. like i said above if this just replaces say a current non buy game, then we accomplished nothing with this.

roy, you've complained about the schedule for 2 years running. Now that it looks like the schedule has a chance to improve you're complaining about it. What gives?

[kshoe]

roy, you've complained about the schedule for 2 years running. Now that it looks like the schedule has a chance to improve you're complaining about it. What gives?

I don't think he is complaining. If he is its probably complaints that it isn't happening fast enough.

Here are the facts regarding scheduling:

1) SLU will play just about any BCS team in a home and home. Not only does it take two to tango but schedules also have to work out. Georgia is better than nobody.

2) SLU has not yet agreed to be a buy game for top BCS opponents (with the recent exception of the Pitt tournament). Unfortunately, that could be coming some day.

3) SLU has recently scheduled some home and homes in hopes of improving the RPI that have ended up killing us. Teams like Detroit, UW-Milwaukee and even Kent St. Those games only help the RPI when you win both games.

The Roy's of the world don't want any buy games on the schedule. Unfortunately, this naive view doesn't acknowledge the lost revenue from 2-3 more games at the Chaifetz and it doesn't recognize the fact that we more often than not get burned playing mediocre teams on the road. If such a schedule could be built playing all BCS caliber and top mid-major opponents I'd be more than happy to do it, but reality is what it is.

[billiken_roy]

roy, you've complained about the schedule for 2 years running. Now that it looks like the schedule has a chance to improve you're complaining about it. What gives?

i'm not complaining. where did you get that? i said it was good that we were playing georgia as long as it replaces a bye game. i was defending the move to clock asking why. better reread.

[kevinfootes]

i'm not complaining. where did you get that? i said it was good that we were playing georgia as long as it replaces a bye game. i was defending the move to clock asking why. better reread.

Sorry, I didn't take "yes georgia is better than a million bye games, but we really can do better. good job, let's hope the results continue to get better. dont take georgia as "the best we can do" as a positive comment.

Please name us 1 better BCS team that is willing to play us in a home and home right now. Outside of one or two people on here, no one really knows.

[billiken_roy]

The Roy's of the world don't want any buy games on the schedule. Unfortunately, this naive view doesn't acknowledge the lost revenue from 2-3 more games at the Chaifetz and it doesn't recognize the fact that we more often than not get burned playing mediocre teams on the road. If such a schedule could be built playing all BCS caliber and top mid-major opponents I'd be more than happy to do it, but reality is what it is.

i dont want more than a couple or three and those we do play should be the likes of eastern illinois or semo i.e regional buy games.

again, i am sorry the likes of you dont think we are good enough to play a tougher schedule. personally i think we are good enough to replace 3-4 of our 6-7 buy games with at least other mid majors or the lesser bcs teams like a georgia.

no where will you see i have written we should be playing every non conference game vs last seasons elite 8 teams.

btw, you cutoff of the schedule getting worse as 2001 is off. we were still playing a pretty decent non conference schedule a few years after that yet.

[billiken_roy]

Sorry, I didn't take "yes georgia is better than a million bye games, but we really can do better. good job, let's hope the results continue to get better. dont take georgia as "the best we can do" as a positive comment.

Please name us 1 better BCS team that is willing to play us in a home and home right now. Outside of one or two people on here, no one really knows.

it amazes me that you all think no one will play us in those games. why did spoon, romar and soderberg continue to get those extra good games each year and now all at once it just isnt possible? i am sure it is tough but favors get called in, assistant coaches call their buddies from previous jobs connects, campus presidents and AD's talk. somehow we were getting arizona, ucla, illinois, boston college, iowa, gonzaga kansas, etc to play in years past. somehow we were getting lesser bcs programs or mid major games with uw-milwaukee, mississippi, butler, kansas state, west virginia, georgia tech, california, washington, mi$$ouri, hawaii, vanderbilt, etc. but now, even though the billikens now are just as good, no better no worse, as most billiken teams in the last 20 years, that just isnt possible. i just dont get that.

again, i am all for georgia coming and replacing a buy game. it is a great step in the right direction. a better job is to get another 2-3 like games and eliminate a couple more buy games. and then give the buys to eastern illinois, semo and maybe chicago state. add to that the usual games with siu, missouri state and a decent xmas tourney. now were looking at a decent non conference schedule.

[kshoe]

btw, you cutoff of the schedule getting worse as 2001 is off. we were still playing a pretty decent non conference schedule a few years after that yet.

There is always a lag in stuff like that. Fact is our scheduling has been on the decline since the golden years of the mid-late 90s because we are no longer an attractive opponent due to us 1) no longer being in CUSA and 2) not being as good.

You want to blame Majerus and in the past have been quoted as saying the only reason the schedule was soft was to protect his winning record streak. In other words, you think Majerus is lying when he says we want to play Villanova, Marquette, Mizzou etc. I tend to believe we want to play all of those guys and then some but...it takes two to tango.

You are also comfortable settling for home and homes with teams like Belmont. That to me says a lot about the type of "big-time" program you are looking for.