MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[hopefan]

As a last ditch last second opponent, ths schools you mention come in handy... but the D3 only rule would eliminate all the weak schools on the schedules, and the schools you mention are hardly a necessity...

Hannibal- lagrange?  Get a game with Quincy or Truman or Rolla or UNSL instead

Campbellsville?   heck, Spalding doesn't need them... they indeed have the best scheduling over the last 5 years playing almost 100% D3

Pharma, Robert Morris (Springfield or Peoria...do they still exist?)... totally unnecessary...one or two midweek trips to CCIW orMWC or HCAC land can be handled

[WUPHF]

I am just saying that the schools need the flexibility.

Pharmacy is a good option if you need a game and need the flexibility.  Fontbonne can play the whatevers and take a day off before heading up to Iowa for a long weekend. 

Hannibal-LaGrange was my Iowa Wesleyan option.

The Robert Morris schools will be around even after most students have enrolled in Amazon University.  Springfield is a little further from Greenville than I thought.

[hopefan]

I am just saying that the schools need the flexibility.

Pharmacy is a good option if you need a game and need the flexibility.  Fontbonne can play the whatevers and take a day off before heading up to Iowa for a long weekend. 

Hannibal-LaGrange was my Iowa Wesleyan option.

The Robert Morris schools will be around even after most students have enrolled in Amazon University.  Springfield is a little further from Greenville than I thought.

I think they can find 7 NCAA games that will fit into the kids'  schedules reasonably....

[GU1999]

I concur that NCAA games should be the standard.  The non-NCAA teams certainly could play a SLIAC "B" squads should a member school sponsor a "B" squad.

[Greek Tragedy]

I've come to learn that scheduling is REALLY hard. I really don't see too many WIAC schools willing to travel to SLIAC schools when they have northern CCIW schools, eastern MIAC schools, NACC schools and MWC schools that are a lot closer.

You also have to take into consideration that EVERYONE is trying to strengthen their schedule. Some may view the SLIAC as a lesser conference so there may not be much motivation for some schools to play them.

For example, the school that I follow only had 24 games scheduled. I personally suggested a few opponents. One wasn't D3. In my opinion, they chose not to take my suggestions seriously because one team wasn't competitive enough and the other simply wasn't D3. My opinion.

[hopefan]

For what it's worth...here is how I rated SLIAC schedules the last 5 years, 1 the best to 10 the worst   hard to read, I've never figured out how to do columns from an excel  spread sheet   

               2018-19   2017-18   2016-17   2015-16   2014-5
                  
Webster      1   7   4   7   4
Greenville      2   9   9   1   7
Westminster   3.5   6   8   4   6
Spalding      3.5   1   2   2   3
MacMurray   5   8   1   5   1
Principia      6.5   4   3   9   9
Blackburn      6.5   3   5   6   5
Fontbonne      8   5   7   3   2
Iowa Wesleyan   9   2   6   10   10
Eureka      10   10   10   8   8

Overall then they rate this way:

Spalding             1    easily at the top   Consistent strong schedules
MacMurray         2  best schedule in 16-17, 14-15
Webster             3    best schedule in 2018-19
Blackburn             4    consistent middle of the pack
Fontbonne             5     has gone downhill
Westminster         6 middle of the pack except a weak 2016-17
Greenville             7   thought nobody would play vs the system, but they
                                                       really stepped up in 18-19
Principia             8    has shown better the last 3 years
Iowa Wesleyan         9     bad except 2017-18
Eureka             10     easily the worst

[Gregory Sager]

You don't need to use Excel to create a table on this site. On the second bar of icons on your post reply, right next to the hashtag/poundsign icon, is an icon with what appears to be a light blue grid inside it. That's the table icon. It will create your table, as well as a table-row open code [ tr ] (only without the spaces; I don't want to activate these codes!), a table-datacell open code [ td ], a table-datacell code [ /td ], a table-row close code [ /tr ], and a table close code. Use these various codes to replace your spreadsheet with a data table.

[WUPHF]

I've come to learn that scheduling is REALLY hard. I really don't see too many WIAC schools willing to travel to SLIAC schools when they have northern CCIW schools, eastern MIAC schools, NACC schools and MWC schools that are a lot closer.

You also have to take into consideration that EVERYONE is trying to strengthen their schedule. Some may view the SLIAC as a lesser conference so there may not be much motivation for some schools to play them.

For example, the school that I follow only had 24 games scheduled. I personally suggested a few opponents. One wasn't D3. In my opinion, they chose not to take my suggestions seriously because one team wasn't competitive enough and the other simply wasn't D3. My opinion.

Ding, ding, ding!

Hence the need for flexibility.

[Greek Tragedy]

What's not flexible now? Seriously, are there strict guidelines right now?

[WUPHF]

What's not flexible now? Seriously, are there strict guidelines right now?

You have to go back a few posts.

Others suggested limiting the SLIAC non-conference slates to NCAA-only competition.  I am 100% convinced that the SLIAC teams need to be able to schedule local NAIA programs.  For a variety of reasons...

[GU1999]

The topic came up when discussing off season rule making and the leagues decision to pass a rule that could potentially put forward a lesser conference tourney champion into the AQ spot.  Specifically, ....

"...Even rules that could potentially further weaken its already dismal post season presence... I propose that the league constitute a rule that could in the long term strengthen the SLIAC and hopefully increase its chances of post season play and post season scheduling.  I would start by limiting the number of patsy games a team can schedule to one a year or preferably none.  If the quality of non-con games is not increased the SLIAC will never punch its way out of the 40s in overall league SOS (SOS being my vernacular).  I fully understand that with scheduling harder games a program runs the risk of having a very poor record.  I also understand that there may be budgetary issues.  But you must start somewhere."

This is where the conversation started.  I know that the SLIAC has been a bottom level league since inception.  Its AQ team is almost always matched up against one of the top ranked teams (if not the top team) in the first round of the NCAAs.  Increasing schedule or even normalizing it to NCAA d3 opponents would help in creating a better starting point from which to build.  Of course you need to win.  And if the league is resigned to that fact, it really doesn't matter.  I was simply offering a potential rule making opportunity to bolster postseason participation as opposed to limiting it. 

Here is the information on the pool B selection process from the write up on d3hoops which was updated last year.

"What does the NCAA use to select and seed teams into the tournament?

These are the selection (and seeding) criteria:

The following primary criteria (not in priority order) will be reviewed:

• Win-loss percentage against Division III opponents.
• Division III head-to-head competition.
• Results versus common Division III opponents.
• Results versus regionally ranked Division III oppononents [SIC] as established by the final two sets of rankings (i.e. those released Feb. 20 and Feb. 25)
• Division III strength-of-schedule (SOS).
- Opponents' Average Winning Percentage (OWP) (weighted 2/3).
- Opponents' Opponents' Average Winning Percentage (OOWP) (weighted 1/3).
- Add the two numbers to get the team's strength-of-schedule
- See more info on SOS below

Note:
• Conference postseason contests are included.
• Contests versus provisional and reclassifying members in their third and fourth years shall count in the primary criteria. Provisional and reclassifying members shall remain ineligible for rankings and selection.

If the evaluation of the primary criteria does not result in a decision by the committee, the following secondary criteria (for ranking and selections) will be evaluated:
• Non-Division III win-loss percentage.
• Results versus common non-Division III opponents.
• Division III non-conference strength-of-schedule

Additionally, input is provided by regional advisory committees for consideration by the Division III men's and women's basketball committees. Coaches' polls and/or any other outside polls or rankings are not used as a selection criterion by the basketball committee for selection purposes."

- D3hoops tourney FAQ
https://www.d3hoops.com/interactive/faq/ncaatournament

[WUPHF]

The topic came up when discussing off season rule making and the leagues decision to pass a rule that could potentially put forward a lesser conference tourney champion into the AQ spot.  Specifically, ....

If the team that has only won the conference tournament twice in the history of the league cannot adjust to a limit of 14 technicals per season, then something is wrong in Greenville.

[GU1999]

GU should do better.  The whole league should.  GU's opponents had 16 Ts last year.  All of those points are in the forgone thread.  The point is that the league, if it is interested in doing better and is implementing rules to do so, should institute some scheduling rules too. 

[Gregory Sager]

Not that SLIAC head coaches have any control over conference rules-making regarding their sport, but they would scream bloody murder if the higher-ups tied their hands when it came to scheduling. SLIAC coaches are already well aware that theirs is a bottom-rung conference and that playing D3 teams from other conferences means negotiating a minefield of likely losses in November and December. Having the ability to pad the W-L record -- which is still a big part of a coach's bottom line, even at this level -- is a big part of job security and résumé-building for SLIAC head coaches, especially the younger ones.

[hopefan]

GU1999... I don't know if it's a typo in your post or an error... But the SLIAC and all other qualifying conferences are eligible for a C pool bid.... B pool is for non qualifying conference and independents.