The debate around college basketball scheduling at the NCAA Tournament has become a bit one-sided in recent weeks thanks to Miami (OH), and other mid-majors.
The issue has been a hot topic that ratcheted up further as Miami (OH) inched closer to March Madness. For some programs, the complaint is familiar: Power conference teams avoid scheduling such teams, fearing a loss that could hurt their postseason résumé.
But that argument only goes so far when you hear from coaches like Purdue’s Matt Painter and Alabama’s Nate Oats.
There are only so many non-conference games available. Between marquee events like the Maui Invitational and existing conference obligations, power-four programs have limited flexibility when building their schedules. At least according to some.
And not every mid-major opponent helps.
With teams across leagues like the Sun Belt, MAC, AAC and Mountain West, finding the right matchup — one that strengthens a team’s NET ranking and strength of schedule — isn’t easy.
Painter made that clear when responding to comments from Miami (OH) coach Travis Steele, who suggested power conference teams are “ducking” mid-majors.
“If he was in my position, you’re going to play 11 non-conference games. Next year, it’s going to go to 12. And so we play 6 high-major games, and we play 5 mid-major teams,” Painter explained. “So when they say they don’t play mid-majors, we played 5 mid-majors this year. But if he was in our position, he’d do the same thing we’re doing.”
Whew, now that’s a strong take, and he is actually making a valid point about the number of games his Boilermakers can actually play. Throw in the fact that every year whether a team is good enough to snag them for a ‘Buy Game’ while also not destroying your SOS rankings changes based on the quality of those teams.
But when it comes to “ducking,” as some mid-major coaches have implied over the past few weeks, sometimes the current schedule proves that some, not all, P-4 schools like Purdue and Alabama are inviting the fight.
“We’ve played Akron. We’ve played Kent State. We’ve played Oakland. We’ve played mid-majors, but everybody plays mid-majors,” Painter pointed out. “Every high-major plays mid-majors. They’re just saying they’re not playing them. And it’s really a backhanded compliment that they’re not playing them. But we’ve proved ourselves.
“The guy at Miami of Ohio says ‘nobody will play us,’ well Akron’s been the best team in the league. Kent State has been the best team in the league. We played them.”
The question of how teams put together their schedules is not going away any time soon.
A lot of times, coaches would prefer schedules be completed months prior to the season actually starting. In the case of Miami (OH), Steele let it be known on numerous occasions that his team waited until October to sign contracts with schools that could fill their schedule.
When they couldn’t find opponents at the power-four level, the RedHawks ended up agreeing to play a few NAIA teams. That obviously didn’t help their strength of schedule, and that dogged them much of this season.
But just because some schools are struggling doesn’t mean there is a nationwide problem in college basketball, given the number of teams looking for ‘buy games’ or tougher opponents to help their SOS.
So, when asked on Saturday for his thoughts, Alabama’s Oats didn’t seem to have much sympathy for a school like Miami (OH).
“The only mid-major schools we turned down are ones that aren’t good enough. When we look at our ‘buy’ games, they need to be good enough because I don’t want to be playing Quad 4 games,” Oats said. “To me, I want to play really good ones.
“I think if you call around, some of the mid-major schools that we’re talking about not being able to find games, played multiple non-Division I games. I’m not sure how hard you tried if you’re playing three non-Division I games.”
I think it’s fair to say that power-four coaches are tired of hearing about the ‘ducking’ component in college basketball.
