By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer
Scheduling tougher nonconference basketball opponents not only makes sense for the Western Athletic Conference teams, fittingly it might soon pay off at the bank.
| Schedule Clout
Strength of schedule ratings for WAC teams among Division I teams:
| Hawai‘i |
44 |
| San Jose St. |
56 |
| +TCU |
68 |
| Fresno St. |
70 |
| Tulsa |
94 |
| SMU |
96 |
| Rice |
114 |
| Nevada |
116 |
| *Boise St |
120 |
| UTEP |
162 |
| *La. Tech |
226 |
* — Joins WAC July 1
+ — Exits WAC July 1
Source: Collegiate Basketball News
|
Commissioner Karl Benson says he will present to the membership at the annual meetings in April a proposal that would reward the teams that play the most challenging schedules.
Envisioned along the lines of a plan undertaken this season by the Missouri Valley Conference, it would mean setting aside $500,000 or so from the WAC’s NCAA Tournament television money and placing it in a special fund.
The schools that played the toughest nonconference schedules, as determined by a postseason strength of schedule index, would earn the biggest shares of the pot.
Which, if you were the University of Hawai‘i, owner of the strongest strength of schedule rating in the WAC this season according to Collegiate Basketball News ratings, could make for a six-figure payday.
Rewarding its more progressive members is an idea long overdue in a conference where there have been too few incentives to dissuade the ritual scheduling of cupcakes.
It has made for a short-sighted approach since the more teams the WAC lands in the NCAA Tournament, the more loot all the members share come payoff time and the more prestige is accorded the entire conference. When you’re a geographically challenged mid-major conference, why continue to sell yourself short?
For years the conference office has encouraged its members to play more challenging schedules, to aim high rather than to the lowest common denominator. It has implored its membership to cut back on or, better yet, eliminate altogether games against non-Division I teams.
But as Benson observes, "when you replace a Simon Fraser with a Texas-Pan American it doesn’t do much to raise the overall quality of your schedule."
The pleas to upgrade schedules have mostly been ignored as have the NCAA selection committee’s annual reproaches that bottom feeding won’t be rewarded.
Still, the message hasn’t gotten through. Take the case of 2-23 Arkansas-Pine Bluff, which is ranked 319th in the Ratings Percentage Index and shows up on the schedules this season of Texas-El Paso, Southern Methodist and Texas Christian.
Maybe if teams have to pay for their reluctance to play a competitive schedule, the WAC will cut back on its diet of nonconference twinkies.
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