Unless we are still hammering out an agreement, we do not appear on Nebraska's schedule, as was rumored on this thread earlier.

Why is everyone crying about schedules? God. So immature. We need to build a foundation. These things take time. We have been so bad for so long, that it's going to take several decades before we can schedule good home games. We need to win for 45 years straight and then the home games will come. Rome wasn't bulit in a day. Coach Groce is building something special. Believe. Relentless. Big Fonts. Bold Words.

Thanks, I needed a laugh today.

I see you on the sarcasm. There is no reason why Ohio dosen't have at least 4 BCS schools a year on the basketball schedule. The team may win 25 games playing the little sisters of the poor but without some marquee early season matchups there is no chance for quality wins. Its not like in football where an overly tough schedule might lead to more injuries. How is playing nobody going to help recruiting? It doesn't make any sense in this sport to be scheduling so weak unless you play in the Big East where its full of great matchups in league play. The goal of the midmajor should be to have Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Connecticut on the schedule every season.

Wes, how many BCS schools do you feel we should have on our football schedule?

UT-Martin in the Convo on Nov. 13th.

http://www.utmsports.com/schedule.cfm?sport=Men%27s%20Basketball

I almost don't want to know anything further on the OOC schedule - it's shaping up to be the worst we've ever encountered.

I tweeted a mention to Aaron Fuss today to see if there was ONE marquee game we could hang our hats on this year and got crickets.

Like I've said all along, I loved the schedule last year. It was a perfect mix. This one has me scratching my head.

Selfishly, I want to see good teams on Richland. From another angle, I think we're doing our players (especially DJ) a disservice by not showcasing them/him against better, more highly visible competition.  The MAC conference games get no national play, so you have to do something spicy in the OOC. Doesn't look like his Junior year is going to be all that visible based on the schedule.

MARTIAN INVASION

I think having 1 BCS school on the football is fine. That is what Boise State is doing and they are preseason #7 in the coaches poll. Will playing 3-4 BCS schools help Ohio in the computer polls, sure but 99% of the time its only going to amount to more losses. Would having a BCS school at home help attendance every year, sure but not by that much. I would like to see Ohio move to playing MWC schools in the OOC instead of WAC and SBC, but not Boise State as they are too strong right now. Nevada, Colorado State, New Mexico would all be good matchups. Keep in mind that 1 BCS school out of 4 nonconfernce games in football is the same as playing 4 nonconference BCS games in basketball on a 16 game schedule. I can't understand only playing 1 BCS school in hoops on a 16 game slate. It sucks for TV, recruiting, and most importanly the fans.

(This probably shouldn't be on a basketball thread, but anyway.) Last MWC team we played was Wyoming, a pretty average to bad team, and we lost both games.  Not sure how many Wyoming fans came for the game in Athens, but there weren't all that many Ohio fans at the Wyoming game.  New Mexico is presently in the New Mexico State class right now and certainly doesn't add much other than a easier place to get to and some good mexican food.  Not many reasons to schedule Colorado State either right now.  Nevada is good so that would be great.  It seems to me that  a game with teams much closer to home makes a lot more sense than western US teams.  Granted there aren't many FBS teams around here that aren't in the BCS conferences other than Conference USA, so it gets a little tough, but there are some that would be better than Idaho who is on future schedules.

Thanks Wes, I tend to agree.

UT-Martian!  When I was teaching at Murray State, this was the team the Racers played as a tuneup.  They are now in the same conference as MSU; however, I'd rather play MSU -- at least they have a degree of name recognition and they are from the same planet.

I thought it was strange to schedule a real game with marietta at first. It seems though we are not the only mac team too be playing  a game against a d3 school. Akron is playing Hiram next week. At least Marietta has a quality program. The Zips picked one of the worst teams from one of the weakest d3 conferences. The economy makes teams schedule some strange games I guess.

Better look again, Looks like St Bona wants no part of us after we travelled up there and has opted for a date in ROchester Blue Cross arena vs NC State. Easier to be a buy game on a nuetral site than face DJ and Co. who may be looking to extract a little revenge.

In developing a scheduling philosophy each staff has their own approach. Louisville AGAIN in November gives us a benchmark against a team we have seen pretty often as of late. WInning at home last year should have happened and given the guys a springboard to boost the confidence of a relatively young and untested team. No further comments on that but once again a combination of teams that do NOT want to play us, a team not staying for the return game ( and perhaps not a big enough penalty for dropping...pure conjecture) and the desire to win home games as well as bolster confidence in what is still pretty inexperienced team leaves us with the schedule.

As for those who do not support the U even though they live within 3 hours .......boy that is a topic I have had close to my heart for a number of years now. The Cols alumni above is right....the mood and atmosphere do not entice alumni to come back, the local fanbase is disconnected and the regional fanbase seeds have not been tended to. I truly believe that COnvo should see 10K every night , minimum. But ...in the long run all the drum banging and talk just turns to white noise when no one is listening or the "we can'ts are at the ready...... Best campus in the MAC, best facility to watch a game in the MAC, best spirit in the MAC, most rabid ( albeit weirdly bipolar, schizo and paranoid like many big 6 conference fanbases)  fanbase in the MAC, Best place to visit in the MAC.......yet we have the worst attention to detail from parking experience to hospitality, and are amongst the bottom in gameday experience of all the places I have seen games (not that I have any experience in the road in the MAC) .

I come down for almost every game that is on a weekend, and 1-3 games during the week.  I'll agree the attention to detail and game day experience could be better, but I will say that it has improved in the last 3-5 years as well.  

After I got my season tickets and looked them over I was struck even more strongly with just how weak this home schedule actually is.  Without doing an exhaustive check, but only relying on my somewhat quirky memory, this appears to be WORST non-conference home schedule in Ohio history.  I'm left scratching my head.  I really don't understand why.  If we go undefeated at home in the OCC what in the heck will it mean?  It won't help our RPI one bit.  I'll go to every game and cheer on the 'Cats because I love my school, but I'm very perplexed by this development.

"If we go undefeated at home"

"very perplexed"

I will wait to see if I'm perplexed.................

once again we are not the only school with this ooc scheduling problem this  year. I had bad things to say about akron playing hiram but wright state is playing kenyon. Of course wright state was beaten by central state the other night so that may be why.

oops , wrong about wright state, at least their game against kenyon is a exhibition. Akron is also  playing a real game against a d3 team like ohio .

Your point?  I'm simply saying that winning all of our non-conference home games won't mean much.  Are you challenging that assertion?  I'm perplexed about why we have such a rotten non-conference home schedule.  You are not?  You understand it?  Well, 'splain it to me, please.   BTW, I don't have a problem playing Marietta College.  That's a nice thing to do for a local small college that has developed a very good D-III team.  What I have a problem with is all the lackluster D-1 teams we have on the schedule.  It's even worse than last year, and that's a hard act to follow.