Still isn't finalized- we have a thing posted on the basketball travelers board as recently as last week

So does any one have a rough non conference schedule?

The only two dates I know are at Mississippi State on December 1, and UIC at the Gentile Arena on December 7.

We are definitely NOT on the (already released) non-con schedules of DePaul, Kent State, Northwestern, and Creighton (who still owes us a return game from a Bracket Buster years ago).

Most of the schools we played last year (Toledo, St. Peter's, Furman, Tennessee Tech, Northern Illinois, and Michigan State) have not released their non-con schedules. St. Louis has released part of their schedule, and we're not on it (although Wichita State is).

Toledo, St. Peter's, and Furman were return games/obligations that we had to fulfill. Fordham I believe is on the schedule this season after they canceled last season. From what I know I think its this:

1.) @ Mississippi St. (12/1)
2.) UIC (12/7)
3.) @ Fordham
4.) NIU
5.) Tennessee Tech
6-8) MTE at Gentile- 3 games
9.) Unknown
10.) Unknown
11.) Unknown
One spot left to be booked

Ok thank you. Does not look too bad as of now. Anyone know how they will be doing tickets for the MTE? Will students still get in free?

Wouldn't Tennessee Tech be a road game? And how much confidence do you have that we'll be able to set up a MTE at Loyola, since we've tried almost every year for the past four or five, but only succeeded once? Probably being in the MVC will help, but it's getting to be late in the non-con scheduling game, and many of the potential partners are already booked up.

If it was me on the phones trying to put together a non-con schedule with all the remaining games that we appear to have, I'd be ringing the phone off the hook to Butler, Detroit, Xavier (all former MCC connections), Eastern Illinois (Dildy connection), Western Michigan (Larry Farmer back in the Joe!), IPFW, Valpo, Murray State, Rice, Tulsa, Dayton, and an above-average MEAC or SWAC school. I think we could win a lot of those games, especially with Valpo, Detroit, and others in rebuilding mode after losing key players. I think we'd be strong enough to win games against Rice, Western Michigan, and possibly even Dayton on the road, and we'd have them coming back in 2014-15, when we're likely to be much stronger.

There is an established scheduling philosophy among MVC schools designed to maximize RPI. I know that the athletic department went through some orientation sessions in June that covered this. If we follow their blueprint, it will help keep us a positive member of the league. My only doubts are that we had a late start in scheduling, we had some obligations that we want to get off the books, and there might be a lot of resistance to coming to a smaller arena in Chicago for a game (added expense, not likely to get a paid game, etc.)

If we're a drag on RPI in the MVC this year, we'll hear about it a lot. We got some flak when we joined this conference based on our lousy SOS and RPI last year. I thought that the MVC fans would have been more astute in recognizing that we were playing in a league that did practically NOTHING to bolster RPI, but they automatically assumed that our RPI was our RPI, without taking into account that Butler had left the conference and we had no support from the league in building RPI strength. By virtue of joining the MVC, we'll probably have a boost of 30 places in RPI even if we perform the same as we did last year. But smart scheduling will probably make a difference of 15 places or more in addition if we can do it right. That's the difference between 216 and 171 in RPI right there, even without getting any better than we were last year-- and I think it's pretty clear that we'll be a slight bit better.

Well, we aren't on Xavier's schedule. Eastern just changed coaches, I believe.

I was told, the last time I talked to the ticket office, that we were in talks with a BCS school.

I keep looking for released schedules and continue to come up empty.

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Cigarboy sucks!

We play a defending Final Four participant twice next year. ISUb promises to be pretty good-- I wouldn't be surprised if they win 24 games by tournament time. UNI might also win 20+ by Selection Sunday. Bradley might also be very good. The rest are going to struggle, and we could sneak in as high as 5th, in my opinion. If we finished 6th or higher, it would be a huge coup. Most people expect us at 7th or 8th. If we're 9th or 10th, that would be a major, catastrophic FAIL.

This year especially, we should focus almost entirely on the conference season. It's going to be a war, and we don't have the luxury of being picayune about the non-con season. Almost half of our non-con games were arranged before we had an inkling of going to the MVC. If we perform better than expected in the MVC season, we'll be able to have more choice in non-con scheduling next season.

63 your comments on the MVC schedule are right on ... 5th place finish first year would be great ... can't wait for the season to start ... just renewed my season tickets today ... Go Ramblers

When do we stop saying "next year" and "next season" and start saying "this season" or "this year"? I guess the proper way of saying it now is "this upcoming season".