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Meh. I guess it's a good enough schedule. It would have been nice to see NC State there instead of Eureka, but I guess that's out of Porter's hands. It's an improvement from last year.

Not to look too far into the future though, but I wonder if this means our series with Toledo is over or are we penciling them in for next year with @ UIC and home vs. UMKC?

No doubt. The NC State thing is a huge disappointment.

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Schedule by site and last year's RPI:

H - Wright State (118)
A - UMKC (181)
H - Samford (170)
H - MS Valley St (333)
N - UNC Wilmington (33)
N - Kent State (135)
A - Boise State (70)
H - UIC (238)
A - Florida (8)
H - Norfolk St (248)
A - Milwaukee (260)

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ramblermania had the schedule correct! The only additional details provided today were the dates of the UWM and UMKC games and Loyola not playing Toledo.

I'm more than a bit disappointed, mainly because there are no really good home games. Our best non-conference home game is against Wright State or UIC? I recognize that NC State is gone and we're on the road this year for the Mountain West series (which I wouldn't count on to continue much longer now that Wichita State is gone), but there should be at least one team from a superior conference on our home non-con schedule every year. Period.

There are many ways to do something about this, even in the current climate where schools from major conference almost never play road games. There's a possibility of starting a local series (Northwestern and DePaul) to take place when students are off campus and to minimize travel. There's looking at A-10 schools, some of the lower teams from the American (Tulane, South Florida, Tulsa, East Carolina), and West Coast for teams that may have a greater affinity with Loyola (e.g. Jesuit schools, schools with smaller home venues, etc.). And I'd be good with signing up for 2-for-1s with P5 teams if we get the 1st year at home.

The road schedule can be EXCELLENT if we win them. There's a great RPI boost for winning road games, and all of these games are eminently winnable (a 35-40% or better chance to win) except for Florida. Boise State, UMKC and UNC Wilmington will not be as good this year as they were last season, but hopefully they won't fall off too far. Milwaukee should be a little better this year, and Kent State will be about the same.

Eureka wouldn't bother me so much if we had a really good marquee home game. But it seems like such a meaningless waste in the absence of a great home matchup somewhere else. If you haven't got a big time opponent to come in, don't make it worse by bringing in a D-III school with no one taller than 6'5". Besides, the last time we played Eureka, Matt Chastain got injured, missed the rest of the season, and ended up transferring. Couldn't we at least get a D-1 team, even if it's a Chicago State or Western Illinois?

I agree. Why Eureka if we have an exhibition scheduled. Seems pointless.

Big gap between Dec. 16 and the beginning of conference play around Dec. 27th or 28th.

Agree that we need to find a way to get our best games at home or neutral. Traveling to Florida and Boise State is a very tough chore. Also not a huge fan of going to Milwaukee, but it's what happens when you have to do home and homes.

In the absence of a marquee game, which we thought we had in NC State, the home schedule is fine with me.

I guess the bottom line is that until we are ever at a point where we can get at-large consideration, the schedule doesn't make that big of a difference because we would need to run the table anyway, so just get a couple top-50 games however you can and take your chances while you prep for conference season.

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The only conference remaining that could be considered mid-major that seems like it has any chance of getting an at large in the current climate is the A-10. The MVC needs to be the A-10 of the Midwest. The good news is, we have a lot of things in common with the A-10: a good mixture of city/college town schools; State/Private mix; several schools with the potential to rise into a sustainable power; good fanbases at many of the schools; some schools with a long history of excellence; and some relative stability in membership. The Mountain West is almost in that spot, but they've been slipping the past few years. The MVC needs to get at least up to the stature of the MWC within the next 2-3 years, or the window might close. Need to raise budgets 20-30% and add two more teams-- I suggest Denver and Murray State.