NCAA

Every open date on the non-conference schedule holds value and serves a useful purpose. Some spots are reserved for “best available” opponents from the power conferences, while other dates are utilized as caulking between the joints to support an overall scheduling direction. Remaining dates are held open for buy games [.....]

The UD Athletic Department released the 2019-20 non-conference schedule a couple weeks ago, ending a summer of speculation about who, when, and where the Flyers would be playing outside the A10. This followed an announcement by the A10 office in mid-June that outlined the seasonal pairings (sometimes called Pods) within [.....]

Basketball metrics reward quality wins against quality schedules. The A10 understands this and recently partnered with the Mountain West Conference to start an annual challenge event to boost the non-conference résumés of both leagues. The agreement will offer some shade, but conference members are still largely on their own when [.....]

As the walls close in, schools like Dayton must work harder and smarter to assuage the challenges of non-conference scheduling. The pinch is real and even national sportswriters such as CBS’s Gary Parrish have penned columns about the systemic issue. It’s the proverbial chicken-egg conundrum: programs need strong opponents (and [.....]

Athletic directors share a lot in common with coaches and CEOs: long hours on the job, many nights away from home, and one phone call away from the next big crisis. For most of us, job performance is a no-fly zone of the public’s right-to-know, but that luxury doesn’t exist [.....]