Baseball Scheduling/RPI philosophy - 2017

Trying to pass the time until football starts, I saw where MSU has some open midweek dates on the 2017 baseball schedule, looking for games on March 7, 8, 14 & 15. Knowing Cohen's penchant for scheduling minimal road midweeks when classes are in session, I would doubt that we would travel on March 7th & 8th; however, do you think the potential road RPI bump (and committee bump for travelling) be worth it to schedule something like the following:

• March 7: @ Northwestern State
• March 8: @ LA Tech
• -- OR --
• March 14/15 (Spring Break week): 2-game series @ either West Virginia or FL Atlantic

This is purely hypothetical and would, presumably, depend on whether the Diamond Dogs are travelling for a weekend tournament or non-conference series. Knowing that these teams may or may not have a good RPI at selection time (I would wager WVU won't) and that we'd be losing out on revenue from a pair of midweek home games, is it worth it to you as an MSU baseball fan to schedule like this? What do you RPI experts think about how we schedule?

I just pulled these teams from the list of those looking for games on those dates. Personally, I think WVU is the kind of solid, middle of the road team to play on the road. Their RPI is never going to be great, but because they're an eastern team that plays in Texas and the Great Plains in conference play, I wouldn't expect us to have many common opponents or even many common opponents' opponents that might cancel out the RPI benefits. I think the biggest concern is whether both games would get played with the weather up north that time of year. Given how FAU went this year, I wouldn't be excited to play them on the road, but it would be better to risk losing two to that team at their place than at the Dude (and I'm sure the team wouldn't mind a little time in Boca Raton over spring break).

Scheduling isn't that big a deal to me. Just make sure you don't have more than 3-4 games against teams likely to be 200+, try to schedule most OOC games against teams in the top 100, or at least 150, and your RPI will generally end up reflecting how good your team is.

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Originally Posted by smootness

Scheduling isn't that big a deal to me. Just make sure you don't have more than 3-4 games against teams likely to be 200+, try to schedule most OOC games against teams in the top 100, or at least 150, and your RPI will generally end up reflecting how good your team is.

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Agree with this. First step to maximizing RPI is ensure no more than 2 games total against Jackson State, MVSU, Alcorn, UT Martin, etc. Those teams are guaranteed to finish 250 or worse in the RPI. And whatever games we do play against them need to be neutral site if possible. Personally, I'd love to see us start doing what Miami does and start scheduling DII or NAIA games in place of these RPI killer cupcakes. This would allow us the same opportunity to get guys some experience against live competition in the midweek or early nonconference schedule, with the added benefit that the games don't factor in to the RPI calculation since they are non-D1 opponents. A team like Delta State would fit in perfectly for this purpose, and they are a historically good program that would provide a level of competition equal to a SWAC program at the absolute worst.

With the rest of the openings, plug in games against any teams that have finished consistently in the top 150 or better over the past 10 years. There are plenty of teams to choose from in the Sun Belt, CUSA, Missouri Valley Conference, and maybe even a few major conference stragglers like WVU as mentioned above. The SEC is strong enough that we will be fine as long as the back end of our nonconference schedule doesn't contain a bunch of dead weight teams.

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Originally Posted by HSVDawg

First step to maximizing RPI is ensure no more than 2 games total against Jackson State, MVSU, Alcorn, UT Martin, etc. Those teams are guaranteed to finish 250 or worse in the RPI. And whatever games we do play against them need to be neutral site if possible. Personally, I'd love to see us start doing what Miami does and start scheduling DII or NAIA games in place of these RPI killer cupcakes...A team like Delta State would fit in perfectly for this purpose, and they are a historically good program that would provide a level of competition equal to a SWAC program at the absolute worst.

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Agree wholeheartedly with avoiding the RPI bottom dwellers. Is it realistic to think that we would ever play a JSU or MVSU at a neutral site? Can't imagine these teams require that big a guarantee to play at the Dude because their travel costs are minimal.

The Miami DII strategy with Delta State is really interesting. As long as it helps the development goals of the team, that would work for me. For those of you who usually attend midweek games, would it matter to you whether the opponent is Delta State as opposed to Valley or Alcorn?

I guess part of my original question should've been spelled out: as a fan, would you give up a few home games in order to boost the RPI? (Personally, I would prefer Smoot & HSV's suggestions to avoid the RPI dregs and have more home games that I know will be televised since Starkvegas isn't exactly a convenient distance for me).

Do you think playing a few more road games in the non-conference would help the team's mental preparation any? Ultimately, I'm glad we went to L.A. this year, even if I didn't enjoy the results (and lack of TV for two games) at the time.

It's very realistic to play Jackson State at a neutral site. We used to play them at Smith-Wills all the time and we have played them at Trustmark before. Valley would too- but the closest neutral site stadium for them is in Greenville and it is dilapidated. They certainly would likely play us in Pearl and be fine with it.

I'm all for playing Delta State as long as it doesn't hurt our postseason chances and I have often wondered why we didn't because as I understand it the game basically "wouldn't count" on anything other than record. Whereas we play a SWAC team it hurts our SOS. Personally I would much rather watch Delta State than a SWAC team. DSU is better than most of them and would probably win the SWAC most years. They play Valley home/home every year and routinely beat them. So from a competitive standpoint it would be more entertaining as a fan to watch MSU play DSU and I can't imagine playing DSU would hurt our development at all. And it would probably be better because again it's a better team. I attended the last MSU/DSU game and I have attended a few MSU/SWAC games over the years. The MSU/DSU game was one of the most fun games I have been to in my years of watching MSU baseball. There's a natural MSU/DSU connection between the programs because of Boo Ferriss and DSU. And Delta State has gotten the best of us a few times over the years. Plus I imagine that MSU/DSU would draw a LOT better than MSU/SWAC. Their fans travel pretty well- and especially to an in state SEC team. We could also potentially play Delta State in Jackson as well. I very rarely go to midweeks games in Starkville mainly because of work + distance + usually someone like directional Arkansas. But if we played Delta State I would be more likely to make the trip.

As far as giving up a few home games- we pretty much do that now you just may not realize it. We routinely have cancelled games against Valley and we cancelled one against UT-Martin this year. I can not recall anyone ever complaining.

As far as playing more games on the road- we have to be careful about it. We can go the other way and overschedule. The thing that we have to do is make sure to get good teams to come to Starkville. Yes you get more credit for road wins but if you take a lot of the sub 200's out and replace them with top 100's it helps just as much. MSU does have to consider the cost of putting the team on the bus, the loss of not having a home game, possibly putting the team up for the night and etc.

One thing that is very unique about Mississippi is that neutral site games are extremely popular. And that helps us when we play teams at those sites from a RPI standpoint. That means we could play someone in Pearl or Biloxi and be in front of our fans and get some RPI credit. We also could play Memphis at Autozone or Tulane on the road and we would outdraw the locals and get full credit for RPI on the road.

I don't think playing in front of a mostly empty stadium on the road somewhere like Troy really helps our teams mental approach at all. I mean, our guys have played at LSU, Vandy, Florida, Texas A&M, South Carolina, and etc. I think the tournaments like the one in LA are more of a treat for the players than anything because they get to go somewhere neat like LA and then they get to play in a MLB ballpark.

For me I as Joe Fan would like to see something like this:

Weekend 1:

Virginia Tech/San Diego State in a 4 game weekend

Weekend 2:

Notre Dame/Army or Navy in a 4 game weekend

Weekend 3:

Road Tournament round robin with Florida State/Arizona State/Cal State Fullerton

Weekend 4:

Dudy-Noble Tournament round robin with USCw/Texas/Miami


Rest of the midweek which should be 12 game left if my math is right (30 SEC games plus 14 weekend OOC games above in a 56 game schedule)

Ole Miss, USM, Delta State in Pearl

Louisiana Lafayette in Biloxi

Home/home with Memphis and Tulane

Single games with Louisiana Tech, Samford, and South Alabama

Home game with Delta State

I think this schedule is manageable and also RPI friendly while also being fan friendly in terms of entertaining for our fans.

A schedule like this or one similar would be OUTSTANDING....

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Originally Posted by Todd4State

For me I as Joe Fan would like to see something like this:

Weekend 1:

Virginia Tech/San Diego State in a 4 game weekend

Weekend 2:

Notre Dame/Army or Navy in a 4 game weekend

Weekend 3:

Road Tournament round robin with Florida State/Arizona State/Cal State Fullerton

Weekend 4:

Dudy-Noble Tournament round robin with USCw/Texas/Miami


Rest of the midweek which should be 12 game left if my math is right (30 SEC games plus 14 weekend OOC games above in a 56 game schedule)

Ole Miss, USM, Delta State in Pearl

Louisiana Lafayette in Biloxi

Home/home with Memphis and Tulane

Single games with Louisiana Tech, Samford, and South Alabama

Home game with Delta State

I think this schedule is manageable and also RPI friendly while also being fan friendly in terms of entertaining for our fans.

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Appreciate the insight, Todd. Solid as usual. Your proposed schedule would be very entertaining (although I would selfishly love to have that Texas game as part of a home/home).