Baseball Scheduling/RPI philosophy - 2017

[AusTexDawg]

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).