'07-'08 Early Bball schedule

The Terps' '07-'08 schedule won't be announced until sometime in the middle of August, but there have already been a number of games announced for the nonconference portion of the schedule next season.

The Terps will compete in another exempt tournament next season, this time the 16 team College Basketball Experience Classic. The first two rounds will be held at four regional sites, with the Terps playing at Comcast Center. The four regional winners will advance to Kansas City for the semifinals and finals. The Terps will almost certainly play two low-major opponents in the first two rounds to ensure that they advance to the later rounds, where the other teams will likely be Michigan State, UCLA, and Missouri, barring upsets. Not a bad field, at all, and probably better than the one the Terps faced in winning the Coaches vs Cancer Classic this season.

The Terps will play in the BB&T Classic once again in early December.

On December 12th, Ohio comes to the Comcast Center to take a loss. Another rumoured opponent is Holy Cross.

The Big Ten-ACC "Challenge" game this year will be a rematch against Illinois at the Comcast Center on November 28th.

Ideally, with 15 nonconference games each season, the Terps would schedule about five games that are likely to be competitive. 2-3 of those would come in a preseason tournament (depending on the format), 1-2 would be part of a home and home series with another BCS school, and the last game would be a neutral site game, perhaps as part of the BB&T classic.

Then with 9-10 games left on the schedule, there should be at least another 5-6 RPI booster wins. Games against the likes of Holy Cross or Ohio or Winthrop that will almost certainly be wins, especially at home, but will come against opponents whose RPI is likely to be in the 50-150 range.

The teams to schedule would be middle of the pack teams from the A-10, C-USA or CAA or teams from the MAAC, MAC or Sun Belt. With the remaining handful of games, the Terps can schedule the traditional cupcakes from the America East, Big South or other low major conferences. The one change that should be made is to avoid the teams from the MEAC and SWAC which can hurt the RPI way too much considering how low those two conferences are on the totem pole. Maybe an occasional game against a local team like Morgan State or Coppin State, but not every season.

Gaming the RPI with smart scheduling is a big topic every year when it comes time to scrutinize tournament resumes, and it has become somewhat prevalent because it's so easy to do if a team wants to do that. It isn't an exact science, but it can be done. The one advantage that mid-majors have is the willingness to play decent teams on the road to rack up wins and receive an RPI bonus for playing on the road. But still, if the Terps follow the above outline - and over the past two seasons it seems as if they're moving in that direction - it could be the difference between an NCAA berth and another trip to the NIT sometime in the future.