As much as we're discussing the football scheduling


bjnt922

Well-Known Member
We can't ignore the other sports.

Track and field, cross country, and golf meet at a single sight so they shouldn't be as effected. Tennis and bowling are similar so I don't expect any of them to change.

Baseball and softball also play similar schedules with the only difference being that softball allows cross divisional play and baseball doesn't. I wouldn't be surprised if softball is limited to divisional play only like baseball to save on travel costs.

Now basketball, soccer and volleyball is where I see big changes. I wouldn't be surprised if all three adopt divisional play like baseball, softball and football to ease travel costs.

Soccer plays a 10 game conference schedule so they'd play 5 games against division opponents and 5 against the opposing division. Making sure its setup to where all school in the west aren't making trips to Florida and Howard every year and vice-versa. Speaking of Howard, do they remain as a soccer only member or do they join another conference. Them staying would leave us with 13 teams for soccer.

Basketball and Volleyball both play 18 game conference schedules. I wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't reduced to 16 games. Because under an 18 game conference schedule with 12 teams you'd play your division opponents twice so that's 10 games. With the other 8 being against the opposing division. One of which would have to be played against twice to fulfill the full 18 game slate. That's going to make it hard for teams in the west to avoid having to make trips to Florida and Alabama in the same year and vice-versa. Which would raise travel costs. A 16 game conference schedule would make it where the trips would only have to be made to one of the two states and vice-versa for the teams in them every other year.

For example, you play your 10 games against your division opponents. In odd numbered years the schools in the west would travel to play the Alabama schools and the Florida schools would travel to them and vice-versa. In even years the schools in the west would travel to play the Florida schools and the Alabama schools would travel to them and vice-versa. The remaining Mississippi schools would alternate with one in odd numbered years being the school that the west travels to and the other one being the schools that travels west and vice-versa with the two switching in even numbered years. This format can be applied to both basketball and volleyball while keeping in mind the men's and women's basketball teams travel together and play their games in the same day.
 
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Soccer won't change since BCU & FAMU don't carry soccer. That's why Howard was in the Swac in the first place because the Meac didn't have any soccer teams.

Basketball will have to get innovative because you can play no more than 20 conference games with a total of 29 regular season games so the home and homes are out. You probably need to play 9 home and home and 1 travel partner type weekend that will rotate every year with the exception of your rival. You split the schools in half for the odd weekend and rotate who host that weekend every other year.

Softball plays 2 cross division schools and with the addition of 2 more conference schools this may change to playing only 1 cross division school in a rotating manner per season.

Volleyball may have to go to divisions and play in 2 roundups instead of 1 to reach the 18 game conference schedule.
 
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all I ask for is SWAC Basketball rivalry weekend to be played at the end of the halves if we adopt that model - life is good after that. We've used the same schedule format for early 20 years.

Rivalry weekend needs to be the same for all the schools, midpoint and end of year. It's not that hard to do.
 
We have to depend on roundups and cluster play in several sports even in baseball. These kids grow up playing like this on the weekends for 10 years before they get the college.
We would all like to see the campuses of every school in the swac as we played but I think it would be limited buy some sports to just travel to Alabama and Louisiana for the Roundup and cluster play.
 
We have to depend on roundups and cluster play in several sports even in baseball. These kids grow up playing like this on the weekends for 10 years before they get the college.
We would all like to see the campuses of every school in the swac as we played but I think it would be limited buy some sports to just travel to Alabama and Louisiana for the Roundup and cluster play.


Yeah when I started keeping up with other sports in the SWAC, I learned it's pretty much commonplace for roundup play in certain sports.

Soccer we are actually good in for now because Howard plays their home games against SWAC schools in Birmingham (although I know they are exploring building their own home field talking to them)
 
Will schools schedule against schools they can be competitve with or just more money games?

It’s probably going to depend on the individual school. However, it may be in everyone’s interest to balance things out with competitive games against regional mid-majors while getting to the money with the payday games.

But with a 16-game schedule, you should have up to 14 slots to schedule and teams should be able to do both.
 
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