Basketball Scheduling 101

Basketball Scheduling 101 Iowa State University fans often share their views on the men’s basketball home schedule. The most asked questions include: (1) why isn’t the home schedule stronger, (2) why don’t we play more non-conference home games against Top 25 teams and (3) why does Iowa State play a game in Des Moines? In order to help you better understand the complexities of basketball scheduling, we thought it might be helpful to share an overview of the process. Here it is: Basketball Scheduling 101. Q. What is the maximum number of games Iowa State can play? A. NCAA rules allow institutions to play up to 33 games, not counting conference tournament or NCAA tournament games. The breakdown is as follows: 27 regular-season games, two exhibition games and up to four games in a “qualified tournament.” Sixteen of ISU’s 27 regular-season games are Big 12 Conference games, so we annually schedule just 11 regular-season games, two exhibition games and any qualified tournament games. Q. A. What is a “qualified tournament?” a four-year period. In previous years, games played in qualified tournaments counted as one game toward the limit of 27. Recent NCAA legislation allows schools to schedule up to four qualified tournament games in addition to 27 other games. This allows ISU to schedule another nonconference game, since the qualified tournament games no longer count toward the 27-game limit. We have designated our opening tournament this year to be a qualified tournament in order to be able to play three more home games with our young team. While our 2006-07 “qualified tournament will provide three additional home games, that will not be the case every season. Qualified tournaments in future years may be played at another school’s arena or at a neutral site. conference games as possible in front of the best fans in the nation. In addition to the competitive advantage, home games reduce the amount of time our student-athletes miss class, minimize travel expenses and generate approximately $150,000 in net revenue, which helps support all of our programs. A qualified tournament is an in-season event sanctioned by the NCAA. Wellknown qualified tournaments include the Great Alaska Shootout and the Maui Invitational. Qualified tournaments are limited to one team per conference and no team can play in the same qualified tournament more than once during Hilton Coliseum provides our team with a tremendous home-court advantage. In the past decade, Iowa State has won more than 83% of its home games. We want to play as many of our non- Q. A. Why do we prefer to play home games? To play more home games, we sometimes provide “guarantees” to schools willing to play at Hilton Coliseum with no expectation of a return a game at their institution. That scheduling practice is called “buying a home game” and it is common at all major programs in the nation. The schools willing to accept guarantees are typically ones who do not draw great crowds in their own arenas and are not normally members of top tier conferences. For example, institutions in the Big 12, ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC are typically not willing to be bought for an appearance in Hilton with no return game. The schools willing to accept guarantee games are Q. A. What are “guarantee” games? ones from smaller, lesser known conferences. Q. Why don’t we play more home-and-home series in men’s basketball? than 22,000 ISU alums, is an excellent opportunity to showcase our institution and athletics program to new audiences. Several outstanding basketball programs, including Kansas, Kentucky and Maryland, have similar scheduling arrangements with cities in their area. Q. • What options are available to improve our schedule in Hilton Coliseum? We have initiated several strategies to improve the strength of our schedule in Hilton. Designated our home tournament this November as a qualified tournament allowed us to reduce our total of guarantee games. We replaced a guarantee game in each of the next two seasons with a home-and-home series with the University of Minnesota. Iowa State will travel to Minnesota this season and the Gophers will play at Hilton in 2007-08. We negotiated with ESPN to secure Bradley University for the Mediacom Cyclone Capital Classic at Wells Fargo Arena this December in a three-year agreement that will include a home-and-home series in 200708 and 2008-09. Iowa State will travel to Bradley in 200708 and the Braves will play at Hilton Coliseum in 2008-09. These home-and-home games will replace a guarantee game each season. Lastly, we are working with the Big 12 Conference to facilitate a conference-wide challenge series with another premiere league (for example, a Big 12 vs. Pac-10 challenge). A. A. A home-and-home series is one in which two schools agree to play one another over a two-year period with one contest on each team’s home court. Iowa State currently has annual homeand-home series with the other three Division I schools in the state (the University of Iowa, the University of Northern Iowa and Drake University). Playing more home-and-home series is something we might favor, but doing so would obviously reduce our number of home games (taking a home game away from our fans, giving up our home-court advantage and costing us $150,000 per game). Q. What are the possibilities of a “Big Four” event in Des Moines? Q. Why does the Athletics Department support a game in Des Moines? A. It is critically important for our athletics program to continue reaching out to the greater Des Moines community in order to grow the Cyclone fan base. Our athletics program simply cannot be competitive in the Big 12 Conference unless we cultivate more Cyclone fans to help support our program. Playing a basketball doubleheader in Des Moines, which has a metro population of more than 500,000 and more Iowa State University is 100% supportive of a “Big Four” (ISU, UI, UNI and Drake) basketball event in Des Moines. We believe there is great value for all four institutions to showcase their basketball programs in our capital city. You have our pledge that Iowa State Universtiy will continue to take the lead in trying to initiate an annual event in which Iowa State and Iowa would face Northern Iowa and Drake in the Wells Fargo Arena. The Cyclones would continue the annual home-and-home series with the Hawkeyes. The concept has the potential to be a “win/win” for all parties. Beyond taking center stage as the premier collegiate men’s basketball event in our state, playing both Drake and Northern Iowa in Des Moines would allow us to consider converting our homeand-home series with those schools to a similar series with an opponent from the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-10 or SEC. 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