Will the real Butler Bulldogs please stand up...

[dylanrocks]

Yes, Butler (RPI 60) certainly still can gain some significant ratings points by defeating, say, Florida State and Baylor in Hawai'i. That should bump them up into the mid-40s.

A home game against Stanford (RPI 240) really won't help the Bulldogs much at all. As a matter of fact, it's a game they really can't afford to lose.

As for the Crusaders (and I'm sorry if this is beating a dead horse), the key appears to toughening up the non-conference schedule. Valpo's top win to date, including league play, is over No. 168 Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Its second-best victory was at No. 195 Loyola and its third-best win was over No. 218 Northern Colorado.

You can't even make an NIT resume out of playing Troy State, Georgia Southern, IPFW, Northern Colorado and TAMU-CC, as the Crusaders have done the last two years.

And playing the likes of IU Northwest and Purdue North Central does absolutely nothing for you in terms of RPI or preparation for league play or tough non-conference challenges.

If you have to play a non-Division 1 opponent, why not UW-Stevens Point, Grand Valley State, Carroll University or one of several dozen very good non-D1s from the region?

The games that Valpo schedules don't even prepare it for going on the road against Ohio or Toledo.

[rlh]

Funny...the past couple of years our "fans" were complaining we were playing too many tough teams in the preseason (conference). You just can't please some people

[valpofan56]

Dec 13, 2010 14:36:20 GMT -5 rlh said:

Funny...the past couple of years our "fans" were complaining we were playing too many tough teams in the preseason (conference). You just can't please some people

Clearly there is a difference between playing a tough schedule and playing an impossible one. Some of our recent schedules have been impossible. I think what most people are looking for are games with more premier mid-majors (ie. Northern Iowa, Creighton, Davidson, etc) and mixing in a few non premier BCS schools (ie. Minnesota, Virginia, Missouri, etc.).

I get that it's not as easy as just "oh, let's schedule team so-and-so," but I think if we had a schedule that featured a majority of teams like the ones I just mentioned, people would be very happy.