Did USF draw Big East's hardest schedule?

More on the Big East men's basketball home and away opponents for the 2008-09 season: The league's official release writes that the decisions on scheduling "mirror" opponents are "natural interest, geography, rivalries, television contractual obligations and competitive balance." The last factor doesn't seem to have come into place much in USF's case.

Despite tying for the worst conference record at 3-15 in 2008, the Bulls have arguably the toughest schedule in the league. If you look at the "mirror" games each team plays -- the three teams that a school plays home-and-away to reach an 18-game schedule -- no team has a tougher draw than the Bulls, who get extra games against second-place Louisville, fifth-place West Virginia and 12th-place DePaul.

If you assign a point value based on each team's place in the final '07-08 standings and add up the total for each school's three mirror opponents, you'll find that the five highest point totals -- the easiest schedules -- belong to teams who finished 10th or lower in the standings. It's only logical from a competitive standpoint to help the teams in the lower half of the standings with more games against each other, and from a TV perspective, you want the best teams against each other as often as possible. So similarly, of the six toughest schedules in the upcoming season, five of them belong to teams who finished seventh or higher in last year's standings. The exception? USF. Here's the totals, going from toughest to easiest, with each team's finish in last year's standings in parentheses.

TOUGHEST

1. USF (t-15th) -- 19 points

2. Connecticut (4th) -- 20 points

2. Notre Dame (t-2nd) -- 20 points

4. Marquette (t-5th) -- 21 points

4. Pittsburgh (7th) -- 21 points

6. Louisville (t-2nd) -- 22 points

7. Georgetown (1st) -- 23 points

7. St. John's (14th) -- 23 points

9. West Virginia (t-5th) -- 24 points

9. Syracuse (t-8th) -- 24 points

11. Villanova (t-8th) -- 25 points

12. Cincinnati (10th) -- 27 points

12. DePaul (t-12th) -- 27 points

14. Rutgers (t-15th) -- 31 points

15. Providence (t-12th) -- 33 points

15. Seton Hall (11th) -- 33 points

As Stan Heath said, it's a challenge to find a schedule that's fair for 16 teams, and the TV obligations to match up the elite teams only further complicate things. But if there's one team out of 16 whose schedule is wildly disproportionate to their place in the league standings, it's probably the Bulls. It's one more thing Heath and Co. will have to try to overcome next spring ...

Comments

[Rob]

Hey, it will never come easy. We gave some good teams more than they expected last year and I expect more from the team this year. Stan is a great coach and I am looking forward to their eventual rise to the top! Not this year, but I think this will be a great program building year for them.

[The Champ]

WVU is pretty good JoeB.You can't look at the name on the front of the jersey and determine what kind of program they are.Who was Duke before Coach K eventually turned them into what we come to know of them today?It would be great to sweep WVU but it wouldn't be the end of the world if we don't.The Mountaineers are going to be tough on everybody they play this season.

The traditional powers like UNC, Kansas, UCONN, and Kentucky also experience downs seasons.That what makes college basketball so fun because year after year different teams emerge out of seemingly nowhere to compete at a level they have rarely or never been at before.Hell we hope USF can soon be one of these program that can be considered a top 25 team year to year.

Having said that I do think USF will have a chance to win all their games at home which is where you have to start in order to become a good program.

Go BULLS!!!

[JoeB]

West Virginia is good, but c'mon, its not like we're talking about traditional powers like UNC and Kansas. Its West Virginia. I stand by my original post. If we can't split a home and home against WVU, then we don't belong in the Big East. Considering we haven't made the Big East Tourney the last few years prably backs up my argument even more.

[Reality]

The West Virginia's? Joe B, you can't be serious. You do follow basketball, right? Devin Ebanks? Kevin Jones? Alex Ruoff? Dasean Butler?

[JoeB]

I think the schedule is pretty fair. Its not like we're playing the 3 toughest opponents in a home and away series. If we can't split games with the DePaul's and West Virginia's of the Big East do we really deserve to be playing in this conference to begin with?

[Dave W]

Hmm, I knew the conference hated our basketball team, but at least give us a chance. The conference needs to ensure that the worst teams play the easiest (relatively speaking) schedules, because it is not a fair system if Rutgers has it that much easier than us. At the same time, because we all get into the tournament, the argument could be made that we still have a fair shot to make the NCAAs. But still, Stan can't be happy with this draw. I'm not.

Ho voluto scrivere in italiano, ma per Greg, non ho fatto.

[G.A.]

Please post in English. I have better things to do than run to Altavista for a quick translation to make sure we're not maligning anyone's mother. Gracias.

[The Champ]

Ninguna necesidad de gritar sobre ella. Para estar el mejor usted tiene que batir el mejor. La estación próxima cuando somos mejores el horario puede bajar en nuestro favor que sea una buena cosa.