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Donna Ditota threw down a pretty cool piece Wednesday that breaks down exactly how the powers-that-be come up with the full Syracuse Orange basketball schedule. While there's a lot of stuff that's out of their hands, they have a lot of say in who we play in November and December.
Go read the story but if you're in a TL;DR mood, here are the major takeaways...
Syracuse invites Colgate and Cornell to the Carrier Dome to be neighborly. Jim Boeheim said he prefers to keep those games on his schedule.
No surprise, of course. Though, when you realize Ithaca is only about ten minutes closer to Syracuse than Binghamton, you realize, man, Jim Boeheim hates Binghamton.
Boeheim said he "tries to keep away from the 300s" and schedule teams that reside mostly in the 100 to 200 RPI range.
Colgate is a school that could fit in either category depending on the year, so, as Brian wonders, will SU stop scheduling the Raiders when Boeheim leaves? It seems like something up for discussion.
Wellman and Baumgartner said SU "buys" about five or six games per year. That means Syracuse pays teams to travel to Syracuse and play in the Dome. Paying a team from California, obviously, will cost Syracuse more than paying a team from, say, Buffalo.
I'm guessing the Eastern Michigan game is bought as well. You're welcome, Murph. Boeheim also mentions that these bought games can actually be more lucrative for the Dome than scheduling a home-and-home with a national powerhouse. Though, you probably already knew that.
Boeheim, Baumgartner said, has ultimate veto power on the schedule.
Obvs.
And then, just when the schedule seems set, a team can disrupt the process by backing out. That's why SU does not release its schedule until it receives signed contracts from every opposing team.
In case you've ever wondered why the schedule is released when it's released. I know there have been instances in recent years when we were told a team was on the schedule only to see them disappear when the actual list was released.
Neither she nor Wellman, though, was willing to divulge when Georgetown (or even Connecticut) might appear on an Orange basketball schedule.
Dammit.
