Scheduling is almost a year-round topic of conversation for college basketball fans, especially this time of the year when the season is in the heart of non-conference play.
There are often correlations between strength of schedule and the AP Top 25 poll (there's a reason that then-7-0 SMU, which has the worst non-conference strength of schedule in the country as of Thursday morning, only received one vote in the latest AP poll), as well as the soon-to-be-released NET rankings.
Twenty-game conference schedules in the ACC and Big Ten (and soon the Pac-12) have decreased the number of non-conference games for many high-major schools, which I found has changed the complexion of how Big Ten teams schedule. As a result, surely some mid-major and low-major programs are disappointed about the declining number of opportunities to cash big checks by playing at some of the biggest schools in the country.
On Selection Sunday, we'll look back and wonder how teams in the First Four Out could've made the NCAA tournament if they had scheduled tougher opponents, like NC State last season, when the Wolfpack missed the tournament despite a 22-11 record and No. 33 NET ranking.
Then all offseason, fans will anticipate the release of their favorite team's non-conference schedule and the start of next season.
So there's no shortage of angles from which to discuss scheduling.
But what actually goes into the game contracts?
There's often a lot more minutiae included in contracts beyond two schools simply agreeing to play each other on a specific day.
Some details are admittedly pretty mundane but others will be fascinating to hardcore college basketball fans who love to talk about scheduling.
I've obtained the non-conference game contracts for more than 70 Division I schools, which adds up to several hundred contracts.
As I read through contract after contract, I took note of the clauses and language that jumped out to me as unique or noteworthy, especially in cases where schools sought out extra compensation or benefits, or potential advantages like future scheduling flexibility.
Here are some of the most interesting findings after poring through hundreds of non-conference game contracts for the 2019-20 season.
TRAVEL
NUMBER OF GAMES
There's often a clear leverage disparity between schools in non-conference scheduling, as seen by the six-figure financial guarantees that high-major schools pay their mid-major and low-major opponents.
But game contracts also shed light on some of the other ways in which hosting institutions have slightly more power than their opponents, whether it's by choosing the date and location of a game, limiting their opponent's access to game film or by making their opponent's food or other amenities their opponent's responsibility.
There are often correlations between strength of schedule and the AP Top 25 poll (there's a reason that then-7-0 SMU, which has the worst non-conference strength of schedule in the country as of Thursday morning, only received one vote in the latest AP poll), as well as the soon-to-be-released NET rankings.
Twenty-game conference schedules in the ACC and Big Ten (and soon the Pac-12) have decreased the number of non-conference games for many high-major schools, which I found has changed the complexion of how Big Ten teams schedule. As a result, surely some mid-major and low-major programs are disappointed about the declining number of opportunities to cash big checks by playing at some of the biggest schools in the country.
On Selection Sunday, we'll look back and wonder how teams in the First Four Out could've made the NCAA tournament if they had scheduled tougher opponents, like NC State last season, when the Wolfpack missed the tournament despite a 22-11 record and No. 33 NET ranking.
Then all offseason, fans will anticipate the release of their favorite team's non-conference schedule and the start of next season.
So there's no shortage of angles from which to discuss scheduling.
But what actually goes into the game contracts?
There's often a lot more minutiae included in contracts beyond two schools simply agreeing to play each other on a specific day.
Some details are admittedly pretty mundane but others will be fascinating to hardcore college basketball fans who love to talk about scheduling.
I've obtained the non-conference game contracts for more than 70 Division I schools, which adds up to several hundred contracts.
As I read through contract after contract, I took note of the clauses and language that jumped out to me as unique or noteworthy, especially in cases where schools sought out extra compensation or benefits, or potential advantages like future scheduling flexibility.
Here are some of the most interesting findings after poring through hundreds of non-conference game contracts for the 2019-20 season.
TRAVEL
- You’d be hard-pressed to find a non-conference matchup with a greater distance between the two schools than this season’s Hawaii-Maine matchup. There's are some 5,000-plus miles between Manoa and Orono. Somewhat surprisingly, it didn’t take a financial guarantee for Hawaii to get Maine to come to its home gym (“UHM shall pay the Visiting Team the amount of Zero Dollars (N/A)”). However, that’s arguably semantics. Hawaii agreed to pay for round-trip airfare for Maine not to exceed $1,100 per person for a traveling party of 21, as well as 13 hotel rooms for three nights at a room rate not to exceed $189 per room per night. So the trip from the 23rd state admitted to the Union to the 50th state won’t necessarily cost Maine much, if any, money, beyond the cost of food but the Black Bears won’t receive a five or six-figure guarantee on top of the cost of their travel expenses, either.
- The recipients of “buy” game guarantees will often schedule multiple games in the same state or region to make the most of their trip and their hosts will sometimes split some of the associated travel costs. For example, Mississippi Valley State will play at Miami (OH) and Wright State this fall and the two schools will split the cost of Mississippi Valley State’s ground transportation from December 14 through December 18.
NUMBER OF GAMES
- You’ll hear about single guarantee games, where two schools agree to a one-game agreement, as well as common home-and-home series and two-for-one agreements. A contract between USC Upstate and Eastern Kentucky potentially shed light on a rare type of scheduling agreement – the two-for-none. Eastern Kentucky agreed to play at USC Upstate in 2019 and 2020, according to a copy of the game contract. However, the contract provided by Eastern Kentucky labeled the series as a home-and-home so there’s a chance the signed contract simply included a typo. Eastern Kentucky better look into that before the Colonels end up playing at USC Upstate in consecutive years.
- A home-and-home contract between Colorado and Colorado State originally specified that the two schools would meet in 2018 and 2019 but there was a clause that stated the home-and-home series would extend for an additional two years if Colorado State’s average RPI (now, presumably, its NET ranking) is between 1 and 150 for the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons. If Colorado State’s average is 151 or higher, the contract would be extended by just one more season such that Colorado State would play at Colorado during the 2020-21 season.
- It’s not unusual for several schools to have a single-season home-and-home agreement, meaning each school hosts the other as part of the same season's non-conference schedule. For example, North Florida hosted Southern Miss on November 14 and Southern Miss will host North Florida on December 14. In-state rivals New Mexico and New Mexico State have a similar agreement. New Mexico State hosted the first matchup on November 21, while New Mexico will host the second on December 14.
- One of the more unique non-conference series I came across is between Michigan State and Oakland. They agreed to a six-year contract, starting this season, in which three of the games will be held at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit where Oakland will be the home team and three games will be played at Michigan State’s Breslin Center. This year’s game was scheduled to be played at Little Caesars Arena but the other five were written as “TBD" in the original contract. Beginning next year, Michigan State will inform Oakland on or before June 1 of each year of the upcoming season's contest date and location. So while it’s atypical for a program as established as Michigan State to agree to such a long-term contract with a smaller school, especially as part of an agreement in which the Spartans will only play half of the series' games at home, Michigan State wields some scheduling flexibility and power with its ability to choose the locations and dates of the games. Based on the rest of the Spartans’ non-conference schedule in a given year, they can fit in their non-conference matchup against Oakland as it best suits them.
- Essentially every non-conference game contract includes a clause about the two schools exchanging videos of their previous games. It's typically the previous two to five games, including exhibitions if necessary. But a contract between the University of Louisville Athletic Association (entered on behalf of the university) and Miami (OH) included a clause that “both Universities agree that they will not exchange the game video of any of the stated games with any future opponent of the other team.” It’s not necessarily surprising that a school, especially one with the stature and expectations of Louisville, would want to protect itself from a future opponent getting extra game tape on its team. And to be honest, with the number of televised games, it’s not like it’s hard to find film on an upcoming opponent, but that clause stuck out among the many contracts examined. Maybe it's an unwritten rule that schools won't give an opponent's game film to one of the opponent's future opponents but Louisville didn't take any chances and put that clause into writing.
- In case you’re wondering how teams exchange game film, a contract between North Dakota and Eastern Washington provides some insight: “The tapes can be delivered via an overnight service or electronically (Dragonfly, EZExchange, Syngery, Hudl etc.) and will be sent, or made available electronically, within twenty-four (24) hours of each such game.”
- Sometimes the film trade-off isn’t on equal footing. A contract between Cal Poly and Vanguard University for a non-conference game played in January states that Cal Poly can request film from any of Vanguard's games, practices or scrimmages from this season, while it can also choose not to upload or provide game film to Vanguard after the game. The agreement states that Vanguard isn’t allowed to film the game, either.
- In the contracts for most guarantee games, the financial guarantee is listed as a lump sum but the contract between New Mexico State and Arkansas-Pine Bluff was more specific. New Mexico State agreed to pay Arkansas-Pine Bluff $40,000 but that amount was broken down to $15,000 for flights, $10,000 for bus transportation between the airport and the arena, $10,000 for team lodging and $5,000 for team meals.
- In a contract between Baylor and Maryland Eastern Shore, it was agreed that Baylor would provide Maryland Eastern Shore with an $84,000 guarantee payable to its athletic department. Maryland Eastern Shore will also receive a second guarantee worth $10,000 that will be payable to its men’s basketball program to “be used for the purchase of Nike Apparel.”
- A contract between Ole Miss and Norfolk State included a $95,000 guarantee but that amount was broken down into an $80,000 check written to Norfolk State University and $15,000 written to “NSUAF - Men’s Basketball.” So guarantee games benefit universities at large, not just their men’s basketball programs.
- Gonzaga and Washington agreed to a four-year home-and-home series with each school hosting the other school twice. The two sides agreed that Year Three (2022-23) and Year Four (2023-24) could be terminated without penalty if either school has a head coaching change.
- There was a parking clause in the contract between Cal and UC Davis. It takes somewhere between an hour and a half and an hour and 50 minutes to drive from one school’s campus to the other but Cal made it clear that UC Davis wouldn’t receive any complimentary parking permits as part of the agreement. A very relatable clause for those who have spent time on a major college campus reads: “Parking is highly restricted on campus, all parking tickets are the responsibility of the Visiting Institution.”
- For obvious reasons, be prepared for very specific parking instructions if you play at Army. A contract between Army West Point Athletics and NJIT states, “Team buses must enter the installation through Stony Lonesome Gate. Please ensure that all members of the travel party have proper photo identification in hand at the security checkpoint.”
- Typically, the game officials for a non-conference contest are assigned by the host institution’s school or the officials are assembled as part of a “blended crew” from the two schools’ conferences. Sometimes the assignments are more specific. In a contract between Cal State Northridge and Fresno State, the two schools agreed the officials would be assigned by Bobby Dibler, the Coordinator of the Western Officials Consortium, and that they must be in good standing with both conferences and have officiated at least once in the NCAA tournament in the last three years.
- Sometimes contracts can give you a hint as to who the best officials are who are assigned to officiate games in your favorite school’s conference. A contract between Northern Iowa and Marshall stated “The home team’s conference will use best efforts to assign officials from the league’s top tier who regularly work games in both the home team’s conference and the visiting team’s conference.”
- A contract between Nevada and Davidson specified that Nevada must assigned referees “that have officiated at least 5 NCAA tournaments.”
- It’s not guaranteed but if you’re lucky as a visiting school, you can get a free meal or two paid for by the host school. Most non-conference game contracts don’t specify what kind of food but a contract between Western Michigan and Alma College stated that Alma College would get 20 pizzas or subs of Western Michigan’s choice. Interestingly, that contract also stated that the game would be a regular season game for Western Michigan and an exhibition for Alma College. We also found one contract where Jimmy John’s was the agreed upon post-game meal.
- It’s easy to overlook some of the finer details in a game contract but read enough game contracts and you’ll find out that some amenities aren’t guaranteed. For example, a contract between Brown University and NJIT stated that towels and locks are not provided to NJIT.
- The Gazelle Group, which is based out of Princeton, New Jersey, runs the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) and in an agreement signed in 2017 with Eastern Washington regarding its participation in the 2019 Gotham Classic, Gazelle promised to offer the Eagles an invitation to the 2018 CBI as long as Eastern Washington finished the 2017-18 season with a record of .500 or better.
There's often a clear leverage disparity between schools in non-conference scheduling, as seen by the six-figure financial guarantees that high-major schools pay their mid-major and low-major opponents.
But game contracts also shed light on some of the other ways in which hosting institutions have slightly more power than their opponents, whether it's by choosing the date and location of a game, limiting their opponent's access to game film or by making their opponent's food or other amenities their opponent's responsibility.