Scholarship table
I will be very surprised if Baldwin or Foster end up UCLA.......time will tell.
"We've been managing that series in two-year increments. See no reason why it won't continue for a long, long time."
a Mutually Beneficial Relationship.
So I asked Mike Broeker directly about this when he responded to my Twitter concern that this might mean the end of the UW-Madison series. Here is his response:In my opinion, that is bigger news than the UCLA announcement. UCLA is great because it indicates we are going to keep scheduling in the non-con at a high level, but knowing the plan is to keep Wisconsin for the long term is bigger because it means that the addition of UConn will tangibly improve the schedule. While that was always the hope, the general expectation in scheduling discussions has been that high-majors will simply schedule fewer quality non-con opponents as they go to 20 games in conference. Great news and great commitment from Marquette.EDIT: Another change, Broeker emailed me that with the new legislation, exempt tournaments will likely count as 2 or 3 games instead of the 4 they are eligible to count as currently.
Also the state shelled out big bucks for Fiserv and MU is Closely aligned with the state on the dental school so I don’t see either party messing with this game.
The Badger game will always be on the schedule. The history is so long and realistically neither school has another traditional opponent. Also the state shelled out big bucks for Fiserv and MU is Closely aligned with the state on the dental school so I don’t see either party messing with this game.
Regarding the scheduling and total games numbers, I think what we are seeing is a shift within college basketball where the top six conferences are attempting to move away from the pack, not unlike the Power 5 in college football. Power conferences are moving towards twenty game conference seasons; what will be interesting to see, due to simple numbers, is how power conference teams will be treated versus mid/high-major programs that have the wins needed, but not necessarily against the power programs. With UConn's move to the Big East, it only strengthened the perception of the BE, and severely hurt the image of the American; the AAC cannot move to the 20-conference games because of their ECU/Tulane/USF paradox. Additionally, the "scheduling alliance" they own with the SEC sends the top four AAC teams to play the bottom four programs of the SEC; hardly a "win" for the AAC, and more of an added benefit for the SEC. It will be interesting to see how the committee sends teams to the tournament moving forward. There will be plenty of #7/#8/#9 teams in a power conference that will have a loaded schedule, but perhaps only 18, 19 or 20 wins.
Probably for another topic but the mid-majors are going to find it even more difficult to get at-large bids. With fewer marquee matchups available, they’ll have even more difficult times scheduling major opponents. There will be exceptions like Gonzaga but the days of the A-10 and Mountain West having seasons with 4-5 bids are probably over.
None of this is really relevant. The simple reality is as scheduling changes, there will almost certainly be significant rivalries that go away. Cincinnati/Xavier? Illinois/Missouri? Kentucky/Louisville? Syracuse/Georgetown? Iowa/Iowa State?It's simply about numbers and the shifts in how non-conference games are scheduled. If the basic format is 20 conference games, 3 exempt tournament games, 2 inter-conference challenge games, that brings the number to 25. There are only spots for 6 games left on the schedule. As recently as 4 years ago, Marquette was playing 8 buy-caliber games. Since the conference format went to 18 games, there has only been ONE occasion where Marquette didn't schedule at least 6 home games against low or mid-major schools.With only 6 games to negotiate, rivalries that fanbases consider sacrosanct are going to go away. I'm glad there are no plans for Wisconsin to be one of those, but if there is a change in the athletic administration at either school, I'm sure it will be something that is looked into seriously. You still need to get to 20 wins.
Of course, the NCAA’s members could just vote to increase the number of games teams are allowed to play with an October start.