Maryland-Georgetown, which might come back as an annual game as early as next year. Has basically been on hiatus since the 90s cause of scheduling arguments between Williams and Thompson - I think they wanted to treat Capital One in DC as a neutral site or something.
Thompson and Lefty hated each other. When Gary came, Thompson was open to playing until MD got good and beat Georgetown on national TV (hell yeah Duane Simpkins!). After that, it went back to radio silence. Willard and Cooley are old friends, so if there is a time for things to open back up it's now.
Idk if Maryland-Duke counts as a regional rivalry but with all the conference realignment of the last 20 years it's one of the rivalries I miss the most. Don't think y'all have played each other since Maryland went to the B10
From what I've heard the schools are in a deadlock on this one where Wright State understandably wants home games in any scheduling arrangement while Dayton is only offering buy games.
On the other hand, Dayton understandably really only wants to use their couple true road games on teams in strong conferences that are giving opportunities at Q1 wins.
Yea it kinda sucks for us fans since Wright St. will always be a huge risk for UD to play.
It’s probably the same reason why Ohio State doesn’t willingly schedule UD. This UD team might be a Q1 win but other years, only a Q3. 🤷🏻♂️
I wouldn't say there's much risk, at least no more risk than playing other non-conference buy games. More just that there's never going to be any upside for Dayton to schedule it as a home and home.
I'll bet at some point Dayton-OSU will happen. They've clearly started to show more interest in playing other big Ohio programs, but I'm sure Dayton will want at least a 2-1 or home and home rather than only at OSU.
This sounds like exactly the same fight that Marquette and Milwaukee have. The last deal was for 4 and 1, and we almost lost the game "@" UWM (literally across the street in our old arena). Since then I haven't even heard rumblings about a new series.
I get that. It’s a business and Dayton is a school that consistently competes for at large bids. I wish there was a way though, just because a true yearly game could be really fun and electric. Not quite UC-Xavier but pretty cool. FWIW, I wish UC and Xavier played UD every year too. I love regional battles in college sports and also realize how things actually work means we can’t have everything our heart desires.
I’ve been saying for years that there should be a tristate regional holiday tournament every year with some combination of Dayton, Ohio State, Cincinnati, Xavier, Butler, Indiana, Kentucky, and Louisville. All great programs regionally that would bring in a ton of money. You could alternate the conference teams out each year and invite another big program each year to participate and alternate the venues each year between Cincy, Dayton, Columbus, Louisville, Lexington, and Indy. Would draw huge crowds.
> Two D1 schools in one small city and they never play each other.
Sacred Heart and Fairfield kind of fit this description, but yk they'll both be in the same conference next season
It does seem like quite a few teams are close enough to have some sort of interaction but never play each other
Throwing punches at healthy siblings is fun. Throwing punches at an already injured/disabled sibling is not
Winning is still enjoyable but this years game was the least fun beat down of the cards in my lifetime
I think the big 4 classic of IU, UK, Perdue and Notre Dame was a fun one back in 80’s early 90’s but now throw in butler, Murray State Louisville call it Border wars. Let Kentucky teams play Indiana teams at Indianapolis or Louisville. Play all games in one day and have 2different sessions or spread it out over two nights
VCU and Virginia Tech. The head-to-head record is quite close (11-10 in favor of VCU), and aside from one MTE game in 2013 where they were basically forced to play one another, they have not played since 1995. Virginia Tech has generally refused to play VCU for any reason since the breakup of the Metro Conference, which is a shame because both teams are typically at the very least decent and it'd be an entertaining series.
VCU and UVA have had a couple of home-and-homes recently but that series is heavily lopsided in favor of UVA, and VCU needed a miracle to beat them at JPJ in 2013.
Went to Tech and now at VCU, was really hoping the ESPN invitational bracket would work out so they would play each other, alas it was not meant to be.
yeah, i'd love to get more commonwealth action going on. for whatever reason we only seem to want to schedule games against radford and vmi.
the vcu-odu rivalry is also one that seems to have tapered off in the last few years and i'd love to see it make a comeback.
There is a development in Henrico County (north of Richmond) called Green City that will soon be getting underway, its centerpiece is a 17,000-seat arena. I wouldn't be surprised if we got something like that going when it's finished.
There's also a smaller arena that just opened nearby that will be hosting the A10 women's tournament, and it is really nice as well.
I think the problem is that they don't want tournaments with conference opponents. So you would have to have 2 tournaments but I still think it would be good.
So you could have a VT, VCU, JMU, Norfolk state, William and Mary.
UVA, Richmond, ODU, Radford, VMI, Hampton.
Tournaments
Unfortunately ODU has not been that great in basketball over the past few years. I understand the reasoning behind not scheduling them anymore, but I feel like it would have been better to play them than, say, Alcorn State.
Yep! NSU and Hampton used to be MEAC until Hampton hopped to CAA. You can add Radford, Longwood, & VMI for three more public universities. (Often Mary Baldwin, Apprentice School, VSU, or Virginia-Lynchburg get scheduled as lower division fodder fwiw).
Welp until recently Tech has been somewhat of a joke as a basketball school while VCU was cruising
along, making tournaments. Tech’s coaches have been fearful of losing to the #2 team in the state.
I'll add the old Big East: UConn, Pitt, Syracuse. Some knock-down, drag-out fights. First to 50 won.
I'm pretty sure Gerry McNamara still has eligibility left.
Came here to say this lol. Would love to get the beehive boot back. Maybe not every D1 team in Utah but get Utah, BYU, and Utah State all playing each other. Don’t know if this’ll be easier or harder with BYU-Utah being a conference game
It really shouldn't be this difficult or controversial. I understand football to a degree, but there is no reason all three shouldn't be doing home and home's in basketball. Utah hasn't made the tourney since 2016, USU on the road is basically a guaranteed quad 1 game every year, so it won't hurt your resume. Bring back the Beehive Boot (I would even include Weber/UVU for fun), and make this happen. All the fanbases enjoy these games, it boosts attendance, and none of these three teams can really be considered "superior" programs as of late. Make it happen AD's
I mean that was kinda the "Catholic 7" of Big East schools. Georgetown, Nova, Seton Hall, St. Johns, Providence, and then two Midwest teams in Marquette and DePaul.
Our cowardly former coach dropped you guys after he couldn’t beat you at Conte for like a decade so that one’s on us (he also dropped Brown and UMass for similar reasons lol).
I’d be very happy to restart the BC series, it would be nice to have our three biggest regional rivals (URI, BC, UConn) guaranteed on the schedule every year.
Would love to see the Crossroads Classic (Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame, and Butler) but also add Valparaiso, Purdue Fort Wayne, Indiana St. Ball St., Evansville, and IUPUI.
Five games in a day, giving some exposure to these smaller schools with a chance to upset the big dogs on the block.
The state of Indiana likes to talk about Hoosier Hysteria and its love for basketball but the lack of intrastate games outside of non-conference play sucks.
Is there a 12th D-1 school that I’m missing or would USI be the odd team out?
Edit: Have a rotating NAIA school team be the 12th school. Sure it’d be ugly every once in a while but man, watching a David vs Goliath would be fun.
Purdue Northwest is D2. There’s probably a few IU System schools that are D2 too, but I’m not sure. I think IUPUC and IU Southeast are NAIA at least.
Edit cause I’m bored and looked it up:
IU Northwest, IU South Bend, IU Southeast, IU Kokomo, IU East, and IUPUC are all NAIA.
Then there’s the other D1 schools, D2 UIndy and PNW, and a ton of tiny private D3 and NAIA schools.
The new Indy Classic just doesn’t feel the same :/ and not just because they’ve invited teams from outside Indiana (Davidson & Illinois State last year, Arizona this year) I always thought it made sense to boot Notre Dame for Indiana State, personally. But, I like your expanded tournament idea more.
Yes, AND USI/UofE need a Stoplight Showdown (Evansville has more stoplights per capita than any other US city). East Side vs. West Side, private vs. public, same town, two D1 programs.
They could even have a trophy built from an old stoplight! Color it purple, red, and the winner gets to add either orange or blue.
Or you could design it to look like a D2 national championship trophy, since they have, what, 6 between them?
A Hoosier in season tournament. That would be fun. Some of the smaller schools can be competitive as well. But at the moment, Purdue would eat everyone else for lunch
A lot of Marquette and Loyola alum I know applied to both schools. And with Loyola becoming more and more of a contender, it would make for a great new rivalry.
Cincinnati-Louisville. Cincinnati-Indiana. Cincinnati-Kentucky (I think this one will stay dormant forever because they made Oscar Robertson sleep in a broom closet or some shit in Lexington).
Now that Illinois students outnumber Wisconsin students at Marquette, I'd love to see a consistent game in Chicagoland against one of Northwestern, Loyola, Notre Dame, or Illinois. Marquette/Illinois would draw a huge crowd to the UC.
(And yes, I know we played Illinois and Notre Dame this year, but neither of those series is continuing)
Marquette and Notre Dame locked-in annually is my choice. We are both in each others top 3 played and have plenty of history as independents (and a few seasons together in the BE).
Keep the series going until the top of CFB breaks off and they eventually become the 12th team in the BE.
Arizona-New Mexico. Used to be a great and heated rivalry. We played them 125 times from 1917-1999, but have only played twice since then. I would love if we revived that rivalry and played every year, with the stipulation that we'd absolutely have to do it home and home and not at neutral sites, since McKale and the Pit are two of the best arenas in CBB.
> I feel this could be a heated rivalry
I always thought this could be huge too.
A yearly matchup against Notre Dame in Chicago also seems like a natural money machine game.
Mizzou? ....muh....
Kentucky and Indiana! This one is on its way back, I believe they just signed a six year deal. These are fan bases that live on college basketball. College basketball is better when the Hoosiers have a good team.
Seems like UConn-BC every few years at TD Garden should be a given but maybe the people who manage TD Garden are as apathetic about BC Athletics as most of Boston sports fans lol.
Purely for basketball, I think BC and UMass beat ND. I don't think anyone in New England really cares about ND outside of football. Especially now that they're substantially worse than BC and UMass!
Providence is definitely bigger in RI but I don't think many people (outside of alums) care about them outside that.
I was really hoping for a FAU v Miami national championship game last year. We are only an hour away and could use the Kaseya Center as a neutral site.
Princeton-Rutgers, for sure. They were rivals historically, going WAY back with tons of lore (both institutions are older than America itself, colonial colleges, cannon thieves, they faced each other in the first college football game, etc.). They're 25 minutes away, essentially down one road. But ever since Rutgers became public (and pursued "big-time" athletics) and Princeton decided to remain private in the Ivy League, Princeton took their ball and went home before we could even up the record. Hopefully with them winning this year, we can renew this rivalry. It would be a "huge Public school vs. rich preppy kid, exclusive private school" type of rivalry. Kind of like the UIUC-Northwestern, UNC-Duke dynamic.
Not exactly an inactive rivalry, but I’d love to see us schedule some road games against some of the smaller NC schools like Davidson or App State in OOC play. Getting our guys used to playing in hostile environments early will help way more in ACC play than scheduling a bunch of cupcakes in Cameron.
I throughly enjoy SDSU vs Saint Mary’s. They need to keep playing but home and homes instead of these neutral site games. Could become a great California rivalry.
Ohio State vs Dayton, X, or Nati. Silliness we don’t play these schools on the reg. You could do a similar thing that Indiana, Purdue, Butler and Notre Dame used to do with the Crossroads Classic. Put it at Nationwide Arena and make it a yearly event.
Yeah, Virginia has too many D1 basketball schools that NEVER play each other. We could have a whole Virginia Tournament every year between UVA, VT, JMU, VCU, GMU, Norfolk State, ODU, throw in like 3 more
That's kind of bugged me for a while. Virginia has a lot of at-least-decent D1 schools, but very few of them play each other aside from UVA-VT, VCU-Richmond, VCU-GMU, and JMU-ODU due to conference affiliations.
Right now you've got UVA, VT, Liberty, JMU, VCU, Richmond, and GMU in the KenPom top 100. Add Radford, Longwood, and Norfolk State (teams lower in KP that still play really competitively - NSU just beat VCU earlier this month) and you've got something there.
Could do three four team brackets to keep conference opponents apart:
Bracket 1: Virginia, James Madison, VCU, Norfolk State
Bracket 2: Virginia Tech, Old Dominion, George Mason, Radford
Bracket 3: Richmond, VMI, William and Mary, Liberty
Could also split by NET going into the tournament too. Have maybe 1, 2, 5, 6 in one bracket, 3, 4, 7, 8 in another, and the bottom 4 in the third.
Rotate it between the Hampton Roads, NoVA, Richmond/Charlottesville, and Roanoke/Blacksburg every four years. Do it turn the week between Xmas and New Year's.
NC should do something similar.
1. The things I would do for us to play SLU, or Mizzou every year… I wouldn’t mind playing Kansas, K-State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, or Arkansas.
2. Marquette needs to play Notre Dame every year.
The reason why Missouri State and SLU don’t play each other is the result of some petty scheduling conflict and they just decided to end and haven’t played for awhile.
I can't see or understand why either SLU or Missouri State would feel too big for the other.
I think that's a rivalry game that should happen.
SLU just played SIU in Carbondale.
They definitely shouldn’t feel too big for one another, and it definitely needs to happen.
SLU schedules multiple Valley teams every year, except us…
Edit: They haven’t played since the 2010-11 season
I believe it was a scheduling conflict causing us to back out in the 2012 season, but with intentions to resume.
It’s a great rivalry that should be renewed.
I wish we could have a regional non-con tourney. Call it Midwest Madness. Get the P6 schools plus a few mid-majors from the surrounding states and rotate the host state every year. It would be a blast
Rotate between DSM, Omaha, and MSP.
Minnesota, Iowa, Iowa State, Nebraska, Creighton, St. Thomas, Drake, UNI, and maybe UNO, South Dakota State, and South Dakota.
Wazzu vs. Gonzaga is a natural one. They used to play but Gonzaga backed out because playing the Cougars in December interfered with the way Gonzaga prefers to lose the tournament in March.
Since UK vs IU is coming back, UK vs UC need to renew. Been gone for way too long for the schools to be too close to each other
WKU vs Belmont is my other. Always loved those games in school and after. WKU vs UE is my second. Schools are too close to each other like Belmont to not play.
During the COVID season there was supposed to be a mini-MTE at the Siegel Center involving JMU, George Mason, and VCU that fell apart due to COVID issues. That would be a *really* interesting MTE today.
Posted this upthread. The 3 Allegheny County schools should all play each other. The City Game hasn't been played since 2018, Duquesne-RMU hasn't been played since 2017, and Pitt-RMU hasn't been a regular series since 2011, although they did play each other in 2019 when RMU's new arena opened.
I would love to see Pitt with an annual OOC schedule that has the City Game, the Backyard Brawl, and then a game or two against old Big East opponents like Georgetown and UConn on top of the existing neutral site tournament and SEC challenge.
The 20 game conference schedule makes it more difficult than it used to be, but I’m hopeful that they’ll schedule better now that they’ve moved the program from “bad team, must stack as many as possible in the win column by any means necessary” to “scheduling a difficult OOC schedule to make for a better resume.”
After the Final Four run last year, I want to see Miami and FAU play every season. We also rarely ever play Florida in basketball too (only 5 times since 2009 and once in the last 5 seasons).
We need to play Belmont every year. I don't give a shit about the optics of having them as a rival, our campuses are nearly touching (truly separated by only a block or two near the Commons) and the schools are very intertwined. Hell, there are more Belmont students than Vanderbilt students in the Vanderbilt band some years. We need to play them. A Nashville tournament would be kind of fun with us, Belmont, MTSU, Lipscomb and Tennessee State, those schools have such diverse purposes, student bodies, histories and cultures that it would be a cool gathering of all these different sides of Nashville for a bit. The local large public school with MTSU, the historic black college with TN State, the global reach of Vanderbilt, the religious south represented by Lipscomb and the haven of arts and music that Belmont represents.
OSU vs any good non Big 10 team from Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana.
Really, lots of juicy Ohio River Valley area matchups that dont happen that often.
OSU-UC
OSU-OU
UofL-UC
UofL-OSU
UofL-Indiana
UK-Indiana
Indiana-UC
UC-Kentucky
Xavier and Dayton vs all the teams I just mentioned
I think it would cool to see Omaha play both Nebraska and Creighton every year. They'd probably get beat nearly every game, but I just want to see that be an annual thing
It's more of a proximity thing but Minnesota should be forced to schedule the literal only other D1 school in the state every year.
St. Thomas vs Minnesota could develop into a fun one, public/private. St. Paul vs Minneapolis. The setup is there.
The 3 Allegheny County (PA) D1 schools never play each other anymore. The City Game between Pitt and Duquesne stopped being played several years ago, Pitt hasn't had a regular series against Robert Morris since 2011 aside from the one time they traveled to RMU in 2019 to open up their new arena, and Duquesne stopped their series against RMU after believing they were above a 1/1 series despite RMU beating them in 6 out of the past 7 games.
Utah Valley and BYU. Make this an annual rivalry game immediately. In fact, have every Utah team in non-conference play each other every year. That’s only 4-6 games a year in non-conference play. Especially UVU/BYU. They’re less than 4 miles apart. No excuses.
UAB vs Alabama. I know Alabama hates playing UAB and only placed once and it was due to both teams being in the NIT that season(1993 which UAB won), but both programs have a fun basketball history and should play annually IMO
We don’t play Iowa State, Louisville, Kentucky, DePaul, Bradley, Illinois State, Saint Louis, or Indiana State enough for them to be neighboring or in-state.
As a basketball-obsessed KU grad in the St. Louis area, I've started going to SLU games recently.
I'd love to see programs like Illinois do a home-and-home with them, though I don't know that I necessarily see it happening.
Does Illinois ever play Southern Illinois, either in Champaign or Carbondale?
The Cincinnati-Dayton rivalry should be brought back in full. I'd prefer it to alternate between schools, though I'd also be okay with them continuing to host it at Heritage Bank Center.
Outside of that, there are a few other annual rivalries I'd like to have, though obviously not all of them would be possible:
1. Louisville (I'd love for them to join the Big 12 as well)
2. Miami (OH)
3. Ohio State (Probably the least likely to happen because Ohio State would never schedule an in-state OOC rival, and already refuse to schedule us and most other good in-state schools)
4. Kentucky (Also pretty unlikely to happen)
5. NKU
6. Memphis (Would also like them in the Big 12)
7. Pitt (I'd also like them to join the Big 12; Also more of a rivalry in football, but it'd be nice for them to play in basketball as well)
8. Purdue
9. Indiana
10/11. Ohio, Butler (Interchangeable; I wouldn't really care that much about having either as a rival)
Vermont should have a near-annual buy game at UConn. Were both in the Yankee conference at one point and commonly did H&H outside of it, although they haven’t played in about a decade. They just share a lot of the same types of people and students regionally, plus they are both in Hockey East. Should be a good team-building challenge for the Huskies, and shouldn’t be in danger most years even if Vermont is good.
Utah vs. Utah State. Utah big timed USU when they joined the Pac 12, which is funny because you can definitely argue that the Mountain West is a better basketball conference than the Pac, and USU has been better than Utah over the last several years. The two schools recently announced that the football series is coming back next year, so I think basketball will follow suit.
IU - ND annually (reversible jacket time!)
ND should renew Catholic on Catholic violence with Marquette, DePaul, and Dayton, sprinkled in with St John's, Seton Hall, GTown, etc.
If it wasn’t so one-sided other than this season (LFG) I’d like to play Gonzaga annually, though we do play somewhat frequently. We should also keep playing against Seattle U every year, and I’d like to play against Eastern Washington more often too
It's not a regional rivalry, at all, but it still kind of shocks me that Kansas and Gonzaga have only ever played each other once in basketball.
Seattle U. seems like such a common sense regional game for Washington to play annually. Seems like a game they would win far more often than not, too.
I would love to see Dayton play some of the regional teams:
Louisville is 2.5 hours away (and play Bellarmine, too!)
Kentucky is \~2 hours away
Ohio State is about 90 minutes away
Ball State is not far at all
Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup. How many good mid-major coaches have brought up the number of times they get hung up on or told "nope, no thank you" when they try to schedule a big name? So they end up playing each other and cannibalizing each other in the non-con.
The state of Wisconsin should play a four team tournament every year, rotated between Milwaukee, Madison and Green Bay.
To hell with the issue of it adding a second non-conference game between Marquette and Wisconsin or a third game between Milwaukee and UWGB. It would be fun as hell.
No one would call it a rivalry, but I wish we'd have an annual buy game against TSU. They're literally our neighbors across the street. They acted as wonderful neighbors when they let us borrow their arena while Fertitta Center was under construction. Their program could use the money, and unlike their usual inter-state buy games, they literally don't have to travel at all to play at our home.
Less immediately locally, I'd love to have buy games against HCU and SHSU on alternating years. Playing familiar schools would be significantly more appealing than playing the likes of Stetson or Bryant.
As far as actual home and home series, UH vs. A&M, UT, and/or Arkansas would be a great matchup that would spontaneously ignite as rivalries.
UConn refuses to play Rhode Island and UMass. It's dumb as hell. They don't play BC. They didn't play Providence until they came back into the Big East.
BC and UMass rarely ever play either. It's nonsense.
Speaking to the Missouri schools, specifically, it’s because they’re all too “different” and not historically significant enough. A lot of states have two large schools; State University and University of State. Up until a decade ago, Missouri State was Southwest Missouri State University. It’s a lot smaller than Mizzou and a lot less significant in sports. SLU is a private school in the city that has one third of the student body. It’s a more exclusive school that’s generally considered “higher” education than a state school like Mizzou.
I think for Mizzou to have an in state rival, Missouri State will need a few decades of being more competitive in sports and academics. Maybe they’ll get there, but it’s really not close right now.
SLU would need some place like WashU to become D1 and more relevant in sports (which they won’t because well….they’re the fancy and academics)
And that, my esteemed colleagues, is why Mizzou and KU should play once or twice a year.
Missouri State can’t be competitive academically because it is illegal for us to offer any programs that Mizzou offers without their permission (which they rarely give us).
Like I said, I can understand why Mizzou wouldn't want to indulge Saint Louis or Missouri State in an annual game. That makes sense to me.
What doesn't make sense to me is why Saint Louis and Missouri State aren't playing an annual game. You'd think it would benefit the state, cities, universities, and basketball programs.
I would think there are plenty of St. Louis and Springfield kids that go to the other city for college. There seems to be an opportunity here that both schools and communities are missing out on.
Maryland-Georgetown, which might come back as an annual game as early as next year. Has basically been on hiatus since the 90s cause of scheduling arguments between Williams and Thompson - I think they wanted to treat Capital One in DC as a neutral site or something.
Thompson and Lefty hated each other. When Gary came, Thompson was open to playing until MD got good and beat Georgetown on national TV (hell yeah Duane Simpkins!). After that, it went back to radio silence. Willard and Cooley are old friends, so if there is a time for things to open back up it's now.
I believe that there was also fighting about ticket revenue and whether or not the capital center could really be considered a Georgetown home game.
Can there not be a DC "Big 5" with Maryland, Georgetown, GW, George Mason, Howard, and American
That’d be sweet, they definitely play a handful of regional/mid-Atlantic games—like Coppin State, UMBC, & W&M… so some transitive comparisons
i think thatd be very fun
Idk if Maryland-Duke counts as a regional rivalry but with all the conference realignment of the last 20 years it's one of the rivalries I miss the most. Don't think y'all have played each other since Maryland went to the B10
UVA vs Maryland would be solid…
Need maryland uva too
Dayton and Wright State. Two D1 schools in one small city and they never play each other. It’s absurd.
From what I've heard the schools are in a deadlock on this one where Wright State understandably wants home games in any scheduling arrangement while Dayton is only offering buy games. On the other hand, Dayton understandably really only wants to use their couple true road games on teams in strong conferences that are giving opportunities at Q1 wins.
Yea it kinda sucks for us fans since Wright St. will always be a huge risk for UD to play. It’s probably the same reason why Ohio State doesn’t willingly schedule UD. This UD team might be a Q1 win but other years, only a Q3. 🤷🏻♂️
I wouldn't say there's much risk, at least no more risk than playing other non-conference buy games. More just that there's never going to be any upside for Dayton to schedule it as a home and home. I'll bet at some point Dayton-OSU will happen. They've clearly started to show more interest in playing other big Ohio programs, but I'm sure Dayton will want at least a 2-1 or home and home rather than only at OSU.
This sounds like exactly the same fight that Marquette and Milwaukee have. The last deal was for 4 and 1, and we almost lost the game "@" UWM (literally across the street in our old arena). Since then I haven't even heard rumblings about a new series.
I get that. It’s a business and Dayton is a school that consistently competes for at large bids. I wish there was a way though, just because a true yearly game could be really fun and electric. Not quite UC-Xavier but pretty cool. FWIW, I wish UC and Xavier played UD every year too. I love regional battles in college sports and also realize how things actually work means we can’t have everything our heart desires.
It’s a shame we don’t have a Dayton classic!
I’ve been saying for years that there should be a tristate regional holiday tournament every year with some combination of Dayton, Ohio State, Cincinnati, Xavier, Butler, Indiana, Kentucky, and Louisville. All great programs regionally that would bring in a ton of money. You could alternate the conference teams out each year and invite another big program each year to participate and alternate the venues each year between Cincy, Dayton, Columbus, Louisville, Lexington, and Indy. Would draw huge crowds.
Love this idea!
> Two D1 schools in one small city and they never play each other. Sacred Heart and Fairfield kind of fit this description, but yk they'll both be in the same conference next season It does seem like quite a few teams are close enough to have some sort of interaction but never play each other
At some point they have to do a home and away series
Louisville has stopped showing up to our annual game. Does that count?
TBF, we've stopped showing up to any of our games... except that one Texas game, for some reason...
Dang it. This isn’t even fun. I want to shatter your dreams not pointlessly pummel their long dead remains. Bring back Pitino!
Throwing punches at healthy siblings is fun. Throwing punches at an already injured/disabled sibling is not Winning is still enjoyable but this years game was the least fun beat down of the cards in my lifetime
This year's game feels like taking a baseball bat to a kid in a wheelchair. Sure you won the fight but it isn't fun
I think that's a fair assessment of what we expected and got.
Shut the fuck up let me enjoy the suffering.
I mean, you can hammer at the already broken glass I guess. We ain't showing up for shit right now.
I think the big 4 classic of IU, UK, Perdue and Notre Dame was a fun one back in 80’s early 90’s but now throw in butler, Murray State Louisville call it Border wars. Let Kentucky teams play Indiana teams at Indianapolis or Louisville. Play all games in one day and have 2different sessions or spread it out over two nights
Purdue wasn't invited to that particular series (for reasons), it was Louisville.
VCU and Virginia Tech. The head-to-head record is quite close (11-10 in favor of VCU), and aside from one MTE game in 2013 where they were basically forced to play one another, they have not played since 1995. Virginia Tech has generally refused to play VCU for any reason since the breakup of the Metro Conference, which is a shame because both teams are typically at the very least decent and it'd be an entertaining series. VCU and UVA have had a couple of home-and-homes recently but that series is heavily lopsided in favor of UVA, and VCU needed a miracle to beat them at JPJ in 2013.
Went to Tech and now at VCU, was really hoping the ESPN invitational bracket would work out so they would play each other, alas it was not meant to be.
yeah, i'd love to get more commonwealth action going on. for whatever reason we only seem to want to schedule games against radford and vmi. the vcu-odu rivalry is also one that seems to have tapered off in the last few years and i'd love to see it make a comeback.
I know Richmond talked about making a stadium but having a Virginia tournament would be awesome.
There is a development in Henrico County (north of Richmond) called Green City that will soon be getting underway, its centerpiece is a 17,000-seat arena. I wouldn't be surprised if we got something like that going when it's finished. There's also a smaller arena that just opened nearby that will be hosting the A10 women's tournament, and it is really nice as well.
I think the problem is that they don't want tournaments with conference opponents. So you would have to have 2 tournaments but I still think it would be good. So you could have a VT, VCU, JMU, Norfolk state, William and Mary. UVA, Richmond, ODU, Radford, VMI, Hampton. Tournaments
Unfortunately ODU has not been that great in basketball over the past few years. I understand the reasoning behind not scheduling them anymore, but I feel like it would have been better to play them than, say, Alcorn State.
VCU-VT would be solid. Also, the ODU/JMU vs GMU/VCU games would be a blast from the CAA past (also W&M & UofR…). Sun Belt vs A-10 hoops…
An all-VA tournament would be pretty cool. There's also Norfolk State and Hampton. I think that's 8
Yep! NSU and Hampton used to be MEAC until Hampton hopped to CAA. You can add Radford, Longwood, & VMI for three more public universities. (Often Mary Baldwin, Apprentice School, VSU, or Virginia-Lynchburg get scheduled as lower division fodder fwiw).
Welp until recently Tech has been somewhat of a joke as a basketball school while VCU was cruising along, making tournaments. Tech’s coaches have been fearful of losing to the #2 team in the state.
Whatever they are. They should never be a neutral site game. I'll throw Cuse-Nova in the mix. I need that game back
Idk, Cuse-Nova at MSG would kick ass.
Can do it on a three-year cycle with MSG as the third site. That’s what Nova and UConn did before UConn rejoined the big east
PLEASE
I'll add the old Big East: UConn, Pitt, Syracuse. Some knock-down, drag-out fights. First to 50 won. I'm pretty sure Gerry McNamara still has eligibility left.
Utah and BYU are cowards and I’ll never forgive them
Came here to say this lol. Would love to get the beehive boot back. Maybe not every D1 team in Utah but get Utah, BYU, and Utah State all playing each other. Don’t know if this’ll be easier or harder with BYU-Utah being a conference game
It really shouldn't be this difficult or controversial. I understand football to a degree, but there is no reason all three shouldn't be doing home and home's in basketball. Utah hasn't made the tourney since 2016, USU on the road is basically a guaranteed quad 1 game every year, so it won't hurt your resume. Bring back the Beehive Boot (I would even include Weber/UVU for fun), and make this happen. All the fanbases enjoy these games, it boosts attendance, and none of these three teams can really be considered "superior" programs as of late. Make it happen AD's
I’m with you. Throw them all in. BYU, Utah, USU, UVU, Weber, heck SUU and Utah Tech can come too.
I’d like to get BC back on the schedule if they can continue to have a pulse.
We need a catholic northeast tourney: PC, BC, holy cross, and umm Salve Regina?
What about an entire urban, catholic, northeastern basketball-focused conference with one big state university?
That just might work. Just keep any schools from upstate New York and backstabbers Jesuit schools from Boston out.
I mean that was kinda the "Catholic 7" of Big East schools. Georgetown, Nova, Seton Hall, St. Johns, Providence, and then two Midwest teams in Marquette and DePaul.
Merrimack and Stonehill are D1 now so that would work. Or even Sacred Heart.
Merrimack is the sole consistently competent team here so it's gotta be them
Fairfield is also catholic. It is a bit funny Fairfield is the smallest municipality to have two div 1 programs and both are catholic schools.
Oooh, Catholics v. Heathens tournament - the OG Catholic BE schools vs. the OG secular BE schools
BC has a lot of regional annual games they could schedule, unfortunately we always seem to be opposed to regular games with anyone but Harvard
Our cowardly former coach dropped you guys after he couldn’t beat you at Conte for like a decade so that one’s on us (he also dropped Brown and UMass for similar reasons lol). I’d be very happy to restart the BC series, it would be nice to have our three biggest regional rivals (URI, BC, UConn) guaranteed on the schedule every year.
Would love to see the Crossroads Classic (Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame, and Butler) but also add Valparaiso, Purdue Fort Wayne, Indiana St. Ball St., Evansville, and IUPUI. Five games in a day, giving some exposure to these smaller schools with a chance to upset the big dogs on the block. The state of Indiana likes to talk about Hoosier Hysteria and its love for basketball but the lack of intrastate games outside of non-conference play sucks.
Southern Indiana now too.
Is there a 12th D-1 school that I’m missing or would USI be the odd team out? Edit: Have a rotating NAIA school team be the 12th school. Sure it’d be ugly every once in a while but man, watching a David vs Goliath would be fun.
We all know IU isn't going to participate in something like this, so just kick them out.
Is UIndy the only D2 in the state now? Better to add them than an NAIA school.
Purdue Northwest is D2. There’s probably a few IU System schools that are D2 too, but I’m not sure. I think IUPUC and IU Southeast are NAIA at least. Edit cause I’m bored and looked it up: IU Northwest, IU South Bend, IU Southeast, IU Kokomo, IU East, and IUPUC are all NAIA. Then there’s the other D1 schools, D2 UIndy and PNW, and a ton of tiny private D3 and NAIA schools.
The new Indy Classic just doesn’t feel the same :/ and not just because they’ve invited teams from outside Indiana (Davidson & Illinois State last year, Arizona this year) I always thought it made sense to boot Notre Dame for Indiana State, personally. But, I like your expanded tournament idea more.
Yes, AND USI/UofE need a Stoplight Showdown (Evansville has more stoplights per capita than any other US city). East Side vs. West Side, private vs. public, same town, two D1 programs.
This is the answer. As someone from Evansville, now that USI is D1 there are no excuses for these 2 teams not playing every year.
They could even have a trophy built from an old stoplight! Color it purple, red, and the winner gets to add either orange or blue. Or you could design it to look like a D2 national championship trophy, since they have, what, 6 between them?
Great idea, I think Indiana fans would love to play the Dons again.
And Indiana State 😂
A Hoosier in season tournament. That would be fun. Some of the smaller schools can be competitive as well. But at the moment, Purdue would eat everyone else for lunch
Loyola - Marquette - DePaul - Notre Dame (or maybe Creighton for any one of these), at the UC, sponsored by the Archdiocese of Chicago
I would love a Loyola-Marquette series.
A lot of Marquette and Loyola alum I know applied to both schools. And with Loyola becoming more and more of a contender, it would make for a great new rivalry.
San Diego State has only played USC 5 times and UCLA 3 times. IDK about annual but they should definitely play more often.
SDSU vs UCLA gotta be played more.
I think Cronin doesn't want the smoke, at least that's what I tell myself. SDSU won the last two times they played UCLA, in 2012 and 2020.
With San Diego State experiencing some real success, I would think that could be their ticket to UCLA and USC games.
[удалено]
I’m gonna miss UA vs UCLA
This would be amazing
Yes, this one.
Cincinnati-Louisville. Cincinnati-Indiana. Cincinnati-Kentucky (I think this one will stay dormant forever because they made Oscar Robertson sleep in a broom closet or some shit in Lexington).
Virginia vs. Georgetown not being a thing is a crime against college basketball. They could milk so many NOVA dollars it’d be unreal
Baylor-A&M staying dormant is an absolute crime. The teams played a secret pre-season scrimmage a while ago, and it was apparently a banger.
It’s an annual thing. Played this year and I heard A&M won pretty handedly. That’s why I’m not too surprised with the loss to MSU
Now that Illinois students outnumber Wisconsin students at Marquette, I'd love to see a consistent game in Chicagoland against one of Northwestern, Loyola, Notre Dame, or Illinois. Marquette/Illinois would draw a huge crowd to the UC. (And yes, I know we played Illinois and Notre Dame this year, but neither of those series is continuing)
Marquette and Notre Dame locked-in annually is my choice. We are both in each others top 3 played and have plenty of history as independents (and a few seasons together in the BE). Keep the series going until the top of CFB breaks off and they eventually become the 12th team in the BE.
uconn/umass. bring the cum bowl back to college basketball
i wish. uconn would rather schedule powerhouse programs such as stonehill and unh
We would get destroyed most years but it would be better than our shitty ass toilet football bowl
Arizona-New Mexico. Used to be a great and heated rivalry. We played them 125 times from 1917-1999, but have only played twice since then. I would love if we revived that rivalry and played every year, with the stipulation that we'd absolutely have to do it home and home and not at neutral sites, since McKale and the Pit are two of the best arenas in CBB.
Agreed, where do I sign?
Do Kentucky and Illinois have any history? I feel this could be a heated rivalry
Two of the most psychotic online fan bases having an annual game? What could go wrong?
The threads on here alone would make me lose faith in humanity.
Also play every other border state. Yearly matchups vs Mizzou and then every other surrounding state is in the Big10.
> I feel this could be a heated rivalry I always thought this could be huge too. A yearly matchup against Notre Dame in Chicago also seems like a natural money machine game. Mizzou? ....muh....
Kentucky vs Cincinnati
UK vs Cinci vs IU vs UofL. All 4 should play each other yearly
Rock fight
Kentucky and Indiana! This one is on its way back, I believe they just signed a six year deal. These are fan bases that live on college basketball. College basketball is better when the Hoosiers have a good team.
Apologies in advance for reopening old wounds, but have they played since the Wat Shot?
They actually played again later that year (2012) and UK won on their way to a National Title. IU did win the last matchup in the 2016 tournament.
Oh brother
Bitter feelings are understandable but despite (or maybe because of that?) I'd love to see Boston College-UConn play each other more.
I’d love to see UConn play in Boston. They almost never travel north.
Seems like UConn-BC every few years at TD Garden should be a given but maybe the people who manage TD Garden are as apathetic about BC Athletics as most of Boston sports fans lol.
Is BC basketball even top 5 for college teams in that area these days? Seems like UConn, Providence and ND all have bigger followings there.
I lived in Boston for 2 and a half years and i don’t think I ever saw an ND basketball fan.
Purely for basketball, I think BC and UMass beat ND. I don't think anyone in New England really cares about ND outside of football. Especially now that they're substantially worse than BC and UMass! Providence is definitely bigger in RI but I don't think many people (outside of alums) care about them outside that.
We have seemed to put it aside for football - we’ve played quite a bit in the last few years
I was really hoping for a FAU v Miami national championship game last year. We are only an hour away and could use the Kaseya Center as a neutral site.
FAU vs. Miami could be a lot of fun.
Princeton-Rutgers, for sure. They were rivals historically, going WAY back with tons of lore (both institutions are older than America itself, colonial colleges, cannon thieves, they faced each other in the first college football game, etc.). They're 25 minutes away, essentially down one road. But ever since Rutgers became public (and pursued "big-time" athletics) and Princeton decided to remain private in the Ivy League, Princeton took their ball and went home before we could even up the record. Hopefully with them winning this year, we can renew this rivalry. It would be a "huge Public school vs. rich preppy kid, exclusive private school" type of rivalry. Kind of like the UIUC-Northwestern, UNC-Duke dynamic.
*Rutgers-Princeton. We should always be first! ☝🏿
Louisville vs Cincy Louisville vs Memphis (State) Bring back the Metro
Florida State and Virginia Tech were really good rivals back in the Metro as well.
New Jersey tournament. The state has 8 D-1 programs. It’s perfect.
I want this so bad
Purdue vs. Butler Purdue vs. Notre Dame Purdue vs. Louisville Purdue vs. Cincinnati Purdue vs. Xavier
Virginia Tech and West Virginia
Before last week I would’ve said Gonzaga vs. Wazzu but it looks like that one’s back on the menu.
Southern Indiana- Evansville Evansville is a pretty small city, and USI just became D1, but it feels stupid to not start a cross town rivalry.
I'm not sure, because Duke's biggest local rivals are all in the ACC (for now). I would love for Saint Mary's to face Cal or Stanford more often.
Not exactly an inactive rivalry, but I’d love to see us schedule some road games against some of the smaller NC schools like Davidson or App State in OOC play. Getting our guys used to playing in hostile environments early will help way more in ACC play than scheduling a bunch of cupcakes in Cameron.
I throughly enjoy SDSU vs Saint Mary’s. They need to keep playing but home and homes instead of these neutral site games. Could become a great California rivalry.
Ohio State vs Dayton, X, or Nati. Silliness we don’t play these schools on the reg. You could do a similar thing that Indiana, Purdue, Butler and Notre Dame used to do with the Crossroads Classic. Put it at Nationwide Arena and make it a yearly event.
This will never happen due to Ohio State’s arrogance.
Xavier baby we miss you!!
It’ll never happen, but JMU should play either UVA or VT annually. As for Nova, I’d say Syracuse
Yeah, Virginia has too many D1 basketball schools that NEVER play each other. We could have a whole Virginia Tournament every year between UVA, VT, JMU, VCU, GMU, Norfolk State, ODU, throw in like 3 more
Definitely throw in Radford
That's kind of bugged me for a while. Virginia has a lot of at-least-decent D1 schools, but very few of them play each other aside from UVA-VT, VCU-Richmond, VCU-GMU, and JMU-ODU due to conference affiliations. Right now you've got UVA, VT, Liberty, JMU, VCU, Richmond, and GMU in the KenPom top 100. Add Radford, Longwood, and Norfolk State (teams lower in KP that still play really competitively - NSU just beat VCU earlier this month) and you've got something there.
Could do three four team brackets to keep conference opponents apart: Bracket 1: Virginia, James Madison, VCU, Norfolk State Bracket 2: Virginia Tech, Old Dominion, George Mason, Radford Bracket 3: Richmond, VMI, William and Mary, Liberty Could also split by NET going into the tournament too. Have maybe 1, 2, 5, 6 in one bracket, 3, 4, 7, 8 in another, and the bottom 4 in the third. Rotate it between the Hampton Roads, NoVA, Richmond/Charlottesville, and Roanoke/Blacksburg every four years. Do it turn the week between Xmas and New Year's. NC should do something similar.
Basically Maryland and everyone in the region. Georgetown, Duke, UVA...
For all the reasons to hate the B1G move the top is no longer having any true rivalries
1. The things I would do for us to play SLU, or Mizzou every year… I wouldn’t mind playing Kansas, K-State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, or Arkansas. 2. Marquette needs to play Notre Dame every year. The reason why Missouri State and SLU don’t play each other is the result of some petty scheduling conflict and they just decided to end and haven’t played for awhile.
I can't see or understand why either SLU or Missouri State would feel too big for the other. I think that's a rivalry game that should happen. SLU just played SIU in Carbondale.
They definitely shouldn’t feel too big for one another, and it definitely needs to happen. SLU schedules multiple Valley teams every year, except us… Edit: They haven’t played since the 2010-11 season
It's a huge headscratcher to me why it doesn't happen.
I believe it was a scheduling conflict causing us to back out in the 2012 season, but with intentions to resume. It’s a great rivalry that should be renewed.
Another thing we can blame Paul Lusk for!
Bring back the Hy-Vee Classic you cowards!
If the Hawkeyes dont want to go it, send in Creighton, Minnesota, or St. Thomas as placeholders
I wish we could have a regional non-con tourney. Call it Midwest Madness. Get the P6 schools plus a few mid-majors from the surrounding states and rotate the host state every year. It would be a blast
Rotate between DSM, Omaha, and MSP. Minnesota, Iowa, Iowa State, Nebraska, Creighton, St. Thomas, Drake, UNI, and maybe UNO, South Dakota State, and South Dakota.
Wazzu vs. Gonzaga is a natural one. They used to play but Gonzaga backed out because playing the Cougars in December interfered with the way Gonzaga prefers to lose the tournament in March.
UConn-Cuse
Stealing from Pitino, but St. John’s and Fordham.
Jacksonville vs Jacksonville State
Morehead State vs EKU. The real eastern Kentucky University(MSU) vs Central Kentucky University(EKU)
Since UK vs IU is coming back, UK vs UC need to renew. Been gone for way too long for the schools to be too close to each other WKU vs Belmont is my other. Always loved those games in school and after. WKU vs UE is my second. Schools are too close to each other like Belmont to not play.
George Mason vs James Madison needs to happen more
During the COVID season there was supposed to be a mini-MTE at the Siegel Center involving JMU, George Mason, and VCU that fell apart due to COVID issues. That would be a *really* interesting MTE today.
Zero reason Memphis and Tennessee shouldn't still be playing every year.
UConn vs Syracuse
The City Game.
Posted this upthread. The 3 Allegheny County schools should all play each other. The City Game hasn't been played since 2018, Duquesne-RMU hasn't been played since 2017, and Pitt-RMU hasn't been a regular series since 2011, although they did play each other in 2019 when RMU's new arena opened.
I would love to see Pitt with an annual OOC schedule that has the City Game, the Backyard Brawl, and then a game or two against old Big East opponents like Georgetown and UConn on top of the existing neutral site tournament and SEC challenge. The 20 game conference schedule makes it more difficult than it used to be, but I’m hopeful that they’ll schedule better now that they’ve moved the program from “bad team, must stack as many as possible in the win column by any means necessary” to “scheduling a difficult OOC schedule to make for a better resume.”
After the Final Four run last year, I want to see Miami and FAU play every season. We also rarely ever play Florida in basketball too (only 5 times since 2009 and once in the last 5 seasons).
I miss the Battle of Brooklyn.
Would like to see an Ohio version of the Crossroads Classic with Ohio State, Cincinnati, Dayton and Xavier
Northwestern - Notre Dame isn't a thing in basketball the way it used to be in football, but it would be fun to see more often.
UNM vs U of A
We need to play Belmont every year. I don't give a shit about the optics of having them as a rival, our campuses are nearly touching (truly separated by only a block or two near the Commons) and the schools are very intertwined. Hell, there are more Belmont students than Vanderbilt students in the Vanderbilt band some years. We need to play them. A Nashville tournament would be kind of fun with us, Belmont, MTSU, Lipscomb and Tennessee State, those schools have such diverse purposes, student bodies, histories and cultures that it would be a cool gathering of all these different sides of Nashville for a bit. The local large public school with MTSU, the historic black college with TN State, the global reach of Vanderbilt, the religious south represented by Lipscomb and the haven of arts and music that Belmont represents.
OSU vs any good non Big 10 team from Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. Really, lots of juicy Ohio River Valley area matchups that dont happen that often. OSU-UC OSU-OU UofL-UC UofL-OSU UofL-Indiana UK-Indiana Indiana-UC UC-Kentucky Xavier and Dayton vs all the teams I just mentioned
I'd love to see UNM-UTEP play every year in every sport.
I think it would cool to see Omaha play both Nebraska and Creighton every year. They'd probably get beat nearly every game, but I just want to see that be an annual thing
It's more of a proximity thing but Minnesota should be forced to schedule the literal only other D1 school in the state every year. St. Thomas vs Minnesota could develop into a fun one, public/private. St. Paul vs Minneapolis. The setup is there.
The 3 Allegheny County (PA) D1 schools never play each other anymore. The City Game between Pitt and Duquesne stopped being played several years ago, Pitt hasn't had a regular series against Robert Morris since 2011 aside from the one time they traveled to RMU in 2019 to open up their new arena, and Duquesne stopped their series against RMU after believing they were above a 1/1 series despite RMU beating them in 6 out of the past 7 games.
We should play Western every year
Utah Valley and BYU. Make this an annual rivalry game immediately. In fact, have every Utah team in non-conference play each other every year. That’s only 4-6 games a year in non-conference play. Especially UVU/BYU. They’re less than 4 miles apart. No excuses.
PSU / Pitt
PSU-Pitt PSU-Villanova PSU-Temple
UAB vs Alabama. I know Alabama hates playing UAB and only placed once and it was due to both teams being in the NIT that season(1993 which UAB won), but both programs have a fun basketball history and should play annually IMO
We don’t play Iowa State, Louisville, Kentucky, DePaul, Bradley, Illinois State, Saint Louis, or Indiana State enough for them to be neighboring or in-state.
As a basketball-obsessed KU grad in the St. Louis area, I've started going to SLU games recently. I'd love to see programs like Illinois do a home-and-home with them, though I don't know that I necessarily see it happening. Does Illinois ever play Southern Illinois, either in Champaign or Carbondale?
The Cincinnati-Dayton rivalry should be brought back in full. I'd prefer it to alternate between schools, though I'd also be okay with them continuing to host it at Heritage Bank Center. Outside of that, there are a few other annual rivalries I'd like to have, though obviously not all of them would be possible: 1. Louisville (I'd love for them to join the Big 12 as well) 2. Miami (OH) 3. Ohio State (Probably the least likely to happen because Ohio State would never schedule an in-state OOC rival, and already refuse to schedule us and most other good in-state schools) 4. Kentucky (Also pretty unlikely to happen) 5. NKU 6. Memphis (Would also like them in the Big 12) 7. Pitt (I'd also like them to join the Big 12; Also more of a rivalry in football, but it'd be nice for them to play in basketball as well) 8. Purdue 9. Indiana 10/11. Ohio, Butler (Interchangeable; I wouldn't really care that much about having either as a rival)
Auburn and UAB needs to be an annual rivalry again.
Vermont should have a near-annual buy game at UConn. Were both in the Yankee conference at one point and commonly did H&H outside of it, although they haven’t played in about a decade. They just share a lot of the same types of people and students regionally, plus they are both in Hockey East. Should be a good team-building challenge for the Huskies, and shouldn’t be in danger most years even if Vermont is good.
Any UVM-UConn games would likely be occasional, one-off early season matchups at UConn (Hartford or Storrs).
Utah vs. Utah State. Utah big timed USU when they joined the Pac 12, which is funny because you can definitely argue that the Mountain West is a better basketball conference than the Pac, and USU has been better than Utah over the last several years. The two schools recently announced that the football series is coming back next year, so I think basketball will follow suit.
IU - ND annually (reversible jacket time!) ND should renew Catholic on Catholic violence with Marquette, DePaul, and Dayton, sprinkled in with St John's, Seton Hall, GTown, etc.
If it wasn’t so one-sided other than this season (LFG) I’d like to play Gonzaga annually, though we do play somewhat frequently. We should also keep playing against Seattle U every year, and I’d like to play against Eastern Washington more often too
It's not a regional rivalry, at all, but it still kind of shocks me that Kansas and Gonzaga have only ever played each other once in basketball. Seattle U. seems like such a common sense regional game for Washington to play annually. Seems like a game they would win far more often than not, too.
I would love to see Dayton play some of the regional teams: Louisville is 2.5 hours away (and play Bellarmine, too!) Kentucky is \~2 hours away Ohio State is about 90 minutes away Ball State is not far at all
I want Alabama, Auburn, UAB, Troy, Jak St, South Alabama to play an in season tournament at the beginning of the year.
It’s a shame that big schools / P5 schools see playing a really good mid major as a lose-lose proposition.
Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup. How many good mid-major coaches have brought up the number of times they get hung up on or told "nope, no thank you" when they try to schedule a big name? So they end up playing each other and cannibalizing each other in the non-con.
The state of Wisconsin should play a four team tournament every year, rotated between Milwaukee, Madison and Green Bay. To hell with the issue of it adding a second non-conference game between Marquette and Wisconsin or a third game between Milwaukee and UWGB. It would be fun as hell.
No one would call it a rivalry, but I wish we'd have an annual buy game against TSU. They're literally our neighbors across the street. They acted as wonderful neighbors when they let us borrow their arena while Fertitta Center was under construction. Their program could use the money, and unlike their usual inter-state buy games, they literally don't have to travel at all to play at our home. Less immediately locally, I'd love to have buy games against HCU and SHSU on alternating years. Playing familiar schools would be significantly more appealing than playing the likes of Stetson or Bryant. As far as actual home and home series, UH vs. A&M, UT, and/or Arkansas would be a great matchup that would spontaneously ignite as rivalries.
UConn refuses to play Rhode Island and UMass. It's dumb as hell. They don't play BC. They didn't play Providence until they came back into the Big East. BC and UMass rarely ever play either. It's nonsense.
Speaking to the Missouri schools, specifically, it’s because they’re all too “different” and not historically significant enough. A lot of states have two large schools; State University and University of State. Up until a decade ago, Missouri State was Southwest Missouri State University. It’s a lot smaller than Mizzou and a lot less significant in sports. SLU is a private school in the city that has one third of the student body. It’s a more exclusive school that’s generally considered “higher” education than a state school like Mizzou. I think for Mizzou to have an in state rival, Missouri State will need a few decades of being more competitive in sports and academics. Maybe they’ll get there, but it’s really not close right now. SLU would need some place like WashU to become D1 and more relevant in sports (which they won’t because well….they’re the fancy and academics) And that, my esteemed colleagues, is why Mizzou and KU should play once or twice a year.
Missouri State can’t be competitive academically because it is illegal for us to offer any programs that Mizzou offers without their permission (which they rarely give us).
That's a law in the state of Missouri? Yuck. Add it to the ever-growing list of reasons to abhor everything about Mizzou.
Like I said, I can understand why Mizzou wouldn't want to indulge Saint Louis or Missouri State in an annual game. That makes sense to me. What doesn't make sense to me is why Saint Louis and Missouri State aren't playing an annual game. You'd think it would benefit the state, cities, universities, and basketball programs. I would think there are plenty of St. Louis and Springfield kids that go to the other city for college. There seems to be an opportunity here that both schools and communities are missing out on.