Question for Aggies on this board

[utisdabomb12]

Just heard a broadcaster on the radio ripping into the Aggies nonconference scheduling throughout sports. He was saying A&M is scared to play decent nonconference opponents. Not trying to troll, are you embarrassed with your nonconference schedules? Literally, might be the easiest nonconference scheduling I've ever seen in all of college sports. I think in football, basketball and baseball combined you play 1 ranked team. Other then OU you don't play a single team that's in a major conference. It's not like this is a one year thing either, go look at your nonconference schedules in past years.

Football: Rice, UTEP, Sam Houston State, SMU

Basketball: UTPB, Buffalo, Mississippi Valley State, Rice, Prairie View A&M, Sam Houston State, Arkansas Pine Bluff, Missouri State, SMU, Houston, McNeese State, Oklahoma, North Texas, and UTPA.

Baseball: Northeastern, SFA, Sacramento State, Fresno State, UT Arlington, Texas Southern, LA Tech, UTPA, Sam Houston State, Columbia, Abilene Christian, Texas State, Prairie View A&M.

 

[doc longhorn]

Just heard a broadcaster on the radio ripping into the Aggies nonconference scheduling throughout sports. He was saying A&M is scared to play decent nonconference opponents. Not trying to troll, are you embarrassed with your nonconference schedules? Literally, might be the easiest nonconference scheduling I've ever seen in all of college sports. I think in football, basketball and baseball combined you play 1 ranked team. Other then OU you don't play a single team that's in a major conference. It's not like this is a one year thing either, go look at your nonconference schedules in past years.

Football: Rice, UTEP, Sam Houston State, SMU

Basketball: UTPB, Buffalo, Mississippi Valley State, Rice, Prairie View A&M, Sam Houston State, Arkansas Pine Bluff, Missouri State, SMU, Houston, McNeese State, Oklahoma, North Texas, and UTPA.

Baseball: Northeastern, SFA, Sacramento State, Fresno State, UT Arlington, Texas Southern, LA Tech, UTPA, Sam Houston State, Columbia, Abilene Christian, Texas State, Prairie View A&M.

Actually, I don't think I would have included the baseball teams. There are actually some really fine junior college teams that could probably beat UT and aggy like kettle drums - any day and all year long. San Jacinto College is one that comes to mind. Also, some of the teams you have used as examples have some excellent baseball programs as well - Sacramento State, UTA, Sam Houston, ACC and Texas State, to name a few.

But I have no argument with their football and basketball scheduling. However, even though aggy has pursued the cup cakes, let's don't leave Baylor out either.

 

[utisdabomb12]

Sure those baseball teams are decent, but I don't think any of them are ranked in the top 25. I can't recall any of those teams advancing past the regional tournament in the past years. At best, they are decent teams. At least schedule one somewhat big name program in a big boy conference. Not trying to degrade those teams, but they are good mid major teams that can win some ball games but aren't upper echelon type teams.

 

[GetHooked]

The excuse is always that the SEC is so tough. That's really misleading. It's a top heavy league. Other that 2 or 3 games a year, their schedule is nothing. And they still managed to lose 4 games with a Heisman Trophy winning QB.

 

[Agmaniacmike]

I'm in agreement with the OP. I'm a firm believer in having a marquee non-conf game every year in football, also one road game. In basketball, it has been obvious over the past couple of years that Kennedy is afraid of getting beaten like a drum by the top teams, but it doesn't matter when you lose to North Texas and Southwest Missouri State. Also, those basketball teams have been young so Kennedy wants to ease them along, but I'd rather throw them into the fire and test their mettle. In baseball, I have no problem with the scheduling. Parody is the name of the game in baseball and alot of these lower level schools pitch their best for Tuesday games. I would like to add one series against an ACC powerhouse and one against a Pac-12 one as well, but baseball is that one sport where the grind gets at you in conference play in the SEC. Road games are so damn tough to pickup wins on in that league, so I can handle the current scheduling. Its funny, our women's sports play extremely tough schedules and test themselves throughout the season, it would be nice to see that same confidence in men's athletics.

 

[MPAhorn14]

AgManiacmike - on the baseball note, I can tell you as being one of those lower level schools that got to play twice at A&M, we didn't throw our top guys. I believe 9 out of 10 times the schools keep their weekend pitchers out of those Tuesday games. With that said, A&M was a great place to play and I enjoyed it. I agree on the football, basketball, and SEC portion of baseball points.

 

[Agmaniacmike]

I know Sam, SFA, and UTA are Southland schools that consistently pitch their best on Tuesday against the A&M's and UT's of their schedule.Those teams also find a lot of success because of it. For instance, Sam has beaten Rice, Texas, or A&M at least once every year under Mark Johnson (don't hold me to that fact). I would probably do it as well, those teams are normally pretty good the years they apply the strategy and could use the RPI boost just in case the tourney doesn't go as planned. Which school did you go to?

 

[PropositionJoe]

Don't know much about baseball or basketball but non con contracts are typically done years in advance.

Prior to our move to the sec we had games on the calendar with Oregon and USC but sec scheduling forced us to change all that.

I think we will see at least one decent non con match up per year coming up.

Apparently last year sumlin and strong both tried to get a Louisville A&M match up scheduled because both had open dates but it just didn't work out.

 

[Randolph Duke]

I don't see their OOC conference scheduling as being "scared" as much as they are trying to schedule teams they can play only at home in an attempt to boost revenues. The program athletics department over there had to borrow $4mil in each of 2006, 06, 08, 09 and $5.2 in 2012 to pay its bills and still hasn't paid that money back yet. They have been putting money into facilities, but the book value (cost, minus, debt, minus depreciation) of their athletics facilities is just over $100mil. OU's is at around $190 mil, UT's is around $300mil. The new Kyle Field is pegged at $450 mil cost, but it is being backed by $350 mil in taxable municipal debt, so even with that addition, overall investment in facilities at tamu trails most other major programs in the region (book value of facilities at tamu after the upgrade of Kyle will only increase by the $100 in equity value of the project and still be slightly less than OU but trail far behind UT). Their total revenue has blipped up slightly since the SEC move, but because of an increase in donations (including those tied to ticket sales), but not their operating revenue. The bottom line is that every dollar counts to the tamu program right now. More home games means more revenue. Only certain teams will agree to a one-off College Station game or a two game deal with both games at tamu (remember they had 8 home games last season).

Eventually their fans are going to get tired of playing four OOC games against Directional Louisiana and they will start getting dinged in the polls as the advantage of playing 8 home games, combined with not being able to beat ranked teams, starts to lose its charm. Right now, the ags could play Blinn and their fans would boast of how the 56-48 final score showed yet again how they are an elite program and being denied a number one ranking by "butthurt" sportswriters who are jealous of them (or whatever drivel they choose at any given moment).

Eventually the ags are going to have to start both playing and beating ranked teams outside their conference and competing for conference championships or the program will settle down into being just another team like Iowa, Arizona State, Maryland or Minnesota that drifts around the middle of the pack in their conference and celebrates an occasional muffler bowl or chicken sandwich bowl victory. The ags have a lifetime losing record against the Pac 12, ACC, SEC, Big 10, a lifetime losing bowl record and during the entire BCS era accomplished less than Kansas or Utah. They aren't going to turn that resume into the resume of an elite program by losing to ranked conference opponents and playing only directional state and FCS programs OOC.

 

[PropositionJoe]

my goodness randy. you sure do know a lot about A&M.

 

[PropositionJoe]

just looked. we had usc on the schedule in 15/16, but those have been canceled. we've got oregon on the schedule in 18/19. right now we have a game scheduled with arizona state in houston in 15.

another thing throwing a wrench into it all is the possibility of the SEC moving to a 9 game conference schedule in the near future.

 

[Randolph Duke]

my goodness randy. you sure do know a lot about A&M.

Yea, that seems to bother some of your fellow ags. They seem to prefer that people not know anything about the school that isn't taught at fish camp.

 

[Randolph Duke]

just looked. we had usc on the schedule in 15/16, but those have been canceled. we've got oregon on the schedule in 18/19. right now we have a game scheduled with arizona state in houston in 15.
another thing throwing a wrench into it all is the possibility of the SEC moving to a 9 game conference schedule in the near future.

Oregon was cancelled a few months ago. Just heavyweights like Lamar, directional louisiana, Rice and FCS schools, other than the once in a decade FBS power conference team like Arizona State.

When the SEC does finally go to a 9 game conference schedule, it will be interesting to see if they drop their traditional FCS team or go to a two game OOS schedule against FBS schools and keep the FCS creampuff game. If they keep the creampuff game, schools like So Carolina, Georgia and Florida that have in-state rivalry games will be down to one rotating FBS opponent game each year. If they lose the creampuff game, overall conference OOC win-loss records and individual team win-loss records will certainly suffer.

 

[Brasky]

The way I see it, if a group of Hornsports posters could line up and go 5-7 with A&M's schedule it's pretty pathetic that their actual football team only manages 8 wins.

I swear I think I could have passed for 260 yards against them last year and I'm slow, 40 and legally blind. And that's with a handful of you idiots as my receivers.

 

[utisdabomb12]

Thanks for the feedback. Some additional comments.

1-This is why I have no clue why Sumlin was given such a hefty raise. He has 20 wins. 8 of those are against cupcake nonconference opponents. SMU, South Carolina State, Louisiana Tech, Sam Houston State, SMU again, UTEP, Sam Houston and Rice. A&M beat a 4-8 Arkansas team in 2012, a 7-6 Ole Miss Team in 2012, a 3-9 Auburn team in 2012, a 8-5 Miss. State in 2012, a 5-7 Missouri in 2012. A 3-9 Arkansas team in 2013, a 9-4 Vanderbilt team in 2014, a 7-6 in Miss. State team in 2013,

That leaves OU, Alabama from 2012 and Duke, Ole Miss from 2013. Oklahoma finished 10-3 in 2012, they weren't anything special (even OU fans will tell you this). Duke finished 10-4, but lost to Georgia Tech and Pitt (they only got to that record because they beat bad teams go look at their schedule. They were embarrassed by the one good team the played in Florida State). Ole Miss finished 8-5 in 2013 (sure they beat us but that was the first game without Ash, our best receiver, 4 days after Diaz was fired, and several other injuries).

What I'm getting at is Sumlin has really only one good victory over Alabama. Maybe he turns out to be a great coach, but I haven't seen that yet.

2-I have no problem with soft nonconference games, but you should at least schedule one decent opponent IMO.

 

[betogonzalez]

Thanks for the feedback. Some additional comments.
1-This is why I have no clue why Sumlin was given such a hefty raise. He has 20 wins. 8 of those are against cupcake nonconference opponents. SMU, South Carolina State, Louisiana Tech, Sam Houston State, SMU again, UTEP, Sam Houston and Rice. A&M beat a 4-8 Arkansas team in 2012, a 7-6 Ole Miss Team in 2012, a 3-9 Auburn team in 2012, a 8-5 Miss. State in 2012, a 5-7 Missouri in 2012. A 3-9 Arkansas team in 2013, a 9-4 Vanderbilt team in 2014, a 7-6 in Miss. State team in 2013,

That leaves OU, Alabama from 2012 and Duke, Ole Miss from 2013. Oklahoma finished 10-3 in 2012, they weren't anything special (even OU fans will tell you this). Duke finished 10-4, but lost to Georgia Tech and Pitt (they only got to that record because they beat bad teams go look at their schedule. They were embarrassed by the one good team the played in Florida State). Ole Miss finished 8-5 in 2013 (sure they beat us but that was the first game without Ash, our best receiver, 4 days after Diaz was fired, and several other injuries).

What I'm getting at is Sumlin has really only one good victory over Alabama. Maybe he turns out to be a great coach, but I haven't seen that yet.

2-I have no problem with soft nonconference games, but you should at least schedule one decent opponent IMO.

In addition, over the last two years Aggy lost to:

LSU in 2012 and 2013, Alabama in 2013, Auburn in 2013, Mizzou in 2013, and Florida in 2012.

I have not been impressed with Aggy's performance over the last 2 years. Other than beating Bama in 2012, they have not beat any quality team in the past 2 years.

 

[PropositionJoe]

What I'm getting at is Sumlin has really only one good victory over Alabama.

couldnt you say the same about charlie strong and his win over florida?

 

[J.B. TexasEx]

couldnt you say the same about charlie strong and his win over florida?

Yes, that's a fair response. But, ya gotta admit what Strong did at Louisville - a basketball school - is remarkable. The Big East/AAC is comparatively weak, but he beat the teams on his schedule.

The encouraging thing is UL manhandled both Florida and Miami in their last two bowl games. Those 2 are "traditional" national powers.

 

[Randolph Duke]

The way I see it, if a group of Hornsports posters could line up and go 5-7 with A&M's schedule it's pretty pathetic that their actual football team only manages 8 wins.I swear I think I could have passed for 260 yards against them last year and I'm slow, 40 and legally blind. And that's with a handful of you idiots as my receivers.

The ags could go 8-4 football, not even sniff a divisional, conference or national championships and most ags will be thrilled at what would be the glory days of their program. They don't expect their basketball team to ever be competitive and I can't ever remembering them care about baseball at all. They live in a world of low expectations.

Sportscasters might rip the ags for their OOC scheduling, but you don't hear many ags complaining loudly. I honestly think 5 years of 8-4 with an occasional muffler bowl and not even making the tournament in basketball or baseball would be preferred over taking on challenging teams and risk getting beaten like a drum. Reasonable goals for the aggy program would seem to be ending the 20 year stretch of never beating an SEC team in football (which they have done), scratching the SEC off the list of conferences against which they have lifetime losing records, ending their lifetime losing record in bowl games, and not getting blown out like they did to OU in the 77-0 game.

The ags running the show these days are the ones who grew up as kids living through the ten straight years of losing seasons and 16 losing seasons out of 17 years. In recent years, they have seen the major school to their north (OU), the major school to their west (Texas) and the major player to their east (LSU) play multiple times for national championships and each win one when their BCS era accomplishments were overshadowed by even those of Kansas. Battered aggy syndrome is such an issue with a lot of their fans that just being competitive in football would get Kevin Sumlin a statue next to Manziel's. Sumlin knows the formula is four creampuffs victories and 4-4 in the SEC. He isn't getting paid to compete for national championships. He is getting paid to go 8-4 each year.