It was kind of ridiculous they had us going from @ Portland to @ LMU and then back up to Gonzaga all in the same week. Also protects us from having to play a team with a terrible NET rating.
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also protects us from having to play a team playing a lot better recently.
was this done because of a new COVID scare within the Portland program?
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No and their AD is not happy about.
I think this also protects BYU, St. Maryâs, and USF which is why the WCC probably signed off on it. It is definitely in the best interest of those teams for us to be a top 75 Net Rating team. Keeps us as a Quad 2 Home Win for them, and keeps their Road losses to us as Quad 1. I can understand the Portland ADâs frustration but it is best for the NCAA hopes of the top teams.
My other guess is that the WCC Commissioner has no sympathy for Portland after their non-conference schedule. 8 Teams Ranked worse than 250. Canât let a schedule like that exist in the league.
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Hope this doesnât mess with SCUâs chance a solo 2nd in the WCC???
I believe St. Maryâs is not making up their game against Pacific. BYU still has a game to re-schedule @ Portland and not certain that will happen. Maybe they let USF out of having to go to USD?
HmmmâŚnot sure how I feel about this. Just hope we donât fall 1 win short, either in the WCC standings or in making the NIT (or dare I say NCAA). I know a win over Portland doesnât help (and maybe hurts) NET, and other ratings but 1 less game does hurt the possible total wins tally which could have some bearing on and NIT bid.
I did think it was odd they didnât reschedule the Portland game for tonight since we both have a bye.
As 'Bob notes, seems this is an effort to boost teams postseason hopes or maybe level the playing field for us, USF, SMC and BYU in league standings battles. It was going to be hard for a few teams to make up all games which would have led to even more unbalanced schedules than we already haveâŚnot quite as bad as last season but still not great.
From Portlandâs twitter: âWe are extremely disappointed, and frustrated, with Santa Claraâs last-minute decision not to make the trip to Portland on Monday,â said Scott Leykam, Portland Vice President for Athletics. âThis is a game date and time that has been agreed upon in writing for several weeks. Both Portland and Santa Clara have mutual open dates tonight and Monday and there is no reason the game should not have been played. We would also like to thank Bushnell for agreeing to play us after we learned of the cancellation this morning.â
Iâm not sure how it protects USF. Portland beat them once (and almost twice!) already.
Unless you mean that USF indirectly benefits by making sure that SCU doesnât lose to Portland, and in turn affect USF by reducing the quality of its win over the Broncos.
Yes, indirectly. If we fall out of Top 75 Net, then USFâs home win against us falls to a Quad 3 win. BYUâs loss to us becomes a Quad 2. St Maryâs loss to us becomes a Quad 2, and their home win becomes a Quad 3. The league has lots of reasons to want us to be a top 75 Net team. That being said, St. Maryâs is âinâ unless they completely collapse down the stretch âŚand USF is in pretty good shape if they beat us on Saturday.
Also, If BYU did not have to re-schedule their game at Portland, not sure why we had to.
Quadrant 1: Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Away 1-75.
Quadrant 2: Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Away 76-135.
Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 135-240.
Quadrant 4: Home 161-353, Neutral 201-353, Away 241-353.
Sounds like it was SCUâs decision.
What happened to the good old days when you played every team in your league home /away every season? Should we cancel the remaining LMU and Pepp games (they both suck too).
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Yes, but does not happen unless WCC approves. We would be playing if the conference told us it was a forfeit. But yes, when BYU leaves, it will be nice to go back to a balanced schedule.
I get that college sports is a meaner, more cynical business than many of us want to believe, but Iâm not a fan. Just feels wrong. Weâre just doing blatant schedule engineering to protect the top teams now. If the conference wanted to even out everyone at 14 or 15 games for seeding purposes, this should have been a conference-wide announcement. This makes SCU look bad (even though it was with the conferenceâs blessing).
If youâre gonna cancel the game, you at least need to switch to giving Portland a home game.
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agreed. this looks and smells rotten.
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I hope karma doesnât read its ugly head when we host Portland to close the regular season.
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Midwest beat me to itâŚhope karma doesnât bite us in the a$$. Imagine the extra motivation this gives Portland for that final game of the reg. season.
Weâd be pissed if the roles were reversed.
We canât or shouldnât use the âtoo many games in a few daysâ or âplayer safetyâ excuses as other teams have/are squeezing in remake games just as we have.
Even if this all works out in our favor, still a bad look. Iâm sure the ADâs office was involved but this was ultimately Sendekâs decision. Will be interesting if the media asks Sendek about it but I doubt that will happen. If thereâs a response from SCU it will likely come through a press release w/ or w/o Herb or Reneeâs name attached.
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Portland fan here. Read all your notes about the cancelled game. On the whole, a very thoughtful dialogue. I can understand the desire to maximize cash for the conference, but Iâm a bit surprised the Commissioner is willing to jeopardize AD and coach relationships to accomplish this. (BTW, I doubt the commissioner has any problems with our setting a schedule against 8 teams lower than 250. New coach with an entirely new team at a school that was under the doormat for the rest of the conference for five years. Weâve moved from around 320 preseason ranking to 210 so far and beat the spread for betting 12 times.) From our perspective, it a decision that lacks both class and conscience, but I wish you well. We went to the tournament the two years in a row it was held in your arena. Love the campus and have always liked your teams.
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Welcome Bullwinkle and thank you for your thoughtful contribution. I think many of us would feel quite aggrieved if the shoe were on the other foot.
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Does anyone know what the tie-breakers will be now?
St Maryâs, BYU, and Santa Clara will all have 15 conference games. USF will have 16 unless they back out of one down the stretch. I know last year they used Pomeroy to assist.
I think itâs quite possible that the conference announces in the next week to cancel an outstanding game for each member so that itâs an even 15 games across all the teams. I just wish that announcement prompted the Portland cancellation rather than SCU getting out in front of it (assuming that occurs). I think they could still seed according to in-conference win percentage, but my guess is that SCU isnât the last domino to fall for cancellations here, and the conference will want to reassert itself by making it uniform to the extent possible.
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I expect the tie-breakers will be the sameâŚ
First, head-to-head, if you split games then I think the 2nd involves comparing records against other WCC teams from the top downâŚie- records vs. GU, if still tied/same then compare vs. the 2nd place team and so on.
I think Pomeroy was used last year, not just for tiebreakers, but for actually determining league place & tourney seeding. ie- last season by raw record, St. Maryâs was only 4-6 and 7th place but was bumped up (to 3rd or 4th if I recall) based on Pomeroy since they played the most difficult schedule by a wide marginâŚthey played BYU and GU twice each but zero games vs. the worst teams, Portland and USD. And league play overall ended up much more unbalanced then this season will beâŚus and USD only played 9 games, SMC 10 while 5 teams played 13 or more gamesâŚa huge disparity.
Not arguing that this current cancellation is OKâŚstill think it stinks.
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