MOBILE, Ala. — The Sun Belt Conference had two missions over the summer: fix theconference tournament and the men's basketball Rating Percentage Index.
The conference hopes sending the postseason tournament to Hot Springs from 2009-2011 will solve the first problem. The second, related to the NCAA's RPI, was another matter.
"I get the question all the time. What's going to happen with men's basketball?" Sun Belt Conference Commissioner Wright Waters said. "Our chief executive officers took a huge step last year, saying we will build quality programs together. They sat down and said here is a guideline we are committed to doing. People know this is not just coaches or athletic directors saying we want to be good."
They targeted scheduling as the No. 1 way Sun Belt teams could improve their RPI, a scale used by the NCAA Tournament selection committee to rank Division I basketball teams by their performance in light of strength of schedule. (Low RPI ranking numbers denote strong teams; and high numbers, weaker ones.)
It wasn't necessarily the quality of opponents that Sun Belt teams were playing. It was the location - mostly away from home.
"We had a situation two years ago when our nonconference RPI was through the roof. We dropped literally almost 40 spots in two weeks after going 3-1 in our league," Western Kentucky Coach Darrin Horn said. "When we headed into the league, everyone had a losing record because they played all those road games. I think the more teams that can do it [schedule more home nonconference games], the more it will help the league."
The NCAA allows its members to play 29 games, not counting those exempted as part ofspecial tournaments. With the 18-game Sun Belt Conference schedule, that leaves 11 nonconference games each school must schedule.
Sun Belt teams played an average of 4.2 of those games at home last season with North Texas and Western Kentucky playing the most at six each. But an average of 2.8 of those games came against NCAA Division I opponents. Louisiana-Monroe had four home games, three against non-Division I teams.
It appears to have gotten the schools' attention. Sun Belt teams are playing an average of 5.5 home games this season in nonconference play. And an average of 3.8 of those are against Division I opponents.
Leading the way is Florida International. The Golden Panthers played two of four home games last season against Division I opponents. This year, they will play their first eight at home - five against Division I opponents - to start the season.
"I knew we had a couple of kids sitting out, and we were going to be very young last year, we weren't going to be very good. So we went to George Mason and South Florida and Miami last year," Florida International Coach Sergio Rouco said. "I think it's tremendous that we've got them coming back to our place this year. We have the opportunity to start out with a winning record. I think FIU has had only three years of winning records before Christmas in 20 years of basketball."
UALR played four home games last season, but the Trojans will play seven at the Stephens Center this season. It's part of a stretchof eight of the first 10 games at home. And it's something UALR Coach Steve Shields put together knowing he had a team that would feature several new faces. UALR dropped its guarantee games and signed home-and-home series instead. Next year's home schedule is nearly complete as well with games set against Loyola Marymount, Louisiana Tech, Northern Illinois, Rice and Creighton.
"I think we've got a lot of highly competitive games that will help us prepare for league play. And when I say prepare, I mean I hope it means we can get off to a good start," Shields said. "We've just tried to schedule people like ourselves. It's made for some very attractive games for our fans."
Arkansas State also increased its total home games this year. After playing three games at the Convocation Center last season, the Indians are scheduled for six this season.
Sports, Pages 23, 28 on 10/24/2007