2025-2026 Non Conference Schedule

[GKiller]

I used 2024 NET by mistake, but point is the same. Find quality and historically good mid majors to do H&H with instead of playing more of the Citadels and VMIs. We’re going to play some of the landmine Q4 games, but can’t play too many. It’s not only important to get good P5s but also to not play a lot of terrible Q4 games

it's not the same point because clearly year to year there's big drops with mids and hard to identify the elites. VCU being 1 but they r A10. Last year if we said let's schedule JMU the following season....big drop and they r again similar to others. same with princeton.

It is just another reason u go road majors instead of mid H&Hs. we already have what 6 mid H&H of some type & u want to add 2 more. No thanks.

I agree with u we want to avoid terrible Q4s. that is not even the debate. I advocate for that too. Although if u ask me what is more important - maxing out on P5s or limiting Q4s, it is P5s.

 

[spiderstudent17]

it's not the same point because clearly year to year there's big drops with mids and hard to identify the elites. VCU being 1 but they r A10. Last year if we said let's schedule JMU the following season....big drop and they r again similar to others. same with princeton.

It is just another reason u go road majors instead of mid H&Hs. we already have what 6 mid H&H of some type & u want to add 2 more. No thanks.

I agree with u we want to avoid terrible Q4s. that is not even the debate. I advocate for that too. Although if u ask me what is more important - maxing out on P5s or limiting Q4s, it is P5s.

Yes there is variability but there tends to be more confidence in their range that they’ll do well. Like UNI, when we played them a few years ago in an off year for them, but they still had a solid NET at the end. Plus even if it’s a situation like JMU who drops a lot from 52 to 156 the next year, it’s still a heck of lot better than the guarantee landmine Q4 games we’re scheduling. Also, I’m for scheduling against mid majors like Air Force or New Mexico State who may not have the best NETs but because of their conference may pleasantly surprise and over perform and get a NET boost. You say you want to max out with P5s but that’s really 1-2 road/non MTE neutral games. No mid major is getting more than that. Ideally MTE would be best for P5s, like you’ve said, but in terms of true road or neutral P5s you’re looking at no more than 2 a season.

 

[GKiller]

Nobody at the A10 level is taking (or getting) 4 or 5 high major road games. You must think everyone is doing it wrong. Like you, I don't care what others are doing if I think they're wrong but I don't think they are.

I know we have the Kansas game to hang our hats on, but high major road games are losing propositions 95% of the time. The good ones at least. Crappy high major teams are no more alluring than a decent mid major to me. I'd still take a couple high majors of course. They're fun. And that what I want from a schedule ... some enjoyment. This year we have hardly anything to look forward to until January.

In general, I don't believe any scheduling plan tricks a team into the tournament. You're either good enough or not. I don't think a soft schedule accomplishes anything. But murderers row isn't the answer either. Just give me more than we're getting this year or had last year.

They r not getting them bc they historically haven't gone for them...there's evidence of that & we agree. so there's no point to saying well A10 aren't getting those games. Of course they're not, they don't try to. but I believe u could if u really tried.

I do think some others doing it wrong. But let's be proactive & do it differently. It would be great if we didn't have to but I believe we do. Only way for our staff/program to now get those big games. i hate these boring schedules.

I'd dispute 95%. not sure that's the win % for all p5 buy games at home vs. everyone. And for us it would be much better. gotta be for for "one of the top basketball programs in the nation", right? and how do we really know if we rarely play em. we do ok in big games overall. i have a higher regard for our Spiders to win those games than u do clearly.

& also it's the only way to at large. said it b4 why wouldn't we go the route of the only way that works for us. u need scalps. so schedule as many as u can. if it doesn't work out some year no sweat. we r 3 for 20 in NCAA under Moon. all I'm doing is trying to increase that rate a little, and some ppl on here are like idk if we want to do that. why the hell not.

"I don't believe any scheduling plan tricks a team into the tournament. You're either good enough or not. "

Yep back to the "just win more". Sort of like "just go 14-4 in A10". I don't know how else to say it but I want to win more. Can we start doing that? Personally tho I think we could win similarly w hard schedule culture (not muderers row but top 75 ooc consistently) and have more NCAAs. Right now we're 3 for 20. With very little prospects for next season. So clearly we are not good enough. Normally that means regime change, at UR it means Extend Mooney.

not u sman but I always have to laugh at the just win more crowd also being so pro-Mooney.

rant over...until the next one.

 

[GKiller]

Yes there is variability but there tends to be more confidence in their range that they’ll do well. Like UNI, when we played them a few years ago in an off year for them, but they still had a solid NET at the end. Plus even if it’s a situation like JMU who drops a lot from 52 to 156 the next year, it’s still a heck of lot better than the guarantee landmine Q4 games we’re scheduling. Also, I’m for scheduling against mid majors like Air Force or New Mexico State who may not have the best NETs but because of their conference may pleasantly surprise and over perform and get a NET boost. You say you want to max out with P5s but that’s really 1-2 road/non MTE neutral games. No mid major is getting more than that. Ideally MTE would be best for P5s, like you’ve said, but in terms of true road or neutral P5s you’re looking at no more than 2 a season.

it's a lot better if those were home games to replace equal home games in VMI/citadel. if u r returning a game it's not apple to apples. u r playing a game 1 year with decent loss odds that have no upside. Again...play stronger games on road instead with a much much higher upside. idk why u guys don't get the concept but maybe I'm not explaining it well.

also see above response to sman. I don't accept that premise of max 2. we r not getting them bc higher level mids like A10 have not historically gone for them. Colgate had 3 road buy games last year on schedule like that. I get it...Pat League...but their results r better than ours in a 5 year window I bet.

btw AF and New Mex State r very hard to do bc of travel. Not impossible but hard. if we could get 5 road major buy games would u do it?

 

[spiderstudent17]

it's a lot better if those were home games to replace equal home games in VMI/citadel. if u r returning a game it's not apple to apples. u r playing a game 1 year with decent loss odds that have no upside. Again...play stronger games on road instead with a much much higher upside. idk why u guys don't get the concept but maybe I'm not explaining it well.

also see above response to sman. I don't accept that premise of max 2. we r not getting them bc higher level mids like A10 have not historically gone for them. Colgate had 3 road buy games last year on schedule like that. I get it...Pat League...but their results r better than ours in a 5 year window I bet.

btw AF and New Mex State r very hard to do bc of travel. Not impossible but hard. if we could get 5 road major buy games would u do it?

Why are you saying playing a H&H with quality mid major “if u r returning a game it's not apple to apples. u r playing a game 1 year with decent loss odds that have no upside”? I’m not understanding how there is no upside. A win will be solid for us and a loss won’t hurt a ton either.

Travel and money should not be a factor for a team that is serious about basketball, like us in the A10. If San Diego State agrees to play us at their stadium, we should be there. If a team like Clemson will pay us but with substantially reduced buy-out, we should do it.

In general I am not for playing 5 road majors if we can, just for the sake of trying to play the best teams possible. Unless some of those teams are lower high majors like a Boston College or Georgia Tech then maybe. I know we don’t see eye-to-eye on this point, so we’ll have to agree to disagree on this.

 

[97spiderfan]

I love all of this debate back and forth about what would construe a good OOC schedule. You could see if we got rebuffed by a bunch of P5's and instead went the route of scheduling high quality mid-majors or MWC, American programs as some of our A-10 brethren did. The merits of a H-H against say Boise or Utah State (as 2 A-10 programs did) versus road p5 games. We did neither approach. We scheduled crap on top of crap. This is all very intentional and Mooney is blowing us a smokescreen by saying P5 won't play us.

Have to wonder if Queally, our NIL bros, Hardt are part of the strategy and/or if they are putting any credence in the smokescreen. If I'm funding NIL dollars, I want to see my horse compete against the best horses, so I'm not happy at all with this.

 

[GKiller]

Why are you saying playing a H&H with quality mid major “if u r returning a game it's not apple to apples. u r playing a game 1 year with decent loss odds that have no upside”? I’m not understanding how there is no upside. A win will be solid for us and a loss won’t hurt a ton either.

Travel and money should not be a factor for a team that is serious about basketball, like us in the A10. If San Diego State agrees to play us at their stadium, we should be there. If a team like Clemson will pay us but with substantially reduced buy-out, we should do it.

In general I am not for playing 5 road majors if we can, just for the sake of trying to play the best teams possible. Unless some of those teams are lower high majors like a Boston College or Georgia Tech then maybe. I know we don’t see eye-to-eye on this point, so we’ll have to agree to disagree on this.

should have said not much upside. some upside if u happen to get lucky & face an elite NET mid. just don't see the risk/reward for most of those H&H. only a few. I'd sign up with SDSU in a sec. spider23 call in a favor. there r not many elite non majors worthy of it imo. Tho I'd still do 1 local one bc that is fair & also the local flavor. but overall avoid them because it doesn't move the needle in a significant way on own. u need the p5 scalps to do that. I still want my program to have the mindset of going for NCAA at large. even philly bob said it wasn't which was shocking to hear coming from him. lipscomb bradley samford et al r not going to do that either. these r the names being thrown out. get them out of your mind. focus on P5 or bust.

AF and New Mex St. r not SDSU and Clemson. The travel factors because again...those teams don't really do anything for us as a H&H. If SDSU offered a H&H no brainer. If Clemson offered buy game it's ACC plus u r getting paid unlike your AF/NMSU.

I give you five great games and u still don't take it. UNC, GA Tech, Ohio State, WVU, Tennessee. Excitement. $$. Culture, TV. Nah student17 is good. Unfortunately maybe the same mindset at Robins Center.

 

[GKiller]

I love all of this debate back and forth about what would construe a good OOC schedule. You could see if we got rebuffed by a bunch of P5's and instead went the route of scheduling high quality mid-majors or MWC, American programs as some of our A-10 brethren did. The merits of a H-H against say Boise or Utah State (as 2 A-10 programs did) versus road p5 games. We did neither approach. We scheduled crap on top of crap. This is all very intentional and Mooney is blowing us a smokescreen by saying P5 won't play us.

Have to wonder if Queally, our NIL bros, Hardt are part of the strategy and/or if they are putting any credence in the smokescreen. If I'm funding NIL dollars, I want to see my horse compete against the best horses, so I'm not happy at all with this.

Scheduling is 1 of my favorite board topics. Always has been.

 

[SpiderTrap]

More of an opinion question - but looking back, when was the last time you think UR had a good OOC schedule? The results don't matter, meaning - we could have done poorly record wise, but in just looking at the schedule on its own - when was the last OOC schedule you thought was good for UR?

 

[GKiller]

The merits of a H-H against say Boise or Utah State (as 2 A-10 programs did) versus road p5 games. We did neither approach. We scheduled crap on top of crap. This is all very intentional and Mooney is blowing us a smokescreen by saying P5 won't play us.

fwiw neither r H-H. Duq took a buy game on road against Boise. And VCU vs Utah St is a neutral game. it's probably much easier to get a P5 road game only vs. H&H with those Mountain West ones. VCU did with New Mex but they also get in good MTEs and get occasional recent big H&H like nc state & memphis.

 

[97spiderfan]

More of an opinion question - but looking back, when was the last time you think UR had a good OOC schedule? The results don't matter, meaning - we could have done poorly record wise, but in just looking at the schedule on its own - when was the last OOC schedule you thought was good for UR?

Prior to last year, I thought OOC schedules was one of our strengths. I thought we did a pretty consistent job of putting together games that contained 5-6 cupcakes, 1-2 winnable P5 games, a couple games against high quality mid majors, and 2 reach games against P5 that we probably weren't favored to win but gave us a chance at a signature win. We also generally were in an MTE that afforded us a chance at a signature win or two.

 

[97spiderfan]

btw AF and New Mex State r very hard to do bc of travel. Not impossible but hard. if we could get 5 road major buy games would u do it?

VCU played at New Mexico this year and just signed a H&H with Utah St. So, is being done by an A-10 school. Also of note New Mexico and Utah State are much better programs that New Mexico State and Air Force. Air Force was terrible last year, flying out to play them right now would not be a wise move.

But if New Mexico, UNLV, Utah State, San Diego State, Boise, St. Mary's, San Fran, etc.. want to play us, we have to take any of those games in a heartbeat. Heck, I wouldn't even demand a home and home with the state of our schedule. We will come there and play you this year. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

 

[GKiller]

VCU played at New Mexico this year and just signed a H&H with Utah St. So, is being done by an A-10 school. Also of note New Mexico and Utah State are much better programs that New Mexico State and Air Force. Air Force was terrible last year, flying out to play them right now would not be a wise move.

But if New Mexico, UNLV, Utah State, San Diego State, Boise, St. Mary's, San Fran, etc.. want to play us, we have to take any of those games in a heartbeat. Heck, I wouldn't even demand a home and home with the state of our schedule. We will come there and play you this year. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

So you're agreeing with me? I'm missing your point. That's basically what I said.

New Mex St. is so far from a New Mexico program. we don't want AF and NMSU bc they r not good enough. Throw in the travel and they make even less sense. AF and NMSU were proposed as H&H by student17 not me. I said no to them. Of course it's a yes for New Mexico. I mentioned vcu got them too. I agree with the teams u listed, but those r the elite mids mainly all MWC. I'd fly to those too & welcome to RC. The mids ppl have bandied about r decidely below them, just like New Mexico St and AF r too. and some posters - remarkably & how I'll never understand - would take those weaker mid H&Hs over P5 games.

btw r u sure vcu and utah st is a H&H? I read that as a 1 neutral game in Big D. Dallas.

 

[GKiller]

Prior to last year, I thought OOC schedules was one of our strengths. I thought we did a pretty consistent job of putting together games that contained 5-6 cupcakes, 1-2 winnable P5 games, a couple games against high quality mid majors, and 2 reach games against P5 that we probably weren't favored to win but gave us a chance at a signature win. We also generally were in an MTE that afforded us a chance at a signature win or two.

many still not strong enough for me....shockingly...even some of the old ones. but there are numbers that track OOC sos if we want to evaluate objectively. tho there r multiple SOS sites. iirc the numbers tell another story, for the most part. we've had some good ones under Moon b4 although '25-26 will be 4th year in a row not good enough imo. unsurprisingly u could point to lack of majors...

25-26: 0 so far
24-25: 1
23-24: 3 (BC one of the worst p5s was 1)
22-23: 2

'21-22 and '19-20 were good. When u have more majors they r better schedules. & we've had good seasons with more majors on schedule. logically u try to repeat success. I took a logic class I did well. Tho I sucked at Biz Stats so I'll lean on the logic. do everything u can to get the majors. 2 options. 1. with Moon and state of our program it means adjusting & taking all u can eat on the road. or 2. regime change, which I'm not buying given the extension only 1 year ago. relying on mid major H&H won't get it done.

 

[spiderstudent17]

So you're agreeing with me? I'm missing your point. That's basically what I said.

New Mex St. is so far from a New Mexico program. we don't want AF and NMSU bc they r not good enough. Throw in the travel and they make even less sense. AF and NMSU were proposed as H&H by student17 not me. I said no to them. Of course it's a yes for New Mexico. I mentioned vcu got them too. I agree with the teams u listed, but those r the elite mids mainly all MWC. I'd fly to those too & welcome to RC. The mids ppl have bandied about r decidely below them, just like New Mexico St and AF r too. and some posters - remarkably & how I'll never understand - would take those weaker mid H&Hs over P5 games.

btw r u sure vcu and utah st is a H&H? I read that as a 1 neutral game in Big D. Dallas.

Air Force and New Mexico State don’t have to be H&H in my book, but rather one off games. My main point in playing those teams is that they have greater upside due to being in a good conference and so any over performance can be a pleasant surprise in NET boost as opposed to playing known Q4 landmines that don’t benefit our schedule in any way. If we’re going to play more Q3/4 games it’s better to do so against those kinds of teams than ODU, VMI, or Citadel.

 

[GKiller]

Air Force and New Mexico State don’t have to be H&H in my book, but rather one off games. My main point in playing those teams is that they have greater upside due to being in a good conference and so any over performance can be a pleasant surprise in NET boost as opposed to playing known Q4 landmines that don’t benefit our schedule in any way. If we’re going to play more Q3/4 games it’s better to do so against those kinds of teams than ODU, VMI, or Citadel.

what do u mean by one off...r u suggesting AF and NMSU would come to Richmond as a home buy game? yeah they can replace VMI and Citadel and Southern VA if they do that. I'd take em' as a 1 game home for sure. but why would those teams fly across the country to play us. There's just no way. Might as well try Hawaii in the RC too. they'd be a better game than vmi too. Bring back the Rainbows. Their great nickname & logo got hijacked. Might take a $300k guarantee tho.

 

[spiderstudent17]

what do u mean by one off...r u suggesting AF and NMSU would come to Richmond as a home buy game? yeah they can replace VMI and Citadel and Southern VA if they do that. I'd take em' as a 1 game home for sure. but why would those teams fly across the country to play us. There's just no way. Might as well try Hawaii in the RC too. they'd be a better game than vmi too. Bring back the Rainbows. Their great nickname & logo got hijacked. Might take a $300k guarantee tho.

I don’t know the nature of buy games to say whether we should give them money to come to RC or not. I would think that if we’re going to play “easier” games that there would be a preference for bottom teams in good conferences than play teams like Maine, Citadel, etc since the bottom teams in good conference have a higher ceiling. Plus, there is likely reciprocal interest from them. If that means flying to New Mexico State for one game to do so, then that’s what it takes. My problem with our schedule this year, is it seems like there was no effort to get quality games. We got bottom feeder teams all drivable distance from UR. I get keeping W&M for rivalry reasons, but no reason we should be playing any of those other teams.

 

[MrTbone]

My OOC scheduling advice is don’t schedule so many crappy games.

 

[CarolinaSpider]

More of an opinion question - but looking back, when was the last time you think UR had a good OOC schedule? The results don't matter, meaning - we could have done poorly record wise, but in just looking at the schedule on its own - when was the last OOC schedule you thought was good for UR?

Not much said on the lady’s side yet!

 

[GKiller]

I don’t know the nature of buy games to say whether we should give them money to come to RC or not. I would think that if we’re going to play “easier” games that there would be a preference for bottom teams in good conferences than play teams like Maine, Citadel, etc since the bottom teams in good conference have a higher ceiling. Plus, there is likely reciprocal interest from them. If that means flying to New Mexico State for one game to do so, then that’s what it takes. My problem with our schedule this year, is it seems like there was no effort to get quality games. We got bottom feeder teams all drivable distance from UR. I get keeping W&M for rivalry reasons, but no reason we should be playing any of those other teams.

u don’t know nature of buy games…???…any buy game at home means u give money.

Idk what u want for the AF or NMSU. U r a bit all over the place. i assumed h&h but u said no a 1 off. Honestly those games r not very appealing in any way unless it’s a home only game which they r not going to do. Got no issue traveling far but let’s do it for much better & higher upside games.

Yes securing quality games is a big issue. Which is also why u never limit them u end up in a tough spot like we r. Been trending for years.

I gave u five great p5 games and u said no thanks but let’s go schedule AF and NMSU instead!

 

[Dr. Spidey]

“Sources say the Richmond Spiders are finalizing an out-of-conference game with the Flint Tropics—At this point, Jackie Moon might be their toughest matchup before conference play.”

 

[spiderman]

My OOC scheduling advice is don’t schedule so many crappy games.

clear ... concise ...
please call into the next Spider show. tell Bob you're Ivan and you have a question about the next cook-off. when you get through, hit him with your advice.

 

[spider23]

clear ... concise ...
please call into the next Spider show. tell Bob you're Ivan and you have a question about the next cook-off. when you get through, hit him with your advice.

they are pretty good screening out anyone that is not a known mooneyite. I tried years ago, put on my fake name, fake voice, mustache and glasses, and softball question - they wouldn't let me on.

 

[MrTbone]

clear ... concise ...
please call into the next Spider show. tell Bob you're Ivan and you have a question about the next cook-off. when you get through, hit him with your advice.

I try to keep it simple.

 

[spider23]

Somehow, again, we will not benefit from this.

Fire Mooney!

Kevin Bacon!

 

[urmite]

View embedded media

Somehow, again, we will not benefit from this.

Fire Mooney!

Kevin Bacon!

So soon we can add Southern VA and Mount Olive? Awesome!

 

[GKiller]

Maybe we should look into a west coast trip in 2026 similar to what Duq is doing this year. Their game at Boise is a buy game with no return. I have to assume their game at Nevada on same trip is the same thing. Now unlike Duq I'd want return games from MWC. But we're a better program than Duq. But it's hard to get H&H with those teams or any team out west, unless they play to do a similar multi game trip out East another season. New Mex/VCU being an exception.

Try for those H&H but alternatively and unlike Duq I'd really be looking to play buy games at high majors on a western swing instead. USC/UCLA/Colorado/Utah/AZ/ASU. Do a 2 or 3 game trip. since we suck at MTEs it would be like a better destination trip MTE just w road games. u do it over winter break in Dec when classes r out.

 

[SFspidur]

As has been discussed before, this move will probably be the death of MTEs as we know it, since they'll no longer offer the benefit of being able to play extra games. Everything will move to the NIL-driven mega events like Players Era, and it will be dominated by the big boys.

Mooney's buds at Gazelle Group are panicking:

NCAA College Hoops Event Deregulation Plan Raises Alarm

The Gazelle Group president Rick Giles has warned a proposed NCAA rule change would be catastrophic for his events–and college basketball in general.

www.sportico.com

 

[spiderman]