With the A-10 at 15 teams now, it's time to play a 20 game IC schedule. The A-10 should use the following format:
3 pods of 5 team each. Play each of these teams in your pod home and home so that is 8 games.
Next, play 1 team from each other pod home and home. Use previous year's conference standings to determine these opponents each year. Example: Using this past season, let's say Richmond, at 12th, had 1, 4, 9, and 14 with them. We would be 4th in our pod so we would play the 4th best teams in each other pod home and home.
That puts us at 12 games, and we would then play the remaining 8 teams once, 4 at home and 4 away. So, there you have it. A 20 game IC schedule with 4 common opponents to play twice each year, and 2 others that can change each year.
With 20 IC games, that still leaves 11 OOC games. This is what I would try for:
4 home games with no future games attached. These will likely be 200+ ranked type teams, so try to avoid more than 2 above 300.
Next, a 4 team tourney, so that is now 6 OOC games.
Next, try to get 4 home and homes with quality mid majors or any majors that would do this. I would look into a 2 for 1 if certain majors ask for that. To me, that is a win win. We get a good power team at home one year, and also get 2 road games with them to help our schedule and resume.
That leaves one game, and I would find a neutral site game like we have played with NC State and Clemson recently. This would give us an OOC schedule with 7 quality mid major or power teams, and overall we would have 16 total home games, 12 road games, and 3 neutral site games.
3 pods of 5 team each. Play each of these teams in your pod home and home so that is 8 games.
Next, play 1 team from each other pod home and home. Use previous year's conference standings to determine these opponents each year. Example: Using this past season, let's say Richmond, at 12th, had 1, 4, 9, and 14 with them. We would be 4th in our pod so we would play the 4th best teams in each other pod home and home.
That puts us at 12 games, and we would then play the remaining 8 teams once, 4 at home and 4 away. So, there you have it. A 20 game IC schedule with 4 common opponents to play twice each year, and 2 others that can change each year.
With 20 IC games, that still leaves 11 OOC games. This is what I would try for:
4 home games with no future games attached. These will likely be 200+ ranked type teams, so try to avoid more than 2 above 300.
Next, a 4 team tourney, so that is now 6 OOC games.
Next, try to get 4 home and homes with quality mid majors or any majors that would do this. I would look into a 2 for 1 if certain majors ask for that. To me, that is a win win. We get a good power team at home one year, and also get 2 road games with them to help our schedule and resume.
That leaves one game, and I would find a neutral site game like we have played with NC State and Clemson recently. This would give us an OOC schedule with 7 quality mid major or power teams, and overall we would have 16 total home games, 12 road games, and 3 neutral site games.