Kevin Willard rips Big Ten scheduling, says it’s responsible for conference’s national championship drought
- Thread starter Tango Two
- Start date
Great question. Are there more people in the western half of the country that want to watch UM @ RU? I don't think so. Assuming the network has multiple contracts, why not let teams on the west coast play in that time slot? The ratings would be better.
Wow. Coming in hot.
I really think the explanation is we have a weawly whiny willard.
A good number of these 8:30/9pm games are either BTN games and FS1. And the Big Ten doesn’t have west coast teams yet. BTN and FS1 is simply shoehorning 2 Big Ten games into one weeknight for more money.
I’d really need Willard to explain the logic behind this comment…
"You play at 6:30, the guys are back in a dorm at 10 o'clock. If you play at nine, the kids aren't back in their dorm till 1:30, tw0 o'clock”
"You play at 6:30, the guys are back in a dorm at 10 o'clock. If you play at nine, the kids aren't back in their dorm till 1:30, tw0 o'clock”
The logic is Kevin Willard is full of shit
This might not be intuitive, but the scheduling problem for sports is so difficult test it has attracted serious attention from professional mathematicians for decades. Here’s a survey of papers from a few years ago for those who have 5-10 minutes and want to solve this.
As soon as more than a couple of constraints are introduced, even supercomputers get bogged down. And there are a lot of constraints: number of games per week, rest days, consecutive road and home game limits, weekend home games. Forget about “Team X has opened in the road for n years”, or “Team Y is rebuilding so shouldn’t open with the three toughest teams in the league.”
One thing is true: the networks paying the most for TV get priority, and they move the best games to the best time slots - which usually coincide with better times for student athletes (but not always - Bob Knight famously griped about the late-night slot for the Big 10 Super Tuesday on ESPN).
So that does have the unintended effect of screwing the bottom teams that aren’t TV winners.
As soon as more than a couple of constraints are introduced, even supercomputers get bogged down. And there are a lot of constraints: number of games per week, rest days, consecutive road and home game limits, weekend home games. Forget about “Team X has opened in the road for n years”, or “Team Y is rebuilding so shouldn’t open with the three toughest teams in the league.”
One thing is true: the networks paying the most for TV get priority, and they move the best games to the best time slots - which usually coincide with better times for student athletes (but not always - Bob Knight famously griped about the late-night slot for the Big 10 Super Tuesday on ESPN).
So that does have the unintended effect of screwing the bottom teams that aren’t TV winners.
I'm sure the scheduling complexity gets exponentially worse as the number of teams increases. Creating a balanced schedule for 14 teams is harder than it is for 11 teams. It also means more total games, so more later tips for weeknight double headers.
Maryland has three more 9 PM games, all in a row. One is a Tuesday at home vs Indiana. One is a Saturday at Minnesota, so it is an 8 PM local start. One is a Tuesday at Michigan State three days after the Minnesota game. His players won't be going to their dorm right after either of those games.
Maryland has three more 9 PM games, all in a row. One is a Tuesday at home vs Indiana. One is a Saturday at Minnesota, so it is an 8 PM local start. One is a Tuesday at Michigan State three days after the Minnesota game. His players won't be going to their dorm right after either of those games.
With as bad as the math was in Willard's comments, it's amazing he can consistently get 5 players on the court at one time.
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