This is by no means scientific, but here is SI’s pre-season ranking of Miami’s OOC D1 opponents (Miami is #276 out of 363). Home opponents marked with an asterisk:
#20 Indiana
#50 Cincinnati
#88 Georgia
#143 Indiana St.*
#178 Wright St.*
#194 Marshall*
#234 Bellarmine
#272 Jackson St.*
#295 Little Rock*
#315 Evansville*
With the non-D1 teams, I think we have 5 tiers of outcomes:
Tier 1 (lock to win)
Goshen
Calumet
SMWC
Tier 2 (likely wins)
Evansville
Little Rock
Jackson St.
Tier 3 (could go either way)
Bellarmine
Marshall
Wright St.
Indiana St.
Tier 4 (likely to lose)
Georgia
Cincinnati
Tier 5 (lock to lose)
Indiana
Assuming (which maybe I shouldn’t) we win all of T1 and T2 and lose all of T4 and T5, that has us at 6-3, with four T3 “toss-up” games. Can we split these to go 8-5? My guy says 7-6, with losses to Bellarmine and Marshall, and a win over either WSU or ISU.
What do you all think?