Have you considered the Riley Decker Showcase making its grand return at the striped court of Edward Waters University?
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I did actually. I could have made an even longer post with some of the rabbit holes I only gave cursory exploration to. The dates of Jacksonvilleās tournament donāt align and, this year, it looks like theyāre focusing on WBB.
Although, at this point, any arena that is is open on Nov 21-22 is a candidate.
Starting in 26-27, the NCAA got rid of the MTE rule that required teams to play an MTE to play the maximum allowable number of games. You can just play 32 now without playing an MTE, so thereās no reason for these games to be MTE if we were just filling our schedule and want to play neutral as there are NET reasons that make that preferable/less risky.
I could definitely see this basically being a High Point home game but they want to play it as āneutralā as that will give the game a better chance at being Q1 (or Q2 more likely) if they beat us. If thatās the case, it could be in Greensboro/Winston-Salem or Charlotte (it would be like Miami playing in Cincy or Columbus for their alums).
Likewise, with all the Miami alumni in Chicago, I could see us playing UIC in Chicago (but not at UIC), again, as a fake UIC home game that will also have a good Miami turn out played āneutralā for NET reasons.
Both UIC and High Point are higher profile/higher resourced so I assume they would want favorable arrangements.
I always love seeing the lengths Miami fans will go to obtain information about some of the lowest-stakes Division 1 content out there (myself included).
Btw, thatās the first time Iāve ever seen UIC and āhigher profileā in the same universe together. Itās a decent enough urban public school but unless you love Curtis Granderson the Flames arenāt known for being a big deal even if they were good last year in the MVC.
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All this talk about The Uic flame gets me thinking about Cheap Trick.
I still love that band. I cannot say why as they are solid but not breakthrough. But just great live. Anyhow, go Uic. Also, we will likely be ranked again a game point this year. Love you coach Steele and co.
Some schedule updates:
- Per our schedule on ESPN, we play at UIC on 11/22 and at High Point on 12/12.
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/team/schedule/_/id/193/miami-(oh)-redhawks
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Per Miamiās contract website, we are paying Union Commonwealth $3500 guarantee to play in Oxford on 12/29.
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Per D1 docket, UNC Asheville has already scheduled the maximum allotted 32 games for next year. Seems our return home game against them could be pushed to next year.
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D1 Docket still shows on both Miami & Asheville pages that they are playing each other date TBD.
I saw that as well, but that might just be a placeholder. Two things to consider:
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UNCA has a fully confirmed 32 game schedule on D1 Docket, which doesnāt include us. They also have no open dates that would line up with our open dates.
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Coach Steele said this week that we have one open date on the schedule and are holding out hope that a P5 team will play us. Since we now have 31 confirmed games on the schedule (not including UNCA), I think it is safe to assume we arenāt playing UNCA this season.
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Saw on the MAC website we are playing High Point in Greensboro on 12-12. The UIC location is TBD
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Sounds like my intuition was right
Weāre all all right!
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A little sad that, coming off a 31-0 season, we are the fodder for High Point and UIC to secure āneutral siteā games next to campus to boost their own NET rankings.
I dont understand how we didnt get a neutral site tournament in myrtle beach or the bahamas or whereever
Or VEGAS.
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I think I said this last year in September or even early October when it became obvious how tough it was for us to schedule. Is Travis just not liked in coaching circles? Iām not saying thereās any reason he shouldnāt be, and Iām well aware of the inherent challenges for good mid-majors to schedule generally. But this is just getting ridiculous, especially if we canāt land a P5 buy game in addition to apparently acquiescing a bit to High Point and UIC.
Agree, this sucks. Are we sure the UIC game is neutral site?
Also, I am holding out hope that one or both of these teams will be returning the favor with a game in Cincinnati or Oxford next season.
Travis said in his interview last week that UIC is neutral site. Butler and Nebraska are playing at the Credit Union 1 Arena (formerly UIC Pavilion) on Nov 22. Maybe weāre their opening act?
UIC plays Chicago State at home on the 18th, us somewhere on the 22nd, and then Thanksgiving is the 26th. Iād be surprised if it wasnāt in the Chicago metro area. Seems unlikely we convinced an MVC to travel somewhere random between a game at home and Thanksgiving break.
The Bulls are at home so no United Center (too big anyways, but would be cool). DePaul and Northwestern both out of town for Thanksgiving MTEs. Thereās also the arena out in the suburbs where the Bullsā g-league team plays. Chicago St and Loyola probably too small as they are smaller than UICās home court if youāre hoping to pull in a decent Miami local alumni crowd.
Imo the Rosemont Horizon is the only semi-realistic neutral venue, the other options are way too far from UIC (NOW Arena) or would probably get blocked by the main tenant (Wintrust Arena/DePaul).
IIRC didnāt we play 1-2 āneutralā games in Oxford for the Fort Meyers MTE? The NCAA seems to be lax with whatās actually considered neutral, in which case the UIC game is probably happening at the Pavilion.