Independent Schedule

Nothing is official until the contracts are signed..Also noted by the ESPN talking heads...Gonna be interesting....I suspect we might land some ACC/Big10/Big 12 teams on their west coast trips..

I would guess there would be a series with WSU and uo in there somewhere, even if they are earlier in the season. Maybe a midweek or 2 with both as well. Not sure if there are byes in some of the other west coast conferences but could see some series against UCSB, Long Beach, Fullerton, Irvine and the like in there. Historically pretty good clubs in the smaller conferences. My guess is if there are Big 12/10, SEC/ACC teams on the schedule most would be road series. The better teams being road series would actually help from an RPI standpoint, but obviously would like some good competition at home too. Would figure we see at least 4-5 weekend home series against some of the NDSUs, Coppin States, etc. of the world to round the schedule out.

ACC has an even number, and since SMU doesn't field baseball, it'll remain an even number after the additions of Cal and Stanford. Meaning, Cal and Stanford will need to be either played in early March for a weekend, or mid-week.

Big 10 has an odd number, due to no Wisconsin, and will remain an odd number with the additions of Washington, o, USC, and UCLA. These four can be scheduled for a weekend during normal conference play as long as their byes don't overlap.

Mountain West has an odd number currently, and with the addition of Washington State, they'll have an even number, thus no non-conference weekend in the middle of conference play. They also currently double dip a few series to expand conference play. If that conference were to revert to a true round robin after the addition of Washington State, then there would be a weekend open in late March to schedule WSU, due to only being an eight team conference. Otherwise, it'll be an early March weekend series, or mid-week games, under their currently scheduling format.

WCC currently have an odd number, so they'll have bye weekends. Of course, those teams are not good RPI builders.

Big West currently has an odd number, and names that have carried weight (Fullerton, Irvine, Long Beach, Santa Barbara). Its just a question of, can we strike gold with the scheduling? Fullerton don't look so good right now, but remember how CSUN wasn't seen as a good team? Look who is tied for first.

WAC currently has an odd number, but like the WCC, not good RPI builders.

Big 12 currently have an odd number, however with Texas and Oklahoma leaving, and only Utah, Arizona, and Arizona State having baseball, that conference will have an even number of teams. And just like the ACC above, scheduling those teams will either have to be an early March weekend, or a mid-week.

SEC, lol. But seriously, they have an even number as well, and will continue to have an even number after Texas and Oklahoma joins. So just like the ACC and Big 12 above, and you can forget about it at that point.

So the way I see it, April and May could have o, Washington, USC, UCLA, plus four additional teams from the Big 10/Big West/WCC/WAC, that fills up the months of April and May. A weekend series with Washington State would only be played in March (early or late depending on how the Mountain West schedules going forward), otherwise its mid-week. A weekend series with Stanford, Cal, Arizona, Arizona State, and/or Utah would have to be in the first weekend of March or earlier, otherwise its mid-week with these teams as well, along with anyone else from the ACC and Big 12.

That's how I see the framework of the independent schedule going forward.

The real issue with the independent schedule is that OSU isn't the only team filling out a schedule. With OSU you have complete dependence on other conference schedules/byes and willingness of teams to travel (or not). Every conference team will have plethora of willing (some under contract) opponents. So, the "talks" are just that. Not until those teams have a conference schedule will they even know what might fit, or not.

Other than being a high quality opponent OSU has very little leverage. Baseball already loses $. Even though there is a promise to keep funding programs at a P4 level, the AD can't up the funding to lose more $ for a nonrevenue sport. They can't afford to pay to get multiple high quality teams to Goss. Nor spend a ton more to be road warriors.

The real kicker is other than early games, Feb/Mar, how many quality teams want to get their ass kicked by a quality team? How many want to come play in the cold and rain? A B10 team coming to Eugene might want a midweek game (or two) to get acclimated. I doubt those traveling to warm Cali will come north. Most don't once conference play starts. Most will not take an unnecessary long road trip, let alone have more high level competition once league play starts. Midweek singles are far different than scheduling a very tough opponent for your only bye weekend. There might be some coaches willing, but not seeing enough to fill 24-30+ games of a schedule.

I guess we'll see. I have a feeling the schedule might have a different combo, but basically look a lot like a WCC schedule overall.

It kind of depends on your RPI. If you are pretty similar to the good team or share alot of opponents it won't make a big difference to opponents-opponents. If you are significantly lower in RPI and don't share many opponents you can get swept on the road and move up 10+ spots. Mids will happily come to Goss and try to sneak a win as long as our RPI stays high.