Let’s beef up that b-ball schedule

In the time Larry Eustachy has been at the helm of the Southern Miss basketball program, attendance has risen annually.

Players that stick around are graduating at a high rate, and the basketball team is infinitely more competitive now than it was three years ago.

But the teams’ strength of schedule has fallen dramatically in recent years, and it’s starting to affect more than just the players’ confidence level.

Men’s basketball has been a top earner of revenue at Southern Miss, but with the budget problems the athletic department is facing, it doesn’t take a math wiz to tell the basketball program can’t be pulling its weight.

Looking at the schedule it’s easy to see why.

Behind season ticket sales, payouts for road games are the team’s best way to make the bread it takes to fill the athletic department’s coffers.

Home attendance average for 2009 was fine at 3,789 fans a contest, good enough to rank just ahead of Lamar (3,673) and just behind Tennessee-Chattanooga (4,040).

Problem is, since the 2005-2006 season, the Golden Eagles have only hit the road six times to play major-conference opponents, and didn’t play a single one on the road in the ‘06-’07 campaign.

The Eagles are 0-6 in those games, but that’s beside the point. Sometimes ,going on the road without expecting a return game can be beneficial financially and from an exposure/experience standpoint.

“What we want is a balanced schedule that is competitive and gives us a chance to make some money,” athletic director Richard Giannini said. “Scheduling is a fine art. We want to find some games where we can go on the road and win.”

Agreed.

But let’s play with the numbers a little bit, just for kicks.

According to Giannini, Southern Miss looks for an amount anywhere from $75,000-$100,000 to play a one-shot road game, meaning USM won’t get a return game at Reed Green Coliseum.

Most of the time these games are practically unwinnable (think Kentucky, Tennessee).

If Southern Miss played two of these a year, we’re talking about the possibility of having an additional $200,000 to use for anything from trash pickup to travel budgets.

On the other end of the spectrum, playing an NAIA opponent does nothing for your ratings percentage index, or RPI, which post-season tournaments  use to determine whether or not to invite a team.

Eustachy has promised fans his team will face just one NAIA opponent next season (cross-town rival William Carey). It’s a start, but from where I’m sitting, replacing those other three NAIA games with contests against teams willing to fork over a big payout may be the best option.

“It’s something we’re looking at,” Giannini said. “It would certainly help us during this trying period.”

With our student-athletes and sports administration officials (some of which have masters degrees) picking up trash in the stands after games because of budget slicing, don’t you think it’s time the basketball schedule got a little juicier?