Omaha World Herald article about the Creighton schedule-
Part of men's schedule proves disappointing
http://www.omaha.com/article/20090904/SPORTS02/709049893
Bloomington pantagraph article about the ISU schedule-
http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/article_107d8836-99c1-11de-9187-001cc4c03286.html
After looking over the Illinois State schedule, my thoughts are that it is woefully weak. Yes, every MVC school's schedule contains weak opponents, but after 2 straight years where ISU's poor schedule is the main single factor that kept ISU out of the NCAA tournament, there were promises that they would upgrade their schedule. And with the league's marquee player, this is the year ISU needed to play some better competetion.
But this year's schedule is arguably the weakest non-conference schedule by any MVC team, maybe in memory! It is loaded with bad teams. The only 2 teams that aren't ridiculously weak are Utah, and Niagara, and ISU had nothing to do with scheduling those 2. Utah is the result of the MVC-MWC agreement, and Niagara is the result of the payback game for last year's BracketBuster. So ISU did not actually have anything to do with scheduling the only teams with an RPI last year lower than 166!
This schedule pretty much guarantees that ISU can win 25 or 30 games this season, and unless they win the MVC tournament, they will be playing in the NIT again.
Here is ISU's non-conference schedule-
Nov. 11 - Quincy (exhibition), 7:05 p.m.
Nov. 15 - At Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, 2:30 p.m. (Not included in RPI last year-
probably would be around 330+)
Nov. 21 - North Florida, 4:05 p.m. (
RPI- 326)
Nov. 23 - At Illinois-Chicago, 7 p.m. (
RPI-166)
Nov. 27 - Norfolk State, 6:05 p.m. (
RPI- 290)
Nov. 28 - Southeast Missouri St., 6:05 p.m. (
RPI-339)
Nov. 29 - St. Bonaventure, 3:35 p.m. (
RPI- 201)
Dec. 5 - Central Michigan, 7:05 p.m. (
RPI-297)
Dec. 13 - Niagara, 2:05 p.m. (
RPI- 49)
Dec. 16 - At Ohio, TBA (
RPI- 184)
Dec. 19 - At Utah, 5 p.m. (
RPI- 9)
Dec. 22 - Grambling State, 7:05 p.m. (
RPI- 340)