Stare Down Sports

College Basketball has and will give us great matchups this November. A far cry from the past.

College Basketball season has just gotten under way earlier this week. In the olden days that I grew up in, you had to wait until January to get a good college basketball game on TV.

Not anymore.

Teams are scheduling their December, even their November schedule harder than ever before. It is a new trend that I not only believe is here to stay, will only grow.

College Basketball: Before the Non Conference Meant Something

The ideology is changing around the non conference schedule quite rapidly. Within 4 or 5 seasons we have seen the transformation to be real.

Used to be the only tough games you would even think about scheduling was in an early season tournament you get invited too. The Maui or ESPN’s Atlantis tournament.

The old model was to schedule the non conference part of the schedule which last two months from November to December light. The thought was let’s give our players and fans alike some confidence going into conference play.

In the process of doing so, we can stack up the wins. If a program could go into January 11-1 or even better go undefeated, rankings and tournament seeding would be better.

Then came the Quad Ranking System.

Schedule Tough and Be Rewarded

The NCAA basketball committee created a Quad 1-4 ranking system for every team. To explain lightly, the top 75 schools are considered Quad 1, 76-135 Quad 2 and so on and so on.

Playing against Quad 1 schools and beating them began to mean more to the tournament committee than beating a Quad 2 or 3 program. This was genius.

Now schools are lining up to schedule to most Quad 1 games as possible, which again is the best of the best, in non conference play. Because simply put 8-3 against Quad 1 schools looks better than 10-1 against nothing but Quad 3 and 4 schools.

Two benefits came from this. One for the coaches and players, and two for the fans. Playing the best of the best against one another in November for the fans to watch.

While also the players and coaches are more prepared for conference play and tournament time. Being battle tested, playing against top schools and tournament schools since opening week.

We have seen a number of games between big name schools this week, and Friday will end it with a bang between Arizona and Duke. A final four type matchup on only the 5th day of the season.

Now that is special. College Basketball is back and this is what it is all about.

Rowan Donaghey, Sports Reporter and Betting Analyst for Stare Down Sports. You can follow him on the X via @RowanDonaghey

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