Schedule lacks punch for fans

Scott Nulph - Sports Editor

The Oklahoma State men’s basketball nonconference schedule was announced a few days ago and, as usual, it met with some grumblings from the fan base.

Not enough big-name, big-time opponents coming to Stillwater, the disgruntled group said.

And you know what, they’re not all that wrong.

Seattle, Southern, North Texas, Prairie View A&M;, UT-San Antonio, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Pacific and Copping State. Those are the home nonconference games Travis Ford and his program has lined up for this season.

Not exactly a murderer’s row of college basketball’s elite making their way to Stillwater.

There’s a lot that goes into making a nonconference schedule these days, not the least of which is getting enough winnable home games to make sure a team not only improves before conference play, but also builds up a nice win-loss record as well.

Don’t kid yourself, every BSC school does it, Duke, Connecticut, North Carolina, Kansas, UCLA, everybody. And getting a BSC school to come to your house these days is a lot like getting a nice, cool summer day around here. Good luck.

The trick, of course, is to then schedule enough competitive games to see just how good you can be. Honestly, there won’t be any of those types of games at Gallagher-Iba Arena before January.

I don’t blame Ford for the schedule this year. He has a young team with a ton of question marks. He’s doing what he thinks is best and looking out for his team.

But what about looking out for those who fill up all those orange seats? Somebody needs to start looking out for them as well.

Long gone are the days when it didn’t matter who you played, just when. With just about every game on television these days, fans can follow their teams from the comfort of home and with far less of a drain on their pocket book.

These are still tough times economically. It’s not as easy today to throw down a few hundred bucks for a season ticket the way it used to be. Now throw in a bunch of nonconference games against teams you couldn’t pick out of a lineup and, yeah, fans have a right to be a little ticked off.

It might be time to look outside the box just a touch. I’m not saying that you have to load up the nonconference slate with the heavyweights, and I’m not saying it’s as simple as making a call or two. But in these times when people are looking at where every dollar goes, bringing just one big-name team to Stillwater a year might go a long, long way.

It might be time to make the extra effort, schedule that home-and-home, pay a little more.

Look at football for example. Nobody’s complaining about Houston, Rice and Grambling State being the three other home nonconference games for OSU because Georgia is coming to town, too.

I guarantee if Pittsburgh or Michigan State or Florida was playing in Stillwater this winter the complaints about the rest of the schedule would have been mostly silent.

It might be time to start throwing the fans a bone or two when it comes to scheduling. Before they start throwing something back.