No official release from Rice, but based on schedules released by other schools (thanks to Alan Shelby for his catch re. San Diego) already, our early OOC schedule is beginning to come into focus. According to Alan's research, we play the likely Top 15-ranked San Diego Torreros (with an exceptional pitching staff) for a 3-game series at The Reck the weekend of March 12th (which presumably means we'll return the favor and play in San Diego in 2010)...we will play 3 Top 25 teams at the MMC the second weekend of the season (A&M, Baylor and either UC-I or UCLA), and I believe we play road series at both Cal-Poly and Winthrop (unless the deal with Withrop for the road series was for 2010). Does this leave a weekend available for our own tourney at Reckling...and does anyone have a clue who may be participating in that one?
I went to the WSU (Cougars) website, and their '09 schedule is not posted yet (so this may not be official), but I saw their schedule posted on Rivals. It has them playing in the Rice tourney March 6,7,& 8. Cut / paste below:
MARCH
Sunday March 1 University of Oklahoma Pullman, WA 12:00
Tuesday March 3 Gonzaga University Spokane, WA 6:30
Friday March 6 Rice University Tournament Houston, TX TBD
Saturday March 7 Rice University Tournament Houston, TX TBD
Sunday March 8 Rice University Tournament Houston, TX TBD
Yup, saw that as well. Not quite sure the value in inviting Wazzou to the Rice tourney since they're not a Top 50 team (may not even be Top 100 in RPI) and we're already playing 4 - 7 games against West Coast teams (San Diego x 3, UC-I/UCLA, Cal-Poly x 3). We don't need the additional geographic coverage for RPI and ISR purposes.
In any event, our OOC slate will once again be amongst the best in the country and should keep our overall Strength of Schedule in the Top 25 nationally. I think what we know so far-- or can guess-- is as follows...
San Diego x 3
A&M x 2 (MMC, @ Reckling)
UT x 2 (mid-week home and home)
Baylor x 1 (at least at the MMC, if not also a mid-weeker)
Oklahoma State x 1 on the road (reciprocate last year's home game)
Cal-Poly or Winthrop x 3 on the road (reciprocate Reckling series)
Sam Houston State x 2 (our usual home and home mid-weekers)
Rice tourney (Wazzou, ???, ???)
...with 3 - 5 additional mid-weekers TBA (Texas State?, TAMU-CC?, Lamar?, Baylor?).
Not bad at all!
No official release from Rice, but based on schedules released by other schools (thanks to Alan Shelby for his catch re. San Diego) already, our early OOC schedule is beginning to come into focus. According to Alan's research, we play the likely Top 15-ranked San Diego Torreros (with an exceptional pitching staff) for a 3-game series at The Reck the weekend of March 12th (which presumably means we'll return the favor and play in San Diego in 2010)...we will play 3 Top 25 teams at the MMC the second weekend of the season (A&M, Baylor and either UC-I or UCLA), and I believe we play road series at both Cal-Poly and Winthrop (unless the deal with Withrop for the road series was for 2010). Does this leave a weekend available for our own tourney at Reckling...and does anyone have a clue who may be participating in that one?
Given this next season's uniform start date of Feb. 20, we only have 4 weekends before we start C-USA play. The second weekend looks like it's now always going to be the MMC. We've followed that with the Rice Classic at the Reck for week 3. If the postings are correct about San Diego on March 12ff, that leaves only the opening weekend for either Cal Poly or Winthrop (if we indeed signed a H&H agreement with them--which I might question since both would be more anxious to travel to Houston in late winter and play prestigious Rice than we would be to travel to their less temperate sites Feb. 20 for a opening series).
No official release from Rice, but based on schedules released by other schools (thanks to Alan Shelby for his catch re. San Diego) already, our early OOC schedule is beginning to come into focus. According to Alan's research, we play the likely Top 15-ranked San Diego Torreros (with an exceptional pitching staff) for a 3-game series at The Reck the weekend of March 12th (which presumably means we'll return the favor and play in San Diego in 2010)...we will play 3 Top 25 teams at the MMC the second weekend of the season (A&M, Baylor and either UC-I or UCLA), and I believe we play road series at both Cal-Poly and Winthrop (unless the deal with Withrop for the road series was for 2010). Does this leave a weekend available for our own tourney at Reckling...and does anyone have a clue who may be participating in that one?
Given this next season's uniform start date of Feb. 20, we only have 4 weekends before we start C-USA play. The second weekend looks like it's now always going to be the MMC. We've followed that with the Rice Classic at the Reck for week 3. If the postings are correct about San Diego on March 12ff, that leaves only the opening weekend for either Cal Poly or Winthrop (if we indeed signed a H&H agreement with them--which I might question since both would be more anxious to travel to Houston in late winter and play prestigious Rice than we would be to travel to their less temperate sites Feb. 20 for a opening series).
Col, I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure we signed a home and home deal with the Cal-Poly Ponies, and the only reason we did not reciprocate in '08 (and it was announced at the time of the deal I believe) was because we were already committed to play LBSU on the West Coast last season. Unless WG managed to back out of the deal, I believe we committed to being out there in '09. Who knows what the deal was with Winthrop. Perhaps, instead of agreeing to reciprocate with a road weekend series, we agreed to play a Tuesday/Wednesday or Wednesday/Thursday pair of road mid-week games in conjunction with one of our '09 road trips to ECU and USM?
I had posted something on the Rice tournament a couple of weeks ago. According to a note from Kendall, it's Rice, Washington State, Oral Roberts and Notre Dame.