It is hard to believe that East Texas A&M University has completed it’s transition to being a full fledged of NCAA Division I’s athletic establishment. Last night on The Call The Roll Podcast I discussed Men’s Basketball and scheduling big names came up during the podcast. It also got me thinking that now that our University has become a full fledged DI school and Southland Conference member, it is time to stop take unnecessary beatings against huge schools that we don’t have a prayer against over and over again.

I could go over why, but I will start with football. This season our non-conference schedule looks like this. At SMU, a Power 5 team that won the ACC last year and went to the College Football Playoffs. At Florida State, another Power 5 team that despite recent struggles are still a storied program. Grambling State, an FCS team that is HBCU royalty that plays out of the legendary Southwestern Athletic Conference, and North Carolina Central, another HBCU school that is a strong program under current coach Trei Oliver. Those are the 4 teams to play before Southland Conference play starts.

If you look at who our Basketball teams played last year, our Women’s team played UNT Dallas (NAIA), Arkansas (SEC-Major) LeTourneau (NCAA D3), Baylor (Big 12 Major), UT-Arlington (WAC-Mid Major), Texas Southern (SWAC-Mid-Major), Seattle (WAC-Mid Major), Abilene Christian (WAC-Mid Major), and Grand Canyon (Mountain West-Major). Their record was 3-6 and 2 of those losses were less than 3 points.

The Men Played Iowa (Big 10 Major), South Dakota (Summit League Mid Major), Texas A&M (SEC-Major), Southern University (SWAC Mid Major), Connecticut (Big East-Major), Oklahoma (SEC-Major), Stonehill (Northeaster Conference-Mid Major), and Purdue-Fort Wayne (Horizon-Mid Major). The Lions went 1-7, and only one loss was within 10 points.

The point I am trying to make here is this. I understand what these big money games mean. It is an arranged marriage. A huge, well funded, well known school gets to have a much smaller team that is usually less talented, invites them to play, beats them up, and they smaller school gets a check for their trouble and the bigger school gets an easy win. Its not like we don’t do the same thing as well to NAIA and D3 schools in Basketball. We have not done the same in football, that is for sure.

In regards to football, if we are going to have 4 non-conference games, we should schedule a D2 school or a lousy FCS squad to open the season, then play the big money game, and then play another FCS school home and home. So, two FCS schools, one DII school, and one FBS. What this does it gives you the chance and likelihood of starting out the year 2-2 at worst. It also gets people in the stands and the players get a chance to win big while being able to run out of the tunnel in big named stadiums in front of thousands of people with EAST TEXAS strapped on their chest. If you get out of conference 2-2, football team’s confidence is super high, and if you hang with an FBS squad and hammer out two good wins over a good D2 school and an FCS team, Southland play doesn’t seem so tough.

Basketball for Men’s and Womens needs to be the same. If you have 8 non conference games, 4 need to be D2 and under to get some confidence under the team’s belt that they can win, and then play 2 tough major squads and then play the mid majors for the other two games. That way you get two good paydays and a chance to win because it can always happen, but the other 6 games you have a great chance to pick up some quality road wins and of course blow out the teams to get the confidence up and then roll up to a Baylor or Kentucky and give them all you got.

Softball is the same deal. More smaller D1’s and D2 teams and take your shots at the Oklahomas and Texas’s of the world.

We might have to continue our current trend for a couple of more years seeing as how our program was put behind the 8 ball financially and keep cashing those big game checks, but there will come a time when we won’t have to do that, but that doesn’t mean you have to do nothing but take beatings that lower morale or simply feast on cupcakes that will give you a sugar high. Moderation is key to both. Always.

Note: I tried pulling up the Volleyball schedule, but it was offline for some reason. I didn’t forget about you, Coach Joe and Crew.