But there isn't any difference in the "the elite teams will only play other elite teams". ISU is every bit the team that Texas is and Texas got a series with Michigan State booked. Teams don't need to be afraid to lose at Hilton because in this day and age a loss on the road against ISU counts for more than a win at home against a cream puff. SoS and resume are relied on more and more for tourney seedings. More teams seem to be willing to risk a loss on the road for the exposure and SoS bump. With ISU being a regular in the rankings these days, I'd bet they start to see teams taking them up on these offers soon.
If you think that ISU has the same ability to pull MSU to a home and home, you are beyond handicapped. You would have to be the dumbest person on the internet. I'm not selling ISU Short. I think talent wise and coaching wise they are as good or better than Texas, but come on use your brain. There's a ******* reason the school got 25 mil for building their own longhorn network.
Only a KU fan would be dumb enough to think its only about basketball skill and scheduling opportunities just pop up because your team is good. You don't think that ESPN/Fox has something to say in swaying teams, or that the Texas Athletic department doesn't employ other avenues to influence their schedule outside of their Basketball program. Scheduling for Texas is nothing like scheduling for ISU even during the ISU hot streaks. You can really be clueless sometimes.
It isn't selling ISU short, when we know that Half the Big 10 has been pussing out now for years. Virginia bought out of their return trip and wanted nothing to do with coming to Hilton. Thad Said never again, Michigan said never again and they knew better, they didn't want to come in the first place. A large part of why we were able to get them into Hilton was Because of the Johnny Tribute. We've been trying for years with Minnesota, and Wisconsin has said no thanks.
On top of that, you do realize that ISU still had the 21st toughest schedule out of 345 last year. They are looking for good home/home games, but Won't go 2 for one, like NC, Indiana and Illinois have demanded in the past. We've had to get creative to get Duke on the schedule playing in Chicago. They said No F'n way to playing in Hilton. In recent years we've played Duke, Michigan, Virginia, Ohio State, BYU, (one of the best home court advantages in the country) UNLV, Cal, Houston Minnesota and Creighton on top of playing Iowa and UNI every year. I think ISU has almost always scheduled appropriately. I think they will round out the schedule in an intelligent way again this year. Fred will decide whether we need a fully active roster to go after another solid game or not. if he decides to wait for the full roster and confernce play this year I'm good with his judgement.
