Mirror Scheduling or Doubleheaders for BKB?

[TexasTerror]

The SLC has switched from running doubleheaders on Thursdays and Saturdays to doing mirror scheduling where the womens team is on the road, then the men are at home or vice-versa.

I wanted to see what conferences did mirror scheduling compared to doubleheaders. And if they do mirror scheduling, are they successful? Thoughts anyone?

[Gil Dobie]

The SLC has switched from running doubleheaders on Thursdays and Saturdays to doing mirror scheduling where the womens team is on the road, then the men are at home or vice-versa.

I wanted to see what conferences did mirror scheduling compared to doubleheaders. And if they do mirror scheduling, are they successful? Thoughts anyone?

They do mirror scheduling in Minnesota High School sports. You really have to decide to follow the boys or girls teams at the high school level, because road games are so close. It definitely hurts attendance for both at the High School level. College could be different.

[TheValleyRaider]

The Patriot League does switched to mirror-scheduling last year. As far as I'm aware, it doesn't really hurt attendance at schools that love their basketball (AU, HC, Lafayette), and doesn't help those that didn't attend anyway (Lehigh, Colgate). As a member of the band, I prefer the mirror scheduling because spending 4-5 hours at a basketball game is rough given how little we play at them. Of course, for us, basketball takes a backseat to hockey almost every time.

Last year the League also changed the tournaments from being at one site to giving the top two teams each half of the bracket. Not quite as confusing as it sounds, but it makes travel planning a b!itch when you may not know where you're going until 4 days beforehand. They made the switch because attendance was low, not taking into account the fact that it was held in a horse-show arena in Maryland. Given that Maryland is at one extreme of the League in terms of geography, it's a wonder fans from HC showed up at all, except that they knew they'd probably win anyway. (end mini-rant)

[wkuhillhound]

The Sun Belt Conference does mirror scheduling. It really sucks especially for travelling partners. Western Kentucky/Middle Tennessee...Arkansas State/UALR immediately comes to mind. It doesn't offer any benefits. On sunbeltsports.org there are always questions about the basketball scheduling seemingly every month. I wish I could elaborate further, but I don't know very much about mirrored scheduling. They should just pick a location and have just a doubleheader and men's and women's, it sounds easy, but it always has to be difficult.

[TexasTerror]

My concern is mostly with broadcast coverage. Some schools already do not do womens' basketball unless their SID does it. Will schools have their broadcasters follow the mens' team or just do home games? Will womens' games just not recieve radio coverage? I'm very interested in how that boils down.

[Retro]

The part i like is that if the men are on the road and the women are at home, i can make the game with 7pm start.. There is no way i can make to a 5pm women's game 90% of the time as with most people. It may hurt road attendance a little, but i feel people who normally travel to road games are going to for that gender/sport.

Broadcast is an issue.

One solution is the ability to have both games available via the internet if you have the site designed that way and the extra announcers.. Otherwise, you have to pick and choose the one you should broadcast, maybe depending on the opponent or distance.. I think it's better to broadcast road games if it's a toss up for obvious reasons.

[TexasTerror]

I know at Sam we have a student station that can do all the home games and then work with Bearkat Athletics to get the game streaming online as they did for non-conference home games in basketball and baseball games, as well as the softball tournament, all of which are not covered in our radio deal.

Can most of these markets afford extra announcers? I know some stations are actually losing money carrying the games. And just doing road games is not the most financially stable way to do it considering you'll be on the road every Thursday and Saturday.