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LSC scheduling should be |
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Conferences have long been part of college athletics. Every level of college athletics is broken down by regional conferences, their main reason being to crown a regional “champion” in hopes of getting a chance at a national championship.
Many conferences have divided themselves into geographical divisions, including the conference Texas A&M-Kingsville belongs in, the Lone Star Conference.
However, the rules that determine what games count in conference standings vary from sport to sport and may leave a follower of Javelina athletics, or a fan of any of the other 14 schools in the conference, confused as to where exactly their team stands compared to other teams in the conference.
Since the conference is divided into north and south divisions, all teams play their division rivals, but when they play out of division is where the problem arises.
The only two sports to count all games in conference standings, no matter the division, are baseball and volleyball. Both sports only started this practice this past season.
In football, due to an unbalanced amount of teams, when teams from the south play a north division opponent, only one of those games counts in the standings. Let’s say the Javelinas play three north division opponents, winning two and losing one. If that one is the one that counts for the standings, those two wins essentially mean nothing in the eyes of the conference.
In basketball and softball, only games against division opponents count in the standings. Teams from opposing divisions play each other, but those games do not count in the conference standings.
Essentially, instead of having one conference, the LSC has divided itself into two distinct conferences that have a really good scheduling agreement between them.
What the conference needs to do is make sure every game counts like they have done with baseball and volleyball. The seasons would take too long obviously to play every team in the conference, but there should at least be a few inter-divisional games that count in the standings.
They have taken a step in the right direction with the change to volleyball, but it must happen in all sports or the two divisions should just make it official and form their own independent conferences.