| Another Confusing Cody Column |
Like Oscar, I Love Trash
Out-Of-Conference games don't get the respect they
deserve ...
deserve ...
Hidden between the familiarity and marquee are the questions of “why?”
Look at a high school basketball schedule. There are conference games, holiday
tournament games and non-conference games. We are familiar with the conference
games, and familiar with the holiday tournaments in general.
What any beginning high school basketball fan will not be familiar with are the non-
conference games. That's were one would ask, “why are we playing them?”
There's good reason for non-conference games. They provide for a clash of
atmospheres and basketball philosophies. Where conference games are the same old
song and dance, non-conference games are the great unknown.
High school sports is about teaching young kids about life. Give them many different
scenarios, and they'll be exposed to many different scenarios they can look back at
later in life when something comes up.
These games do not get a lot of pub and respect, but they should.
Unlike conference games, these games are interchangeable. A team can only play in
so many games during a basketball season. They are given a few choices depending
on the number of holiday tournaments they play in. With each choice comes a number
of remaining games to be played. Out of those remaining games, conference games
are set aside to create the rump of the pile.
These remaining few games can either be played or not; and when they are played,
they are against teams not in the team's conference or division. In high school sports
colloquial language, we call these games “non-conference” games.
We rarely ever hear the words “non-conference” when a player or coach refers to team
goals for the season. Instead, these honors go to the conference games, holiday
games and postseason games. These “extra” games aren't really a goal, and you'll see
that players are prone to slacking off in them. That's not saying everyone does, but the
possibility of it exists.
No athlete should ever have to slack off in any game. So in order to prevent that, the
importance of these particular games has to be changed. Once this happens, then the
players will be forced to step up their game.
How do we fix this? We start with the naming of these games.
The word “non” is what's called a negative prefix. A negative one. Where other games
are positive games, these particular games are negative games. This can be changed.
Saying that these games are “out-of-conference” games makes them not as bad. The
games are then treated equally, in wording, with the conference games.
Second, try to bring more fans. The non-conference games – excuse me, out-of-
conference games – generally only attract a portion of an average home crowd. The
players will see this. Whether or not it affects the game is up to them. However, we can
help fix this. We need to preach the importance of each particular out-of-conference
game. How does playing this opponent help our team? What will we gain by playing
them? This is simple communication to the fan base, but it needs to be expanded
somewhat.
If the phrase “out-of-conference” is too verbose, perhaps touting the opponent as a
great one will encourage those to accomplish the task successfully. If the opponent is a
a champion of something, be it a conference, division or even a holiday tournament, it
will give the date some meaning. Any win will also have some significance to it, too.
+ It's the end of the basketball season, and there are some out-of-conference contracts
set to expire. Now begins the task of trying to find formidable opponents.
Small schools that excel in what they do have a hard time filling these holes with larger
schools. Enter in the mantras of “In order to be the best, you have to beat the best,”
and similar sayings. However, if a small school wants a large school on its schedule, the
large school would thus be “playing down” and not trying to find bigger and better
teams to play. This happens a lot with team sports rather than individual sports,
including wrestling.
This is a grind that coaches and athletic directors go through in the off-season, and a
process that many of those who are not don't understand.
Perhaps no area team in the past ten years has had more trouble finding competition
than Rock Falls boys basketball of 2005-06. This was not only Mike Winters' first year
at Rock Falls, after coming over from Jefferson, but the first year as a Class AA school
in nearly 12 years. Making that jump from A to AA meant replacing smaller out-of-
conference opponents with bigger ones.
“We have contacted over 60 AA teams and no one wants to play us with the exception
of United Township, Rochelle, Geneseo, Sterling and maybe Elgin,” Winters wrote to
this writer in 2005. “We have contacted most NIC-9 and WB6 schools (Including Moline)
and no one wants to play us or has a game available (with the exception of UT). We
have contacted the Naperville schools, Aurora schools, St. Charles schools, Peoria
schools among many others.
“None of this is as easy as you think it is – as always politics are involved.”
Eventually Rock Falls found important out-of-conference dates with Elgin Larkin,
Lincoln, Milwaukee Custer, Quincy, and Rock Island – and brought Aurora East, Harlem
and Milwaukee South Division to the Rock Falls Shootout – before dropping back into
the small school side a couple of years ago. They split wins against this group of
schools, but the experiences playing them helped in the long run.
Some large schools feel that a loss against a smaller school will hurt the program's
reputation. Remember when Appalachian State beat Michigan in college football a few
years back? Remember the words that echoed through our minds that went “The
Mountaineers has just beaten the Michigan Wolverines in The Big House!”? Remember
the backlash that ensued, and can we still feel it with the downfall of the Michigan
program today?
When “Davids” beat “Goliaths” there should be no finger-pointing from outside. The
actions on the playing floor were the reasons. The hoopla off the floor does damaging
results to the players. This is just another challenge for coaches and parents to try to
rectify, but they already have their hands full either running a program or raising their
kid.
Perhaps at The University of Michigan the fans have a lot of say in what goes on in the
program. However, there's no place for this in high school sports. Fans, just remember
high school sports is not about you the fan, but rather about the kids performing. If you
feel upset about a program's reputation being soured, that is your problem, not theirs –
and if you don't like it, then leave.
+ This topic kind of ties in to the coverage philosophy we have here at Northern Illinois
Sports Beat. You'll notice that there are as many out-of-conference games covered on
here as conference games. As much as we try, we'll cover a game that we can't find a
clear winner of. There is no “core” of schools here.
The whole journalism trend of emphasis on more than just results is more evident in out-
of-conference games than conference games. In an out-of-conference game, try to see
the different playing styles, the different atmosphere around you, the different officials,
whatever. If you can understand this, then perhaps the reason(s) for the end result may
make sense.
When I'm not at an important conference game, I'll most likely be at some out-of-
conference game. You may call these games "trash," but I certainly do not.
Cody Cutter is Publisher of Northern Illinois Sports Beat. He can be reached at
northernillinoissportsbeat@yahoo.com. --- Talk about what's written on our Message
Boards!
Look at a high school basketball schedule. There are conference games, holiday
tournament games and non-conference games. We are familiar with the conference
games, and familiar with the holiday tournaments in general.
What any beginning high school basketball fan will not be familiar with are the non-
conference games. That's were one would ask, “why are we playing them?”
There's good reason for non-conference games. They provide for a clash of
atmospheres and basketball philosophies. Where conference games are the same old
song and dance, non-conference games are the great unknown.
High school sports is about teaching young kids about life. Give them many different
scenarios, and they'll be exposed to many different scenarios they can look back at
later in life when something comes up.
These games do not get a lot of pub and respect, but they should.
Unlike conference games, these games are interchangeable. A team can only play in
so many games during a basketball season. They are given a few choices depending
on the number of holiday tournaments they play in. With each choice comes a number
of remaining games to be played. Out of those remaining games, conference games
are set aside to create the rump of the pile.
These remaining few games can either be played or not; and when they are played,
they are against teams not in the team's conference or division. In high school sports
colloquial language, we call these games “non-conference” games.
We rarely ever hear the words “non-conference” when a player or coach refers to team
goals for the season. Instead, these honors go to the conference games, holiday
games and postseason games. These “extra” games aren't really a goal, and you'll see
that players are prone to slacking off in them. That's not saying everyone does, but the
possibility of it exists.
No athlete should ever have to slack off in any game. So in order to prevent that, the
importance of these particular games has to be changed. Once this happens, then the
players will be forced to step up their game.
How do we fix this? We start with the naming of these games.
The word “non” is what's called a negative prefix. A negative one. Where other games
are positive games, these particular games are negative games. This can be changed.
Saying that these games are “out-of-conference” games makes them not as bad. The
games are then treated equally, in wording, with the conference games.
Second, try to bring more fans. The non-conference games – excuse me, out-of-
conference games – generally only attract a portion of an average home crowd. The
players will see this. Whether or not it affects the game is up to them. However, we can
help fix this. We need to preach the importance of each particular out-of-conference
game. How does playing this opponent help our team? What will we gain by playing
them? This is simple communication to the fan base, but it needs to be expanded
somewhat.
If the phrase “out-of-conference” is too verbose, perhaps touting the opponent as a
great one will encourage those to accomplish the task successfully. If the opponent is a
a champion of something, be it a conference, division or even a holiday tournament, it
will give the date some meaning. Any win will also have some significance to it, too.
+ It's the end of the basketball season, and there are some out-of-conference contracts
set to expire. Now begins the task of trying to find formidable opponents.
Small schools that excel in what they do have a hard time filling these holes with larger
schools. Enter in the mantras of “In order to be the best, you have to beat the best,”
and similar sayings. However, if a small school wants a large school on its schedule, the
large school would thus be “playing down” and not trying to find bigger and better
teams to play. This happens a lot with team sports rather than individual sports,
including wrestling.
This is a grind that coaches and athletic directors go through in the off-season, and a
process that many of those who are not don't understand.
Perhaps no area team in the past ten years has had more trouble finding competition
than Rock Falls boys basketball of 2005-06. This was not only Mike Winters' first year
at Rock Falls, after coming over from Jefferson, but the first year as a Class AA school
in nearly 12 years. Making that jump from A to AA meant replacing smaller out-of-
conference opponents with bigger ones.
“We have contacted over 60 AA teams and no one wants to play us with the exception
of United Township, Rochelle, Geneseo, Sterling and maybe Elgin,” Winters wrote to
this writer in 2005. “We have contacted most NIC-9 and WB6 schools (Including Moline)
and no one wants to play us or has a game available (with the exception of UT). We
have contacted the Naperville schools, Aurora schools, St. Charles schools, Peoria
schools among many others.
“None of this is as easy as you think it is – as always politics are involved.”
Eventually Rock Falls found important out-of-conference dates with Elgin Larkin,
Lincoln, Milwaukee Custer, Quincy, and Rock Island – and brought Aurora East, Harlem
and Milwaukee South Division to the Rock Falls Shootout – before dropping back into
the small school side a couple of years ago. They split wins against this group of
schools, but the experiences playing them helped in the long run.
Some large schools feel that a loss against a smaller school will hurt the program's
reputation. Remember when Appalachian State beat Michigan in college football a few
years back? Remember the words that echoed through our minds that went “The
Mountaineers has just beaten the Michigan Wolverines in The Big House!”? Remember
the backlash that ensued, and can we still feel it with the downfall of the Michigan
program today?
When “Davids” beat “Goliaths” there should be no finger-pointing from outside. The
actions on the playing floor were the reasons. The hoopla off the floor does damaging
results to the players. This is just another challenge for coaches and parents to try to
rectify, but they already have their hands full either running a program or raising their
kid.
Perhaps at The University of Michigan the fans have a lot of say in what goes on in the
program. However, there's no place for this in high school sports. Fans, just remember
high school sports is not about you the fan, but rather about the kids performing. If you
feel upset about a program's reputation being soured, that is your problem, not theirs –
and if you don't like it, then leave.
+ This topic kind of ties in to the coverage philosophy we have here at Northern Illinois
Sports Beat. You'll notice that there are as many out-of-conference games covered on
here as conference games. As much as we try, we'll cover a game that we can't find a
clear winner of. There is no “core” of schools here.
The whole journalism trend of emphasis on more than just results is more evident in out-
of-conference games than conference games. In an out-of-conference game, try to see
the different playing styles, the different atmosphere around you, the different officials,
whatever. If you can understand this, then perhaps the reason(s) for the end result may
make sense.
When I'm not at an important conference game, I'll most likely be at some out-of-
conference game. You may call these games "trash," but I certainly do not.
Cody Cutter is Publisher of Northern Illinois Sports Beat. He can be reached at
northernillinoissportsbeat@yahoo.com. --- Talk about what's written on our Message
Boards!
C o d y' s
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