[ColoradoTree]

thanks for the info CT!
Seems like the Arizona schools with their good weather oughtt to be better in tennis.
Maybe we should play Cal twice each year again to help our ranking.

Agreed on both counts. The Arizona schools need to strike gold a couple of times with recruits so that they can (1) have a nice run at NCAAs, and (2) convince recruits that coming to Tempe or Tucson isn't throwing away your chance to win something in college tennis or even have a crack at the pros. ASU in particular strikes me as a school that could really establish itself if it continues to recruit a lot of international players (they currently have 4 international players out of 8 scholarships), with that success leading to more interest from domestic recruits. These past couple of years were a nice step in the right direction for them. And since the conference's overall health only helps us, I'm all for them getting better. (Just not too good, of course.)

And I'd welcome a second match against Cal (and/or USC/UCLA), though I wouldn't want to give up our national rivalries to do it. There's room in the schedule, but this team obviously isn't interested in playing as full a schedule as other top teams teams nationally. UCLA, for example, is playing two excellent non-conference opponents, #7 Pepperdine and #9 Oklahoma State, on top of playing Cal and USC twice (and on top of whoever they'll face at Indoor Nationals). Stanford isn't much different--we have #2 Vanderbilt and #6 Texas on top of whoever we play at Indoor Nationals. This year it wouldn't have worked, because the weekend the L.A. schools are coming to Berkeley is the same weekend we're hosting Vanderbilt. But next year, hopefully we can find a weekend to either add a couple more Top 25-caliber teams, or we figure out a trip to the L.A. schools early.  Just for Cal, though, they're completely open the weekend of February 15-17, and our only match that weekend is hosting Santa Clara on Friday. You could make that happen right now if you wanted. But for whatever reason, we or they (or both) don't want to do that. 

One additional thought for a Cal match is that in years where we're hosting Oregon, maybe we add a Cal match that same weekend (most weekends have two opponents anyway). You could do Friday vs./at Cal, Oregon could play at one school Saturday, and at the other school on Sunday.

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One more thought on the unbalanced schedule front. I don't think Lele makes much of a distinction between the conference and non-conference schedules, because when you combine them, we're usually in pretty good shape. For example, we have 4 home and 6 away conference matches this year, but our toughest non-conference matches--Vanderbilt and Texas--are both at home. Next year when we're 6 home and 4 away, it'll be flipped. 

Basically, in years where our conference schedule is harder (i.e., playing Cal, UCLA, and USC on the road), we get the tougher non-conference matches at home, and when we travel to Nashville, Austin, or Gainesville early in the season, we get the tougher conference matches at home. 

(I'm still bummed that Florida and Pepperdine aren't on the schedule. And there is absolutely still room to add Pepperdine, at least. Sigh.)

[ColoradoTree]

thanks for the info CT!
Seems like the Arizona schools with their good weather oughtt to be better in tennis.
Maybe we should play Cal twice each year again to help our ranking.

Agreed on both counts. The Arizona schools need to strike gold a couple of times with recruits so that they can (1) have a nice run at NCAAs, and (2) convince recruits that coming to Tempe or Tucson isn't throwing away your chance to win something in college tennis or even have a crack at the pros. ASU in particular strikes me as a school that could really establish itself if it continues to recruit a lot of international players (they currently have 4 international players out of 8 scholarships), with that success leading to more interest from domestic recruits. These past couple of years were a nice step in the right direction for them. And since the conference's overall health only helps us, I'm all for them getting better. (Just not too good, of course.)

And I'd welcome a second match against Cal (and/or USC/UCLA), though I wouldn't want to give up our national rivalries to do it. There's room in the schedule, but this team obviously isn't interested in playing as full a schedule as other top teams teams nationally. UCLA, for example, is playing two excellent non-conference opponents, #7 Pepperdine and #9 Oklahoma State, on top of playing Cal and USC twice (and on top of whoever they'll face at Indoor Nationals). Stanford isn't much different--we have #2 Vanderbilt and #6 Texas on top of whoever we play at Indoor Nationals. This year it wouldn't have worked, because the weekend the L.A. schools are coming to Berkeley is the same weekend we're hosting Vanderbilt. But next year, hopefully we can find a weekend to either add a couple more Top 25-caliber teams, or we figure out a trip to the L.A. schools early.  Just for Cal, though, they're completely open the weekend of February 15-17, and our only match that weekend is hosting Santa Clara on Friday. You could make that happen right now if you wanted. But for whatever reason, we or they (or both) don't want to do that. 

One additional thought for a Cal match is that in years where we're hosting Oregon, maybe we add a Cal match that same weekend (most weekends have two opponents anyway). You could do Friday vs./at Cal, Oregon could play at one school Saturday, and at the other school on Sunday.

---

One more thought on the unbalanced schedule front. I don't think Lele makes much of a distinction between the conference and non-conference schedules, because when you combine them, we're usually in pretty good shape. For example, we have 4 home and 6 away conference matches this year, but our toughest non-conference matches--Vanderbilt and Texas--are both at home. Next year when we're 6 home and 4 away, it'll be flipped. 

Basically, in years where our conference schedule is harder (i.e., playing Cal, UCLA, and USC on the road), we get the tougher non-conference matches at home, and when we travel to Nashville, Austin, or Gainesville early in the season, we get the tougher conference matches at home. 

(I'm still bummed that Florida and Pepperdine aren't on the schedule. And there is absolutely still room to add Pepperdine, at least. Sigh.)