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Division I teams: Stop the cupcakes in December

Adreian Payne, Jacob Pettway

Michigan State’s Adreian Payne dives over Tuskegee’s Jacob Pettway (13) while chasing the loose ball during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012, at Jenison Field House in East Lansing, Mich. Payne had 12 points and 10 rebounds in Michigan State’s 92-56 win. (AP Photo/Al Goldis)

AP

Scrolling through tonight’s Division I college basketball slate, I noticed something. Well, I’ve been noticing it for some time now.

I looked at the schedule and found certain, we’ll call them ‘unique’, match-ups. Ones I haven’t recalled ever seeing in mid-December. So I looked some of them up. These schools don’t reside in Division I, at least not in the NCAA.

SIU-Edwardsville is playing Eureka College, who has also played Texas-Pan American already this season. Northern Colorado? They get mighty Tabor College tonight. Bethune-Cookman has a date with Florida Christian. And given the name and my adolescent history with religious-type girls, they won’t get very far (off-the-court, at least).

Division I programs playing non-Division I teams well into the season. It’s a recent trend in Division I college basketball, and it needs to stop. Yesterday.

I get it. They’re easy wins. Everyone likes to look in the newspaper or on a website and see a 30-or-40-point blowout win. It’s a great confidence booster. But, for the love of God, think about when you get these victories. Ones like this are reserved for the exhibition slate.

I did some research. For the sake of time, I looked through only the past week to identify how many teams played a game against a non-Division I team in the past week. If anything, I thought it would fight my case. It didn’t. By my count, there have been 25 contests out of a possible 212 since last Monday. That’s 25 no-win games for 25 teams. A vast majority of them played by mid-or-low major Division I teams.

I say no-win because frankly, no one wins with a blowout victory against a team that has no shot at winning. The only result that could matter? A loss. Ask Charleston how they feel about that game to Anderson (S.C.) University last week, 65-49. Yep, a loss.

I get it, okay? When you’re a program that isn’t necessarily big-time, you take the W’s you can get. And in turn, the opponents who don’t (normally) stand a chance take a nice, hearty game check and use it towards expenses and other athletic or university-centric endeavors. That’s fine. But do it in the beginning of the season. Wins like that at this point don’t help anything. Not your RPI, your seeding in your conference tournament and most certainly don’t lend a hand to your postseason hopes.

It’s better to at least be bold enough to try for a game in that slot that could do some good towards those postseason aspirations. A game against a team of equal talent, from a conference on-par with their own.

By mid-December, all teams in Division I should know what kind of team they have, so the “we’re still figuring ourselves out” excuse is a waste of time. And pounding Po-Dunk State from NAIA Division II isn’t going to help that. Confidence is one thing. Confidence in a game that shouldn’t be in doubt, that’s another. That just equals ego.

To the small schools taking their beatings. By all means, collect your game checks. This isn’t about you.

To the teams in the SWAC, MEAC, Big South, Sun Belt, Atlantic Sun and beyond: I understand that there aren’t many options when it comes to playing tune-up games that can build your team’s confidence. But instead of fishing for easy wins, play one another in the non-conference. A loss may be a result, but, in my opinion, there’s at least something to be learned. Nothing can be learned by smashing a non-D-1 this far into the season.

Admittedly, there’s no correlation between teams having late-season success or failure and playing cupcakes well into their seasons. That’s fine. College football teams schedule Football Championship Subdivision teams for Senior Day — or just for the hell of it — to get a win, so it’s not like this is a problem that affects only college basketball. But be better than that, Division I. Because you are, the scoreboard normally proves it.

David Harten is a sportswriter and college basketball blogger, you can follow him on Twitter at @David_Harten.