When you picture a coach trying to put his annual schedule together, you may imagine him sitting behind a desk, picking up the phone and cold-calling his peers all day until he gets an Excel doc filled up. That seems like the way it should work, doesn’t it?
Astonishingly enough, to some degree, it may actually work more like the ‘announcements’ board at your office, or the personal ads section of the local newspaper. A service called Basketball Travelers provides a simple message board for lovelorn basketball programs looking for dance partners.
Some sample entries:
From a shy southern Methodist liberal arts college: “Need $ games. Would prefer to play within region but have some flexibility with travel. Have some flexibility with dates also but would like to fill: opening night; sometime between 12/17-12/21; and sometime between 12/28-1/2. “
From a dominant Big Ten Daddy: “OFFERING A GUARANTEE FOR DECEMBER 12 CALL OR EMAIL WITH ANY INTEREST - DI SCHOOLS ONLY”
And, is this BTD’s potential perfect match? “looking for a tournament to play in next season. Our dates are flexible. Next year is our first year in Division One and we will be an RPI counter immediately.”
It’s kind of fun trying to match the open dates and program personas. Possibly more fun than Bracketology.