2021 Summit Volleyball (Fall)

[kiyoat]

Should be an exciting season, with fifth-year seniors and at least four very strong programs, including the Yotes.  If we see some upsets in the non-conference season, and the cards fall right, this could be another two-bid fall for the Summit (like 2018).

As of right now (July 26) 200 of the 340 Division I schools have released their entire schedules.  We know USD's opponents based on other schools' releases, but they still haven't officially released one.  I'll post the ones from Summit teams here as they drop them (or others can as well.)

LINKS:

Summit Schedule

Summit Standings

Summit Stats

[kiyoat]

On July 7, three programs released full schedules:

[kiyoat]

Then three more released mid-month:

[kiyoat]

...And finally, Western Illinois finished theirs:

[kiyoat]

... So USD, Denver and St. Thomas are on the clock....

[gopheryote]

Jul 26, 2021 16:17:06 GMT -6 kiyoat said:

On July 7, three programs released full schedules:





Ha - not sure if you did it on purpose, but it made me chuckle. UNO's schedule is P5 after P5, including a Nebraska team that will be ranked. Then you see SDSU whose first game is Augie followed by playing themselves in a scrimmage. That is what a rebuild looks like but the contrast was kind of funny.

[GoYotes]

Definitely a big difference in the quality of the schedules of USD, UNO & UMKC (and I am guessing Denver as well) and the other Summit League teams.

[kiyoat]

Jul 26, 2021 19:59:55 GMT -6 GoYotes said:

Definitely a big difference in the quality of the schedules of USD, UNO & UMKC (and I am guessing Denver as well) and the other Summit League teams.

No doubt. I think some of it is about what other teams will agree to play you, so that part is out of your hands, but each staff has some wiggle room to schedule easier or harder. Not winning any non conference games won’t help the collective RPI either, so I’m ok with trying to match the schedule with each team’s ability level. Gotta get some wins.

I think that out of the top tier teams Omaha and USD have had the toughest schedules.

[fightsd]

Jul 26, 2021 19:59:55 GMT -6 GoYotes said:

Definitely a big difference in the quality of the schedules of USD, UNO & UMKC (and I am guessing Denver as well) and the other Summit League teams.

That was my first thought as well. State scheduling a bunch of nobodies.

[kiyoat]

State had their best season in almost a decade last year. (6th place, 6-10 conference record) interesting they wouldn't be trying to build on that with a tougher schedule. I'll do a comparison of schedules once they all come out. Drake is maybe the highlight for them.

[yoteforever]

College volleyball coaches historically schedule around the “physchi” of their team. They generally know what they’re capable of and if they feel a tough preseason schedule will potentially destroy their confidence they will schedule soft in order to get some early season wins in order to build up their confidence. The coach basically is saying we’re ok but not title contenders so I’m gonna use the 2021 season to keep making them better.

The risk to a soft schedule is if they get pressed to even beat a smaller school or worse yet…lose, Then they could tank right there. Not a bad strategy on the Jacks coach’s part.

[fightsd]

Jul 27, 2021 20:52:32 GMT -6 yoteforever said:

College volleyball coaches historically schedule around the “physchi” of their team. They generally know what they’re capable of and if they feel a tough preseason schedule will potentially destroy their confidence they will schedule soft in order to get some early season wins in order to build up their confidence. The coach basically is saying we’re ok but not title contenders so I’m gonna use the 2021 season to keep making them better.

The risk to a soft schedule is if they get pressed to even beat a smaller school or worse yet…lose, Then they could tank right there. Not a bad strategy on the Jacks coach’s part.

My God that's a miserable attitude to have as a coach. As a player and as a coach, I always wanted to have the best competition possible on the schedule. I guess I can understand the reasoning, but imagine having that little faith in your squad that you build a purposely weak schedule.

[GoYotes]

SDSU is finally showing some improvement. A couple of years ago they would have been an huge underdog in a match vs Augie.

[kiyoat]

denverpioneers.com/sports/womens-volleyball/schedule

Amid no fanfare (no tweet, no article) Denver finally releases their schedule. All the Summit Non-conference schedules are released! I'll do an analysis tomorrow....

Denver goes to a USC tournament, then plays three home tournaments. The highlight besides USC is a visit from Iowa. Not impressive, compared with Omaha's and USD's schedules. I could be missing something, though.

[kiyoat]

Here's an analysis of the 2021 Summit non-conference schedules:

2020  RPI	team	2021 non-con RPI ave.	team	# P-6 teams	# tourn teams	top-100 teams
50	USD	86	USD	4	3	8
56	Den	106	Oma	7	3	4
69	KC	142	KC	3	2	4
79	Oma	152	Den	2	0	4
178	NDSU	160	UND	1	0	3
216	SDSU	163	UST	2	1	2
272	ORU	180	WIU	0	0	1
283	WIU	196	SDSU	0	0	0
298	UND	198	ORU	1	0	3
--	UST	203	NDSU	1	0	2

Take all of this with a grain of salt, as the RPI was a little off last year due to the shortened schedules.  The Ivy League and Big West conferences cancelled their seasons, so I had to use 2019 RPIs for those opponents.

Looks like USD and Omaha have the toughest schedules by far.  Omaha has more opponents from power conferences, but we have more RPI top-100 teams.

KC and Denver's schedules are still top-4 in the conference by RPI, but Denver's is the weakest of the group.  As usual, Denver has three of four tournaments at home.  Similar to past years.

North Dakota and St. Thomas have the most challenging schedules from the rest of the pack.  I hope they can get some wins to validate that bold scheduling.

Bottom 3 schedules from SDSU, ORU and NDSU.  Weak.