By Doug Harris
The Dayton men's basketball program does extensive scouting on each opponent in the days leading up to their games, of course. That's standard procedure.

But for every non-conference foe, UD comes up with a dossier of detailed information long before any of them even make it on the schedule.

Neil Sullivan, the school's deputy director of athletics, collaborates with the basketball staff to put together a slate of non-league games, and they're diligent about hitting certain criteria — or "buckets," as they like to call them.

One is to line up as many marquee home games as possible for the fan base. Another is to face teams that play a similar style to Atlantic 10 squads to prepare the Flyers for league play.

Television appearances also are important, which is a reason why UD is part of the exempt tournaments like the EA Sports Maui Invitational, and ESPN-owned events (AdvoCare Invitational, Puerto Rico Tip-Off, Charleston Classic) every year.

But the primary focus is to build a demanding schedule to show the NCAA selection committee that the Flyers are worthy of an at-large berth if they amass enough wins.

That's where all of that offseason research and data collection comes in.

"The nuance to scheduling is really detailed. You're making projections about teams and where you think they'll finish in their league, what their winning percentage will be," Sullivan said. "We get to the point where we look at percent of minutes coming back for that team, percent scoring, percent of rebounding returning and a number of other factors. We then cross-check those projections against a trailing 5-year average RPI model."

"It's really critical we balance all the objectives a schedule has to meet," Sullivan said. "But without question, the most critical scheduling objective is building a resume to earn a bid and advance in the NCAA Tournament."

The Flyers seemed to have accomplished that with their 2015-16 schedule, at least the part that they control.

Their four series games, including Vanderbilt on the road and Arkansas, Alabama and rival Miami at home. And most of the other non-league games look like key RPI match-ups, too.

"There's a definite plan of attack in the schedule," UD coach Archie Miller said. "For us to have the ability to have three SEC opponents, those are tremendous opportunities for exposure and the level of play we're trying to get involved with.

"Being in the ESPN exempt events — and this Orlando field being what it is (the Flyers open with Iowa in the AdvoCare Invitational) — gives us the potential of six games against not only big-five conferences, but top-50 and top-100 games. That's what you're looking for."

Some of the less-appealing names on the docket could pack even more of punch than better-known schools. North Florida won the Atlantic Sun Conference last year and played in the NCAA tourney, while Chattanooga and William & Mary won 20-plus games and played in the postseason.

But while identifying suitable opponents is an important step, it wouldn't mean much if you couldn't get them to agree to play. And that part of the process is much more complex than most fans probably realize.

Dayton pays about $85,000 for their "buy" games — that is, opponents who come to the arena for a one-time shot without requiring a home game in return. Sometimes that price exceeds six figures, meaning UD will pay whatever it takes to fill that most important "bucket" of having a taxing schedule.

Negotiations between schools, especially for series games, occur year round and sometimes require months of give and take. That's why Miller calls scheduling "the second hardest thing we do, other than recruiting."

Dates can be hard to line up because of exam weeks and needed days off after road trips. Programs with big followings like the Flyers are all going after the same pool for "buy" games, increasing competition. And all power-five conferences have gone from 16 to 18 league games, meaning they have two fewer non-conference openings to fill and making them even less likely to give a school like Dayton a slot.

Underscoring the challenge the Flyers face in building a competitive schedule is the Alabama game, which tips off at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17. A weekday afternoon home game wasn't what UD would have preferred, but it gives the program prime exposure as part of the ESPN Tip-off Marathon and adds a quality opponent that initially had no interest in coming to Dayton.

An NCAA rule allows teams that play in the same regular-season tournament to meet outside the event within a 14-day period, as long as the tourney isn't more than three games. UD contacted Alabama on May 5, offering to start a series on the road, but a rejection email arrived one week later.

Hoping for a big-time opponent for a series and needing another non-conference road game to balance the schedule, UD remained persistent. It asked others to get involved with the lobbying; hoping Alabama would see the merits of playing on national TV and hosting a team that had won five NCAA tourney games in the previous two years.

The persistence returned with mixed news for UD: Yes, Alabama would play the Flyers, but only if the series started in Dayton. And the game would be slotted in the Tipoff Marathon at 1 p.m.

UD discussed the proposition internally and agreed to the game.
 
"We weren't looking to play at home or at 1 p.m.," Sullivan said. "The totality of the circumstances and the options we had to play on the road were just not as good as Alabama at home as part of the Tip-off Marathon on ESPN.

"We just did not have any road game that made any sense. We had been looking for a high-major for months and months and months. It didn't develop."

If Alabama didn't agree to the game, Sullivan said the Flyers' only had a few options that did not make much sense.
 
Given what the game does for the schedule, Miller didn't need much convincing to play a weekday matinee.

"The crazy thing is, people are dying to be on at 1 in the morning to be part of that basketball marathon on ESPN," he said. "We've had a lot of discussions the last couple years about it, and that's a huge day in college basketball right now. They've put together a 24-hour (March) madness mentality, and there's teams trying to go all over the country to get on that one day because there's so much exposure.

"For us, to be at UD Arena at 1 p.m. on ESPN, you can't pass up on that. I know for our fans, in particular our students, it's going to be very interesting to see (how they respond). But we have to be absolutely ready at 1 o'clock in that arena to play Alabama, and I know what we're going to be able to bring to the table on national television in that game."