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You really have to feel for Loyola. After a freakishly good season last year, including a spectacular run to the Final Four, no one wants a piece of the Ramblers.
And if you’re a Power Five team, why would you?
It’s just going to ding your post-season resume and with a lack of real job security, no one wants to take chances. And as Matt Norlander points out here, with 20-league conference schedules coming, risk-aversion is going to get even higher. And who knows how the new NCAA NET system, which replaces the RPI, will affect March?
It’s really too bad. Loyola really deserves better and so does any school in its situation.
The Ramblers managed to schedule a rematch with Nevada after a brilliant game in the tournament last spring and also Maryland agreed to a game - but only once and in Baltimore.
There should be a way for teams to rise when they’re capable of moving up. Maybe the NCAA could find a way to factor that into the formula somehow.
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