Some things stay the same, tv waves big cash to play at Cameron. Protect Duke and give them every advantage. This has gone on for decades. Of course we always take the money because the people who put this on ask the Duke people if this is alright before this is finalize, Florida, like this year got very little respect and was told who we play and where. Easy to get a sellout and heavy tv audience. I hope we kill them but that will get the people who put this on, will be forever scared to play at the Odome. Sssh, probably their ACC refs that get bonuses, thus of course any rugged play by Florida will be over scrutinized.
UF never got the home return game with Duke under Donovan from the 1998 trip, now the Champs have to go to Cameron again.
Seems we are loading up on some big marquee games in the nonconference as insurance in case the SEC is down a bit
To be fair, we both played at home this year, so either way, a team would get two straight home games. I really would love to get Duke at the ODome some day, but I’d rather play Duke at Cameron than any of those other ACC teams at this point.
That's part of it. But it's also knowing the algorithms. A1 wins are big for all the advanced metrics sites that factor so heavily into postseason seeding, and what can really be the difference are those neutral and true road games against Q1 opponents. Auburn played Duke, Houston, and Purdue away from home in their non-conference slate. Duke had Arizona, Illinois, Kentucky, and Kansas. Houston had Auburn and Bama. Our best last year were North Carolina and Arizona State. That's why we were fourth overall, despite arguably having the best resume otherwise. Ultimately, being fourth #1 seed did us no harm, but scheduling could very easily be the difference between a seed line or two, especially if we don't have the advantage of a generational league (like you said). Staff seems confident enough about this team's floor that they are willing to risk an extra loss or two in order to possibly raise our ceiling (both in terms of seeding and in terms of improving against better competition). As a fan, that schedule is a dream. Things may get rocky at times as we gel, but odds are good that it pays off in the long run.
I think part of it was we didn't really know how good we would be last year. This year with as many as we have returning, we should have more confidence starting the season to play well against top OOC teams. How well we play remains to be seen, hopefully our guys are already gelling as we speak in summer workouts
