If you have a hard schedule does this help your team develop faster? Lets say my team's RPI is in the 175-250 range but my SOS is in the 20-50 range will this help my team having a harder schedule or would it be wiser for me to schedule teams that in the 150-300 RPI range and possibly put more wins on the schedule?

I took over a not so great team D- prestige and I am hoping to improve the team a lot. The turnover rate of my roster is not as fast as I would like but i do not feel like booting off players in hopes of recruiting someone better especially with a D- prestige it is hard enought recruiting 1 or 2 players a year. This is my second year at my school and next year i will have 2 more openings. The 4th year i will have 5 open scholarships so by that time i would hope to have atleast a D prestige or better. Would it be wise for me to schedule a very weak non-conference next year in hopes of getting 15-20wins or schedule a much tougher non-conference and look to improve what i have? hopefully this makes sense probably just confused most of you, just looking for some answers.

hard schedule does not make your team develop faster.

i would schedule very weak trying to get wins, its the easiest way to get prestige up in a low prestige d1 situation, when you don't feel you have a strong shot at making the post season.

Schedule weak for the wins until your prestige improves then start playing a tougher schedule. 

I took over at Colgate 4 years ago. The school prestige was D- and the RPI was 211 the year before. I decided, from the beginning, to schedule weak, get as many wins as possible, drive my prestige up, get the best recruits possible and hoped to make the NT by the 4th year. My SOS was never under 200, usually over 250.
Year 1   W-L: 16-14   RPI: 182     Prestige: D
Year 2   W-L: 18-9     RPI: 140     Prestige: D+
Year 3   W-L: 27-3     RPI: 42       Prestige: C    NT  (1st rd.)
Year 4   W-L: 27-4     RPI: 62       Prestige: C+  NT (2nd rd.)

I just applied for a much better job, in an elite conf., and have a good shot at getting it. If I don't I have many better jobs than Colgate that I qualify for. There were, in fact, only 4 openings that I do not qualify for!

A couple of conf. mates decided to go a different rout. They scheduled much tougher opponents, hoping to get a higher RPI going into conf. play and have a better shot at the NT. Here is where the more successful one of the two is today (Keep in mind both of these coaches are every bit as good as me if not better, just had a different way of scheduling which, in my mind, made the difference).
The year before this coach took over his team had an RPI of 294 with a D- prestige, almost exactly where I started with Colgate.
Year 1   W-L: 20-9    RPI: 162   Prestige: D-
Year 2   W-L: 20-9    RPI: 59     Prestige: C-   NT (1st rd.)
Year 3   W-L: 17-12  RPI: 119  Prestige: C-
Year 4   W-L: 20-9    RPI: 94     Prestige: C    PI (1st rd.)

As good as this coach is and as successful as he was at turning his program around, he is having a much harder time finding a better job. Out of 15 mid-majors he is looking at he only qualified for 1 of them. Again, he is probably a better coach than I am and we had some great battles against each other with both of us winning our share, but because of his overall record, which I believe could have been much better with a weaker schedule, he is really having it rough job hunting. Good luck and I hope this helps!

Bdixon, you've done a very nice job at Colgate, and I hope you get the new job.

That said, your strategy was extremely close to backfiring on you very badly. Had you not won the CT, you would've missed the NT completely, and your story would have had a very, very different ending.

You essentially made the NT in spite of your scheduling strategy, not because of it. I never would've scheduled like that when facing a do-or-die NT season with six seniors on the squad. Very happy that it worked out for you in the end, but you do need to take a more realistic look at what actually happened.

thanks a lot for the help i am in year two at Illinois Chicago i have a some what tough schedule this year. Since reading this i have scheduled for next year a fairly easy schedule. I am hoping by year 4 to make the NT and move to a team in the BT that is my goal actually with Indiana. I really need to improve the recruiting last recruiting period I had a terrible time beating out other D- programs. I was able to get a decent PF but i did not get the one i wanted. I had to settle for a PG that i normally would never take but i did and redshirted the player. I am hoping after next year my prestige will jump up to a D at least which will help a lot with recruiting. 

lot of good points here.

in the colgate example, you want to follow that model for a few seasons, until you get in a position like their last season. then you need to step up your schedule a bit so you aren't in a single game make or break situation. the prestige bump from those wins will be a lot more significant to you starting from a D-, so you very possibly will want to schedule weak longer than colgate - but it all depends on how things go.

If you know your team is going to stink than schedule easy wins for yourself. I took over a C- D3 school 4 seasons ago in Wooden that was going to lose all of it's players the next year.

I scheduled a terrible schedule and went 7-3 OOC then finished the season then 5-11 in conference. That didn't raise my prestige, but a hard schedule woudl have probably left me with 6 wins instead of 11.

The next year I scheduled a little bit harder but still easy went 8-8 in conference and 5-5 out of conferce.

This current season my 4th I gave myself a hard schedule because I had all my players in and they were Jrs/Srs. I knew that my conference was a little weaker and I would need some good OOC wins. I am currently in the Sweet 16 with a 14 RPI and 40 SOS.  I needed a tough schedule to get into the NT with 7 losses in a not top 10 conference.

basically my point is a tough schedule will help you if your team is on the cusp of the NT and could pull off a few big wins but will do you no good if you are going to have a terrible year no matter what.