Don't you think that playing the best of the best will improve your team more than playing the worst of the worst making your record better? I have inherited bad teams with SIM schedules and they don't seem to improve as much as when I play a stout non-conference schedule. Any thoughts from someone who has been here a lot longer than me ? 

Your improvement rate (hard numbers on players)  does not vary based on the level of competition. What will make a difference is your prestige. You improve that and you can recruit better players. If you are pretty bad, then schedule easy so perhaps you can finish 500 and move up a notch. If you are improving to the point where you can make the postseason. Schedule tougher.

A line I heard for HD years ago- Schedule the hardest games you can win.

Posted by asher413 on 9/17/2010 10:30:00 PM (view original):
A line I heard for HD years ago- Schedule the hardest games you can win.

+1
That is a simple answer but also 100% correct. Playing a hard non-con schedule but going 2-8 does nothing for you, but playing teams way below you and going 8-2 also does nothing. I made the NT the past 2 seasons at Colgate (DI / Naismith) but because of a weak non-con had to win the con tourney to get in, even though I went 25-3 before the NT. I could have made life a lot easier if I would have scheduled better!

To answer the original question, though, no, playing a harder schedule does NOT make your players improve more.  Your record will probably be worse if you play a tougher schedule, but your RPI is likely to be better if you still do reasonably well and you'll have a better idea how to set up your team to beat tough teams.  But the player improvement will be the same.

Actually, if anything the player improvement might be slightly decreased by a tougher schedule.  If you play a lot of close games your freshmen and sophomores are less likely to see quite as much playing time so they might improve a bit more slowly.

I'm lazy and prefer this option: Schedule nothing except the preseason and those always against sims (it's quick!). Accept all invitations to play.

Early on you will play a lot of sims and rack up wins. But you will still get some offers. 

In later seasons other (smarter coaches than me) will actively seek out teams (like yours hopefully) that are getting better prestige. Eventually your non-conference schedule will be 1 or 2 sims, 2 to 4 top 25, and 5 pretty good teams. This will almost always provide a good strength of schedule.

And remember, almost no work is involved!

Here is my tip: if you think you will be favored to beat a team, schedule them on the road. If you would be the underdog or aren't sure, schedule them at home. If you are going to get the easy win, you may as well get the slight RPI bump for winning on the road.

Posted by grimacedance on 9/26/2010 4:34:00 PM (view original):
Here is my tip: if you think you will be favored to beat a team, schedule them on the road. If you would be the underdog or aren't sure, schedule them at home. If you are going to get the easy win, you may as well get the slight RPI bump for winning on the road.

Careful with this (at least at the D1 level).  If you schedule a team you think you can beat, but they have a great home court rating, you could be scheduling yourself a loss.