Nonconference schedule near completion
Men's basketball to play Georgia Tech, Arizona and Boston College next season.
Published on Mon., April 16th, 2007
Kansas basketball fans eager for next season may soon have something to talk about other than who will or won’t return.
Senior associate athletics director Larry Keating said the nonconference schedule was nearly completed and could be released in the next few weeks. The Big 12 Conference schedule won’t be released until July, but Keating said the nonconference schedule could be released separately because of its early completion this year.
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Games certain to be included are visits to the University of Southern California, Boston College and Georgia Tech as well as home match-ups against Arizona and DePaul, all of which are the second games in home-and home-series. Teams play each other twice, usually during a two-year period, in a home-and-home series with each team playing one of the games at home.
The rest of the nonconference schedule will consist of guarantee games, where the Athletics Department pays a team a certain fee to play a game at Allen Fieldhouse. Keating said a guarantee game usually cost about $60,000. Despite the price tag, these games are more profitable because of the income associated with a home game. The profit from tickets, concessions and apparel sold at a home game easily surpasses the money spent bringing in an opponent.
“The great thing about Allen Fieldhouse is that a lot of guys want to play here so it’s not as hard as it might be for some schools to get teams to come and play,” Keating said.
Keating also said he spoke with ESPN throughout the process to determine which games ESPN was interested in broadcasting. He said those plans would be finalized this spring.
Keating also works closely with Kansas coach Bill Self, running potential games by him before finalizing contracts.
“He’s usually pretty cooperative and he trusts that I know what I’m doing,” Keating said.
Last year, Chicago natives Sherron Collins and Julian Wright had a chance to play in front of friends and family when Kansas played at DePaul. Keating said he didn’t intentionally schedule such homecoming games, but rather focused on playing in traditionally strong recruiting areas such as Chicago and California.
John Moeder, Wichita senior, wished the Jayhawks would make a trip to his hometown.
I want to see us play Duke. The two schools have so much history, plus it’d be cool to show the world that we’re better than Duke.
-Matt Rissien, Overland Park sophomore
“A game I would like to see is Wichita State,” Moeder said. “They always want to play us, plus last year they made the ‘K-who’ shirts.”
Others want games that will make national statements.
“I want to see us play Duke,” Matt Rissien, Overland Park sophomore, said. “The two schools have so much history, plus it’d be cool to show the world that we’re better than Duke.”
Keating said he worked to complete the nonconference schedule earlier than normal this year because he was frustrated with how long it took last year when he didn’t finalize the last game until September, just a month before official practices began.
Kansan staff writer Kyle Carter can be contacted at kcarter@kansan.com.
— Edited by Sharla Shivers
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