Go Deeper: Inside UH Baseball’s Scheduling Methods

Did you enjoy the 2019 baseball schedule primer? If so, let’s dive deeper into this year’s schedule:
 
Last year, UH scheduled 19 quadrant one games in the regular season (Cougars played 26 Q1 games when counting the postseason). UH went 14-12 overall vs Q1.
 
A reminder:
Quadrant 1: Home vs 1-30, neutral games vs. 1-50, away games vs. 1-75
Quadrant 2: Home vs 31-75; Neutral 51-100; Away 76-135
Quadrant 3: Home vs 76-160; Neutral 101-200; Away 136-240
Quadrant 4: Home vs 161-plus; Neutral 201-plus; Away 241-plus.
 
If going by last season’s RPI, the Coogs are playing 22 quadrant-one games in the regular season in 2019:
 
Aggies – home and neutral
@ DBU – 3 games
UConn – 3 games
ECU – 3 games
@ SHSU
@ Wichita State – 3 games
@ USF – 3 games
FAU
@ UCF – 3 games
 
Note: Only the game at SHSU would fall into quadrant 1. Sam was 55 in the RPI – so the home and neutral games would fall into quadrant two.
 
Without factoring conference tournament and postseason games, this schedule is an improvement on paper. Having 15 quadrant 1 games against the American is fantastic – the league has really mastered how to play the RPI game.
 
More important than that, the Coogs played 14 games vs. quadrant 4 teams last year (12-2). This season, UH expects only two of those:
 
McNeese (home)
@ SFA
 
And that’s based strictly on 2018 RPI. McNeese would have been a quadrant 2 game at home in 2017 (quadrant 3 in 2016) and @SFA would have been a Q3 team in 2017 (and quadrant 2 in 2016).
 
Because the Southland has wild fluctuations from year to year, theoretically, UH could end up playing no quadrant 4 teams. That would be significant: Oklahoma State led the country by playing only 3 of those games last year. They were the only school in the nation under six Q4 games.
 
Despite a lack of sex appeal, and based on the quadrant system that teams now must consider, this is a much better schedule than last season.
 
See Also: Previewing The 2019 Cougar Baseball Schedule