Aug. 11 – University of Dayton athletic director Neil Sullivan doesn’t rank the non-conference men’s basketball schedules he helps build each season for the Dayton Flyers, but he described the latest creation as a “monster schedule.”
Flyer Faithful would rank it at the top, if not first overall, of non-conference schedules in recent years.
“The best non-conference lineup Dayton has put together in at least a decade,” Dan Sullivan, former host of the Talking Out Lowd podcast, wrote on X (Twitter).
“What you need to know from this incredible schedule is that the Flyers believe they have a very good team this year,” wrote another fan, Chris Pyle. “This is a credible timeline.”
“We’re going to find out how good this team is very early,” wrote Dayton fan Chris King. “I loved the work Neil and company did with this programming. Masterclass.”
How good is the 13-game schedule for 2024-25, even with a game against an NCAA Division III program, Capital University? Here are some important facts:
—Four of the known opponents ranked in the top 80 in the NCAA Rating Tool last season: No. No. 37 Cincinnati; No. 53 Northwest; and No. 76 UNLV.
—Dayton’s potential opponents at the Maui Invitational, all ranked in the top 75 of the NET last season: No. No. 5 Auburn; No. 6 Iowa State; No. 8 North Carolina; No. 24 Michigan State; No. 25 Colorado; and No. 75 Memphis.
—The non-conference schedule could have eight teams in the top 100. Last season, Dayton played seven, and that was considered one of the best recent schedules. The 2021-22 and 2022-23 non-conference schedules each included five top 100 teams.
Neil Sullivan, who has served as UD’s AD since 2015, said in April, “Our schedule has to be elite,” and the 2024-25 schedule puts Dayton in a strong position to compete for a second straight tournament berth. of the NCAA. Dayton secured the No. 7 seed in 2024 largely because of three Quadrant 1 wins — against St. John’s, Northwestern and Southern Methodist — in nonconference games.
“Certainly, we’re very happy with that,” Sullivan said, “but our scheduling strategy has really remained relentlessly consistent, at least since I’ve been involved, which is to build a resume that the selection committee believes is among the top 30 teams in the country. Our goal is to do this kind of thing every year. It’s a clear and simple concept, but it’s difficult to execute because it requires common interest from other teams.”
Sullivan has said many times over the years how difficult scheduling is.
“It’s the toughest scheduling environment I’ve been involved in since I’ve been here, since 2006,” Sullivan said in 2019. “We just got rejected by what I would say are other competing NCAA teams. : from the Power 5, from the Big East.”
Despite recent success in finding Big Ten and Big East opponents, Sullivan isn’t ready to say his job has gotten any easier.
“I think it’s hard to say because every game and every opportunity was unique on its own merits,” he said. “It would be difficult for me to draw a trend line. I think the reality is that as conferences consolidate — and now we’re at power four, so to speak — they continue to add games and play 20-game schedules. When you start looking at 18-team conferences, I’m sorry to say this, but I think it will continue to be as challenging as it has been.
It helps that Dayton has proven it can be a Quad 1 game for opponents. Dayton ranked 23rd in the NET last season.
Part of the work to prepare this schedule was carried out in previous years. Dayton knew Northwestern would come to UD Arena because it is the return game of a home-and-home series that began last season in Evanston, Illinois.
It’s the same story with the UNLV game. Dayton played at UNLV two seasons ago. UNLV would have played at UD Arena last season, but a deadly shooting on the UNLV campus on the day of the game forced the schools to cancel it and move it to this season.
Dayton and Cincinnati agreed to play on a neutral court at the Heritage Bank Center for the second consecutive season.
The main addition to the schedule was Marquette, which will play Dayton on Dec. 14 for the first time in 16 years.
“We were talking to Marquette and we didn’t really have matching dates, to be honest,” Sullivan said. “We actually had another game scheduled for that date, and late in the process, (Marquette) talked about coming here. We certainly wanted that opportunity, and that just created some shuffling later. We had to deal with some contracts and changes. some games out there.”
Moving games late in the process left Dayton without Division I options on November 16. That’s why he filled the date with Capital, who he played in twice in recent seasons in pre-season exhibition games. This game will feature the record, but it will not affect Dayton’s NET ranking or have any other impact on Dayton’s NCAA Tournament resume – unless they lose, of course.
Dayton last played a lower division opponent, D-II St. Joseph’s College (Ind.), in a regular season game in the 2016-17 season and won 91-59. The Capitals are coached by former Flyer Damon Goodwin, who has held the position since the 1994-95 season and is entering his 29th season.
“It’s not something we do very often,” Sullivan said, “but we’re happy we were able to do it with Damon Goodwin. We felt like (playing Capital) was better than not playing at all.”
Dayton’s non-conference schedule has nine home games and four neutral-court games, but no road games. That was a factor in the UNLV game being moved to this season and Marquette wanting a series that started on the road.
Dayton’s success in non-conference play often depends on its performance in November tournaments. The last six times he built a CV worthy of a general candidacy (2014-17, 2020 and 2024) he finished 2-1 in those tests. A 1-2 result on a powerful Maui field in 2024 wouldn’t be the end of the world, with so many other chances for strong non-conference wins elsewhere on the calendar.
Sullivan also knows that the future of these November tournaments is up in the air. Events like the Players Era Festival, where each team will win at least $1 million in name, image and likeness activities with money split among the players, could change where Dayton decides to play in the future.
Alabama, Houston, Rutgers, Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Creighton, Oregon and San Diego State are playing in the first Players Era Festival this year in Las Vegas, Nevada. The 2025 field will be expanded to 18 teams.
Sulllivan said the landscape is “changing very significantly, and it’s something we pay attention to every day. Obviously, we’re in the rotation of the best preseason national tournaments. That’s been very critical for our fan base, for the our television exposure”. and for our curriculum. But I think you’ll see some of these tournaments move to four teams. we are watching. I think our basketball performance and our fan base gives us the opportunity to stay in the mix on a lot of them, but I think in the next few years we’re going to see them look different. “
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Dayton 2024-25 Non-Conference Schedule
Date, opponent, time, location
Sunday, October 20, Xavier (Exhibition), TBA, UD Arena
Saturday, October 26th, TBD (Exhibition), TBA, UD Arena
Monday, November 4, San Francisco (Pa.), TBA, UD Arena
Saturday, November 9, Noroeste, TBA, UD Arena
Wednesday, November 13, Ball State, TBA, UD Arena
Saturday, November 16, Capital, TBA, UD Arena
Wednesday, November 20, New Mexico State, TBA, UD Arena
Monday, November 25, Maui Invitational, Lahaina, Hawaii
Tuesday, November 26, Maui Invitational, Lahaina, Hawaii
Wednesday, November 27, Maui Invitational, Lahaina, Hawaii
Tuesday, December 3, Western Michigan, TBA, UD Arena
Saturday, December 7, Lehigh, TBA, UD Arena
Saturday, December 14, Marquette, TBA, UD Arena
Tuesday, December 17, UNLV, TBA, UD Arena
Friday, December 20th Cincinnati, TBA, Cincinnati, Ohio
