The Lord Taketh Away....

...after the Fresno State game, my initial schedule had Winston-Salem State scheduled as UTEP's next opponent.

How good is Winston-Salem State? Well, they don't even belong to a conference, and the list of independents in women's basketball is a pretty poor one - after Utah Valley and CSU Bakersfield, the quality bottoms out into #258 and below. Winston-Salem State is ranked #334 out of #341. They are 3-22 so far this year. I was looking forward to having UTEP whup up on someone.

Then, I found out about New Mexico State University. The football battle between the schools is called the "Battle of I-10" and it's so important that unlike most football rivalries, they award two trophies. The schools are only 38 miles from each other.

Even though NMSU and UTEP don't belong to the same basketball conference, they play each other twice a year anyway. I had NMSU down for a visiting game, and I'd have to pencil in a home game for them. Goodbye, Winston-Salem State.

On the other hand, I've learned a little bit more about the new Statis Pro Basketball rules that came out in 1993 or so. The game set that I've been using has a Team Index that's strictly based on home winning percentage. The 1993 rules, on the other hand, have two indices - a Home Team Index and a Visiting Team Index.

Let's take a look at UTEP. UTEP, under the old rules, has six Home Team Index points. No matter who their opponent is - whether it's Connecticut or Winston-Salem State - UTEP always get six points.

However, under the new rules, UTEP gets 4 Home Team Index points and -1 Visiting Team Index points. We look at New Mexico State's numbers - 4 Home Team Index points and -10 (minus 10) Visiting Team points. (As it turns out, New Mexico State hadn't won a game on the road all year until their last game, but I created the card set before NMSU got its first home win.)

We now use the formula:

Home Team's Home Index Points - Visiting Team's Visiting Index Points = Game Team Index Points.

If the Game Team Index Points are positive, they belong to the home team. If the final result is negative, the points belong to the visiting team.

Therefore the Game Team Index Points are equal to: 4 (UTEP) - (-10) (NMSU) = 4 + 10 = 14. All of which, in theory, belong to UTEP.

However, teams can only have a maximum of 12 points. UTEP will therefore have 12 points to play with - six in the first half, and six in the second. But I'd rather have 12 Index Points than six any day of the week. The Lord taketh away, but the Lord giveth.