The rationalizations for taking Harvard off the schedule for a season or two are pretty straight forward. We don't benefit in our RPI. We have a chance to play other schools. Despite the proximity to one another, the game doesn't generate ticket sales. Oh, and they beat us two years in a row. This thinking is very similar to the reasons BC took Holy Cross off of our basketball schedule a few years ago.
Like removing Holy Cross from the schedule, no one will really care. BC has plenty of good teams on its slate and will play in a solid tournament. But the philosophy of tweaking the schedule when things don't go exactly as planned feels cowardly or at the very least bratty. We can't play Harvard or Holy Cross, or even BU in football. Having them and any other local school on our hoops schedule is a win-win regardless of the actual outcome. It is a chance to interact with other universities in the area. In most years we will win those games. The travel costs are minimal. We build a local base (more so than a random bottom dweller that might replace them). If we can't beat Harvard 9 out of 10 years we have bigger problems than scheduling an Ivy.
Many feel that our loss to Harvard punished us come selection time. I don't buy it. We loss to Yale. We had some ugly games down the stretch. We also had a loss to URI. The tourney resume was cumulative and always will be. So playing Harvard and the like is a not a lose-lose. It is a no brainer. I hope the common sense comes around and we see the Crimson again in 2012-2013.
