New PC coach Keno Davis wanted to get some bigger-name schools to come here this year but couldn’t.

Providence Journal / Ruben W. Perez

Four different college basketball programs.

Four very different sets of challenges in constructing a schedule of games.

Perhaps nowhere in sports are the needs and priorities of teams more varied than in college basketball. What’s good for Providence College doesn’t fly at newly minted Division I member Bryant University. First-year Brown coach Jesse Agel will play host to the Big Ten’s Northwestern University in November, but the sight of a BCS-level school playing on College Hill is a rare one. The University of Rhode Island will play a road game in New Jersey this season, against Fairleigh Dickinson University, strictly because of financial constraints.

And so it goes in the often-crazy, always-stressful task of cobbling together a 30-game schedule. The cornerstone of any schedule lies in conference play, and that’s where the differences begin. Here are the obstacles all four schools faced in drafting this season’s slates.

•PC plays 18 league games in the Big East, widely regarded as the deepest conference in the country. If you’re hosting Georgetown one night, you’re at Louisville the next. Or Connecticut. And then you host Pittsburgh a few nights later. While that death march can result in the quick stockpiling of defeats, it also pumps up your all-important RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) numbers, which help shine the résumés of NCAA Tournament-bound teams. In the 2007-08 season, the Big East had seven teams with RPIs of 30 or better and nine in the top 55 of the computer ranking.

That strength limits how aggressive a program like PC needs to be with its nonconference schedule, but you can’t go too soft, either. This year, the Friars have some tests, but could probably use one or two more. They do travel to Boston College and play in a tournament in Anaheim, Calif., that features Baylor and Arizona State, two likely top-25 teams. The Friars’ only marquee home game is against URI, although Northeastern is dangerous. New coach Keno Davis has some interesting ideas on balancing the schedule a bit more in the future.

“We needed some games very late in the process after I was hired, and that made it tough,” Davis said. “We wanted some bigger-name schools to come (to Providence) this year but couldn’t get that done. Not a day goes by that I’m not working on the schedule going forward. It’s become like recruiting. You have to do it every day.”

PC is playing six “buy” games this season with opponents ranging from Brown and Bryant to Jackson State, where the foes are paid a guaranteed fee to come to town. Finding those teams is getting more challenging, and that’s one reason Davis says he’d like to play in a tournament like the Anaheim Classic virtually every year, and is also working on creating a four-team event at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center like the old Fleet Classic that PC hosted from 1977-91.

“That event can create a great basketball atmosphere, and it helps get your team ready for tournament play,” he said.

•When URI coach Jim Baron or associate athletic director Gregg Burke call prospective opponents these days, their calls are not returned quickly. The Rams have a 60-32 (.652) record at the Ryan Center, so the days of teams like Southern California or Pittsburgh agreeing to home-and-home contracts with Rhody may be gone.

“Jim has proven he can beat a lot of good teams at the Ryan Center, and that makes it hard,” said Burke. “We also have a mid-sized building that is perfect for us, but big programs like a Florida or a Texas don’t want to play here.”

Burke stressed that Baron will “play anyone in order to put us in position to separate ourselves on Selection Sunday,” but URI is forced to go on the road to find good games. Last season the Rams won at Syracuse. This year, they’ll play at Duke, but neither the Orange nor the Blue Devils is returning those games. Rhody is playing Oklahoma State in the All-College Basketball Classic in Oklahoma City, but the Rams are hoping the atmosphere is close to a neutral court since rival Oklahoma and its fans play on the same card. The Cowboys agreed to return the game next year at a neutral court, and URI has secured the Mohegan Sun casino.

Baron also agreed to play two strong mid-major programs in Akron and Virginia Commonwealth, and the Rams are in a tournament in which they’ll play Penn State and potentially Villanova at the Palestra in Philadelphia.

“We have a lot of meat on this schedule,” said Baron. “It’ll be a real test for a lot of young guys who haven’t been through a whole lot yet.”

Baron also pointed out that the Atlantic 10 home schedule will feature many of the elite teams, including Xavier, Dayton and Temple.

“I think this is one of the most challenging schedules we’ve ever put together,” he said.

•Brown’s Agel agreed to guarantee games at PC, George Mason and Virginia, but is happy he has six nonconference home games. Playing home games has always been a challenge for the Bears before Ivy League play, but Agel says, “We want half of those games to be at home. I think we can do that.”

•New Bryant coach Tim O’Shea inherited guarantee games at PC, UConn, Iowa, BC, Rutgers and Maryland, but intends to play only three of those games in future years. The Bulldogs are not members of the Northeast Conference until 2012-13, but they’ll play a full schedule in the league beginning next season. Bryant plays PC and Brown this year and would like to get on URI’s schedule, but it currently owns only an agreement to play Brown again next season.

kmcnamar@projo.com