Re: RPI 2017 Off-Season (Part II): Mr. Smith Goes to Troy
How far in advance is the schedule made?
It seems to me that Notre Dame and Maine would be SA opponents.
Did Smith get the opportunity to weigh in on these games?
Smith mentioned that, this year, he has preserved the schedule Appert created. As far as how much in advance, it really depends.
The ECAC, as far as I know, goes a few years in advance and releases their information early, although has to take into account regular occurrences, such as finals (hence why we never have conference games the week before Thanksgiving because of Union's finals), the Mayor's cup (why would they deny opportunity as such a large gate), the Beanpot (hey it's tradition), and so on. Leagues are generally responsible for assisting with the scheduling of league games, because they must guarantee their member schools have enough games to qualify for the national tournament (20 is the minimum), and so they almost always take precedence.
Non-conference games, usually scheduled between the teams themselves, are typically multi-year contracts in order to make sure there's an even number of home games. Hence why Ohio State, Maine, and RIT/Niagara are on the schedule: They complete the contract started last year to have two years worth of games: One year here, one year there. Notre Dame was definitely Appert negotiated; whether these are returns for Icebreaker/Shillelagh (probably not because the Icebreaker committee and ND pays for schools to come in for tournaments) or something else, I don't know. There's no guarantee that multi-year contracts have to be done (as we typically see with certain schools in the Big Roll-a-D20 doing 2:1 or one-and-done, and then also in the case of tournaments where the host brings in all three teams, and also neutral sites), but it is a general consensus. These are usually negotiated mid-season, and the dates are finalized either during the previous season or the Naples conference.