Ding dong, Bracket Buster is dead

[MVCfans]

Indiana State currently Lunardi's last team in, as unveiled during halftime of Iowa State v. OU on ESPNU.

I know they only have like 4 fans on here, but geez they should all be so megapissed about this draw.

Which means one unexpected conference tourney winner and POOF, ISU is out.

[isumvc1]

Indiana State currently Lunardi's last team in, as unveiled during halftime of Iowa State v. OU on ESPNU.

I know they only have like 4 fans on here, but geez they should all be so megapissed about this draw.

it's UNBELIEVABLE! When I saw that pop up on the screen all I could do was laugh. I mean really, IONA?? What the effff?

Noone, and I mean NOONE, anywhere, on any board, had Iona picked to play at ISU.

man o man, thank GOD this thing is over.

[pafan]

My initial reaction was to declare WSU to have gotten the short straw. But then Iona. Yikes.

[TylerDurden]

Winthrop (252)
Ball State (274)
High Point (280)
Morehead State (160)
IUPUI (310)

I know it's easy to use BracketBusters as a punching bag, but Iona isn't a bid-killer for ISUb and is, in fact, a superior game to those five non-conference games (one of which they lost, BTW), plus 66 percent of its league games. This game improves its opponent profile. I can do the same sort of example with WSU and Creighton's schedules.

ESPN wants certain TV games and those games skew the rest of the selections, which is a primary reason this event has run its course, but that doesn't mean it's a horrible game.

This match-up gets ISUb on national TV and provides an opportunity to show it's a tournament team. Just win the damn game. It's that simple. If you don't win it, you probably aren't an NCAA team anyway. I think we all sometimes get caught up in the overestimation of the significance of one game, which is what "bracketologists" would love for us all to believe. All of the games matter and there are hundreds of results that impact the overall tournament bid landscape. Take care of your own business and let the rest fall where it may.

Let's pull for all of the MVC teams to win these TV games and for the rest of the league to win their own pretty-much-hand-picked-games. 10-0 in this this could do wonders for ISUb/CU/WSU profiles.

[CBB_Fan]

Winthrop (252)
Ball State (274)
High Point (280)
Morehead State (160)
IUPUI (310)

I know it's easy to use BracketBusters as a punching bag, but Iona isn't a bid-killer for ISUb and is, in fact, a superior game to those five non-conference games (one of which they lost, BTW), plus 66 percent of its league games. This game improves its opponent profile. I can do the same sort of example with WSU and Creighton's schedules.

ESPN wants certain TV games and those games skew the rest of the selections, which is a primary reason this event has run its course, but that doesn't mean it's a horrible game.

This match-up gets ISUb on national TV and provides an opportunity to show it's a tournament team. Just win the damn game. It's that simple. If you don't win it, you probably aren't an NCAA team anyway. I think we all sometimes get caught up in the overestimation of the significance of one game, which is what "bracketologists" would love for us all to believe. All of the games matter and there are hundreds of results that impact the overall tournament bid landscape. Take care of your own business and let the rest fall where it may.

Let's pull for all of the MVC teams to win these TV games and for the rest of the league to win their own pretty-much-hand-picked-games. 10-0 in this this could do wonders for ISUb/CU/WSU profiles.

Statistically, it "improves" their conference profile. Realistically, a win will do nothing for our teams (not good enough opponents to draw much love for a win), and a loss will be costly. No one is going to bump a team up a seed or into the tournament for beating Iona, regardless of whether or not they also happened to schedule Morehead State.

[isumvc1]

Winthrop (252)
Ball State (274)
High Point (280)
Morehead State (160)
IUPUI (310)

I know it's easy to use BracketBusters as a punching bag, but Iona isn't a bid-killer for ISUb and is, in fact, a superior game to those five non-conference games (one of which they lost, BTW), plus 66 percent of its league games. This game improves its opponent profile. I can do the same sort of example with WSU and Creighton's schedules.

ESPN wants certain TV games and those games skew the rest of the selections, which is a primary reason this event has run its course, but that doesn't mean it's a horrible game.

This match-up gets ISUb on national TV and provides an opportunity to show it's a tournament team. Just win the damn game. It's that simple. If you don't win it, you probably aren't an NCAA team anyway. I think we all sometimes get caught up in the overestimation of the significance of one game, which is what "bracketologists" would love for us all to believe. All of the games matter and there are hundreds of results that impact the overall tournament bid landscape. Take care of your own business and let the rest fall where it may.

Let's pull for all of the MVC teams to win these TV games and for the rest of the league to win their own pretty-much-hand-picked-games. 10-0 in this this could do wonders for ISUb/CU/WSU profiles.

very true Tyler, Iona isn't necessarily a bad opponent, compared to our other opponents. But you're right, we just have to win the game, a win doesn't help us, a loss is devastating.

we still have 5 games before the Iona game anyway, 3 home, 2 away. Our fate may very well be decided by then anyway.

[squirrel]

Oh goody, I hope UIC charges Bradley fans more than 2x face value again!

[TheAsianSensation]

The point of BracketBusters, at creation, was to give teams with legit at-large hopes a game that could assist them. That was why the damned event was created in the first place.

Somewhere in between then and now, the mission statement changed.

That's why InSU should be mad. Not because Iona is terrible or anything. They're a good opponent who doesn't hurt the resume. But the definition of the event says that a team like InSU and Belmont and St Mary's are supposed to get comparable help. Only one of the 3 did. InSU had a chance at some help with an XDSU or Detroit but instead didn't get it so that ESPN could air a star player on a worse team. Creighton had a chance at a comparable opponent but didn't get it so that ESPN could use them to supply a quality win chance to another team.


Also, the secondary mission of BB was to provide new opponents, new series, new opportunities to all teams. But Missouri St doesn't need help getting CMU. SIU doesn't need help getting Miami. Bradley doesn't need help getting UIC. We can get these games whenever we want. In fact, we're the ones getting used - the other teams want to jockey for position to play an MVC school.

[GoShockers89]

The point of BracketBusters, at creation, was to give teams with legit at-large hopes a game that could assist them. That was why the damned event was created in the first place.

Somewhere in between then and now, the mission statement changed.

That's why InSU should be mad. Not because Iona is terrible or anything. They're a good opponent who doesn't hurt the resume. But the definition of the event says that a team like InSU and Belmont and St Mary's are supposed to get comparable help. Only one of the 3 did. InSU had a chance at some help with an XDSU or Detroit but instead didn't get it so that ESPN could air a star player on a worse team. Creighton had a chance at a comparable opponent but didn't get it so that ESPN could use them to supply a quality win chance to another team.


Also, the secondary mission of BB was to provide new opponents, new series, new opportunities to all teams. But Missouri St doesn't need help getting CMU. SIU doesn't need help getting Miami. Bradley doesn't need help getting UIC. We can get these games whenever we want. In fact, we're the ones getting used - the other teams want to jockey for position to play an MVC school.

This sums it up beautifully.

If they want to recalibrate it in future years to include the A-10, MWC, MVC, etc. and exclude the dregs then I would be all for it. As it stands, however, good riddance.

[PantherSigEp]

Also, the secondary mission of BB was to provide new opponents, new series, new opportunities to all teams. But Missouri St doesn't need help getting CMU. SIU doesn't need help getting Miami. Bradley doesn't need help getting UIC. We can get these games whenever we want. In fact, we're the ones getting used - the other teams want to jockey for position to play an MVC school.

I think this is why we have seen the CAA's and A-10's leave this event. The MVC was just a little late on realizing this issue