Goal #1: Become Multi-Bid Conf. Again

[PurpleAcesFootball]

Congratulations to Loyola.

The rest of the conference? It doesn’t look like anyone else will make the postseason. (Pay did play C-level notwithstanding.)

That is not a good sign at all. That is the profile of a low-major conference. Hopefully it’s a one-year blip and will not repeat.

Additionally the conference should pay attention to where LUC gets seeded. A #12 or better has a shot at winning a game. If the MVC champ were to be seeded 13/14/15 would make things extremely tough to get that extra payday for a conference win.

[BuBrave2006]

Additionally the conference should pay attention to where LUC gets seeded. A #12 or better has a shot at winning a game. If the MVC champ were to be seeded 13/14/15 would make things extremely tough to get that extra payday for a conference win.

There is a 0% chance Loyola gets a 13 seed or worse (okay...a sub 5% chance). They are likely a 12 or 11 and have a shot at a 10 if some teams in front of them lose.

[PurpleAcesFootball]

Additionally the conference should pay attention to where LUC gets seeded. A #12 or better has a shot at winning a game. If the MVC champ were to be seeded 13/14/15 would make things extremely tough to get that extra payday for a conference win.

There is a 0% chance Loyola gets a 13 seed or worse (okay...a sub 5% chance). They are likely a 12 or 11 and have a shot at a 10 if some teams in front of them lose.

Sorry for the confusion. I mixed two thoughts together. I agree with your take on Loyola's seed.

Where would an MVC Tourney Champ other than Loyola been seeded? That is what I meant by a possible 13, 14, or 15. Take Bradley for example. Currently between Lipscomb (A-Sun) and Iona (MAAC) in the RPI, and well below Wright State (Horizon). Bradley would have better wins than those teams, but would still be in the comparison based on record.

That is what the MVC wouldn't want.

[BCPanther]

Additionally the conference should pay attention to where LUC gets seeded. A #12 or better has a shot at winning a game. If the MVC champ were to be seeded 13/14/15 would make things extremely tough to get that extra payday for a conference win.

There is a 0% chance Loyola gets a 13 seed or worse (okay...a sub 5% chance). They are likely a 12 or 11 and have a shot at a 10 if some teams in front of them lose.

Sorry for the confusion. I mixed two thoughts together. I agree with your take on Loyola's seed.

Where would an MVC Tourney Champ other than Loyola been seeded? That is what I meant by a possible 13, 14, or 15. Take Bradley for example. Currently between Lipscomb (A-Sun) and Iona (MAAC) in the RPI, and well below Wright State (Horizon). Bradley would have better wins than those teams, but would still be in the comparison based on record.

That is what the MVC wouldn't want.

The lowest seed in the last 15 years is a 14 (UNI in 04 after finishing tied for 2nd). The Valley is never going to have a tournament where a 9 seed sneaks through and wins and torpedoes a seed. The league will always be in that 11-13 range for the vast majority of our champions.

The Horizon was damn close to havning their champ sent to Dayton and a play in game. I just never see that scenario happening in the Valley.

[VUGrad1314]

The need for the MVC to make a move gets evermore pressing the more articles like this we read.

http://mwwire.com/2018/03/07/is-gonzaga ... tain-west/

[pafan]

The rest of the conference? It doesn’t look like anyone else will make the postseason. (Pay did play C-level notwithstanding.)

That is not a good sign at all. That is the profile of a low-major conference. Hopefully it’s a one-year blip and will not repeat.

I'm fairly confident this is the norm now for the MVC. There's just not a way to get enough "quadrant 1" wins here.

Keep in mind most pundits (Jerry Palm, etc) seemed to think Loyola was on the wrong side of the NCAA bubble if they lost to Illinois State last weekend, with an RPI in the high 20s but a KenPom in the low 40s.

[PurpleAcesFootball]

The rest of the conference? It doesn’t look like anyone else will make the postseason. (Pay did play C-level notwithstanding.)

That is not a good sign at all. That is the profile of a low-major conference. Hopefully it’s a one-year blip and will not repeat.

I'm fairly confident this is the norm now for the MVC. There's just not a way to get enough "quadrant 1" wins here.

Keep in mind most pundits (Jerry Palm, etc) seemed to think Loyola was on the wrong side of the NCAA bubble if they lost to Illinois State last weekend, with an RPI in the high 20s but a KenPom in the low 40s.

I agree with you.

It's great to have the 8th rated RPI conference, but if we end up with ONE team in the NCAA/NIT postseason, that is bad.

[Rambler63]

There are a number of rules and incentives and policies in effect now that are essentially creating a two-tier system and wiping out what used to be considered mid-major territory.

The quadrant system has its cutoffs set to the exact number of teams in the P5+BE. There are 75 teams in the ACC, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, SEC, and Pac 12. The cutoff for a Q1 road win is 75. The cutoff for a Q2 home win is 75. It couldn't be more clear that the committee doesn't consider a win against any team below the top 75 to have much merit.

Only Q1/Q2 wins matter, and the losses don't matter at all. A team with a combined 6-13 record against Q1/Q2 teams is in better shape for at large and seedings than a team that's 4-3 against Q1/Q2.

There should have been a downside to conference consolidation, but there isn't. Under .500 teams in P5+BE conferences are now welcome with open arms into the at large conversation, pushing out 14-4 and 13-5 teams from the MWC, A10, MVC, and West Coast.

Teams outside P5+BE conferences are held responsible for scheduling up, but P5+BE teams have no incentive or disincentives to ever schedule a mid-major team ever again. Big 12 had a total of 14 non-conference road games among their 10 teams this year. Syracuse had one true road game, and they chose Georgetown. The fragile and fungible MTE patchwork system is the only way mid-majors have to encounter P5+BE at all.

[Cdizzle]

There are a number of rules and incentives and policies in effect now that are essentially creating a two-tier system and wiping out what used to be considered mid-major territory.

The quadrant system has its cutoffs set to the exact number of teams in the P5+BE. There are 75 teams in the ACC, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, SEC, and Pac 12. The cutoff for a Q1 road win is 75. The cutoff for a Q2 home win is 75. It couldn't be more clear that the committee doesn't consider a win against any team below the top 75 to have much merit.

Only Q1/Q2 wins matter, and the losses don't matter at all. A team with a combined 6-13 record against Q1/Q2 teams is in better shape for at large and seedings than a team that's 4-3 against Q1/Q2.

There should have been a downside to conference consolidation, but there isn't. Under .500 teams in P5+BE conferences are now welcome with open arms into the at large conversation, pushing out 14-4 and 13-5 teams from the MWC, A10, MVC, and West Coast.

Teams outside P5+BE conferences are held responsible for scheduling up, but P5+BE teams have no incentive or disincentives to ever schedule a mid-major team ever again. Big 12 had a total of 14 non-conference road games among their 10 teams this year. Syracuse had one true road game, and they chose Georgetown. The fragile and fungible MTE patchwork system is the only way mid-majors have to encounter P5+BE at all.

The Quadrant system is a move in a better direction, and one that is actually beneficial to MVC teams relative to the Top50 bucket of yesteryear. It starts to give credit for tough road games (which you get in the MVC), and decreases the value of games against marginal teams at home. It's still a dumb way to look at a rating system, because if you are willing to trust the rating system well enough to group teams like this, you should just use the actual rating.

I agree with most of your other comments. Particularly, I would like to see teams have to have AT LEAST a .500 league record to get an at-large. If you are 8-10, guess what, you can win your conference's auto-bid. Good luck.

Also, I would much rather see a 26-4 mid with decent numbers that didn't have a chance to prove themselves than a 18-14 Syracuse that had a dozen opportunities (half at home) in which they DID demonstrate they weren't that good.

Good luck to LUC in the dance, so long as we don't run in to you!

[VUGrad1314]

We need a stronger top of the conference and better scheduling. Multiple conferences with lower ratings than us are getting multiple bids. The MWC and WCC will get two each the A10 will get three in a terrible year. The MVC had a great renaissance and will still only get one. Here's what needs to happen:

Missouri State needs a better coach and more aggressive scheduling
UNI needs to act like conference play matters and not just show up to play whenever they feel like it
Valpo Bradley Loyola Southern Illinois and Evansville need to schedule better
Illinois State needs to do a better job holding on to the talent they bring in.

EVERYONE needs to keep getting better

We need to drop this defeatist "it's all about Arch Madness" attitude that I have heard WAY TOO MUCH from TOO MANY coaches and administrators who should know better.

Murray State NEEDS to be added. If there is no suitable 12th that's fine. Tell the non revenue sports to deal with it. This is a BASKETBALL conference. BASKETBALL drives the bus.

When is the last time the #8 conference was a one bid league? This shouldn't happen, and we need to work hard to make sure it never happens again.