by BEARZ77 » March 27th, 2017, 7:21 am
With no disrespect to WSU, their probable leaving doesn't really change much as to what happens with the MVC come March each year. The Conference Tourney winner will still go the NCAA Tourney, and it will be the only representative unless just like in the past, another team finishes in the top 2, makes it to a semi final at least, and then, and this is the main thing [ duh!!], has scheduled and beat 3-4 top 50-100 teams in the non con. BothMSU and ISUr among other mid majors have had the experience that winning a regular season title means little without that non con component come selection Sunday. League prestige means something when you are in a power 5 league and it's an issue of which league gets teams 5-8 in, but at our level it really just comes down to is there a team that was pretty dominant in the league and also did it's job in the non con. For years Gonzaga dominated just as WSU is doing now, still does, but St Mary's figured it out and now is usually in contention for an at large. Scheduling is difficult, but the formula isn't. For years Gonzaga was willing to go on the road almost exclusively to get it done; now they have scheduling pull and are less dependent on having to do it all on the road. If a MVC school wants to have a chance beyond the MVC Tourney, they're going to have to be good enough to get into the right early season tourneys and bold enough to schedule tough road games, and then win. That's not any different because WSU might leave. I have been outspoken to MSU's administration who gives a lot lip service to a goal of being "TOURNEMENT WORTHY", that they are either ignorant or not really serious as long as they schedule the way we have of late. This ain't rocket science, and I'm not impressed with arguments about how hard scheduling is; in life most of our jobs are hard, you either get it done or you don't. Same for the rest of the MVC; WSU may of had more money to work with and so success may have been more available, but with or without them, each Valley school has the individual task of scheduling to have a chance to be '" Tournement Worthy" . If you don't do that , it doesn't matter what the league makeup is, you ain't dancing.
The Bear is the largest carnivore on the North American continent; beware the Bear!