WCC Making Scheduling Changes To Increase At-Large Chances

[RacerJoeD]

The OVC is a great example of uneven RPI.

CURRENT RPI OVC TEAMS
Murray State 48
Belmont 81
Jacksonville State 149
Tennessee Tech 158
Austin Peay 164
Tennessee State 189
Southeast Missouri 257
Eastern Illinois 262
Eastern Kentucky 271
SIU- Edwardsville 287
Morehead State 292
Tennessee- Martin 306

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

The OVC is a great example of uneven RPI.

CURRENT RPI OVC TEAMS
Murray State 48
Belmont 81
Jacksonville State 149
Tennessee Tech 158
Austin Peay 164
Tennessee State 189
Southeast Missouri 257
Eastern Illinois 262
Eastern Kentucky 271
SIU- Edwardsville 287
Morehead State 292
Tennessee- Martin 306

That's even. Consistently shitty.

Anything below 150 is BAD for mid-major conferences.

[bonez]

The OVC is a great example of uneven RPI.

CURRENT RPI OVC TEAMS
Murray State 48
Belmont 81
Jacksonville State 149
Tennessee Tech 158
Austin Peay 164
Tennessee State 189
Southeast Missouri 257
Eastern Illinois 262
Eastern Kentucky 271
SIU- Edwardsville 287
Morehead State 292
Tennessee- Martin 306

That's even. Consistently shitty.

Anything below 150 is BAD for mid-major conferences.

Except Belmont and Murray State the OVC has no room to claim to be mid-major. Those two schools are the only ones who should be on MVC schedules (I'm looking at you, SIU, with the piss-poor annual scheduling of SEMO and SIU-E - those are garbage games and no one cares about them).

[RacerJoeD]

I’m consistently impressed whenever any team that has to play as many 200+ teams (twice in most cases) can keep their RPI in Quadrant 1.

[just ducky]

The Valley might only have 4 teams 150 and above next season

It'll be at least 5 and likely 8.

Loyola, Illnois State, SIU, Bradley and UNI are locks (all in the top 150 this year and should be better next year except Loyola, obviously). Valpo gets there just by improving schedule a little bit and winning two more games than they did this year. Indiana State was just outside last year and should be a bit better with Barnes being older and more consistent. Missouri State seems to be holding on to its core and should have a ton of energy, it'll depend on Ford being ready to go on the bench at this level.

Evansville is just decimated with losing its entire roster and Drake, well, Drake is Drake is Drake is Drake is Drake.

Barring transfers out, reneged commitments, injuries and expulsions I will go with 7 better than 150 with 5 top 100 teams not out of the question.

Evansville and Drake are my biggest worries. Even coaching change upgrades can have short term negative effects so the jury is still out on Missouri St. Overall I am optimistic that the Valley might be slightly improved.

[MOST]

Lots of schemes being talked to increase the number of NCAA bids to other than P5+1 teams. For 2018 only 3 conferences other than the P5+1 had 2 or more bids: American Athletic with 3 bids, Atlantic 10 with 3 bids, and the Mountain West 2 bids.

Gonzaga reported (on this forum) to be moving to the Mountain West for next year. If they carry the West Coast Conference auto bid to the Mountain West, and the West Coast Conference continues to get one auto bid, in effect that means one less at large bid will be available for the MVC and other high MM conferences to shoot for. Do not expect the P5+1 conferences to volunteer to reduce their bids to help the MMs.

This is a dog chasing its tail exercise, or several dogs chasing theirs or others tails.

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

UNI is not a lock. Neither is Valpo, Missouri State, Drake, Indiana State, or Evansville. One of the 6 will probably squeek it out but it will be close. Indiana State and Valpo have the best chance to be better than 150. UNI will be worse (overall record) then last year.

[musiccitybulldog]

UNI is not a lock. Neither is Valpo, Missouri State, Drake, Indiana State, or Evansville. One of the 6 will probably squeek it out but it will be close. Indiana State and Valpo have the best chance to be better than 150. UNI will be worse (overall record) then last year.

If Loyola wins the championship the MVC teams should have great RPI's.

[just ducky]

UNI is not a lock. Neither is Valpo, Missouri State, Drake, Indiana State, or Evansville. One of the 6 will probably squeek it out but it will be close. Indiana State and Valpo have the best chance to be better than 150. UNI will be worse (overall record) then last year.

Right now I wouldn't bet either way on Missouri St but if you are prepared to take all bets that 2 out of 3 of Indiana St, UNI and VU will finish worse than 150 RPI then we SHOULD have you in bankruptcy by March of 2019.

[uniguy]

I honestly think this move was made specifically in an effort to keep Gonzaga. Gonzaga IS a team that could schedule two quality games to replace two 250+ teams that would have been on their schedule. St. Mary's and BYU could probably benefit from it as well. For the other teams it is more-or-less irrelevant (other than one team won't get the ticket sales boost of hosting Gonzaga each year).

PS- The reports of UNI's death are greatly exaggerated. Also, many of you have no faith in this league which is a bummer.