Big Sky moving to 11/20 format

[rally]

If RPI was all that mattered, why would Loyola not have been a slam dunk at large?

(the open secret is that RPI doesn't matter)

You brought up conference RPI, so I responded with the individual teams RPI. I don't care what metric or statistic you want to use, they looks at the individual teams.

[RacerJoeD]

And what I showed you was that the RPI was bunk.

[TheAsianSensation]

CUSA and Sun Belt changes were relevant to us from a strategic standpoint.

This move is irrelevant to us. This is pure budget-saving moves from a bottom 5 basketball conference. They're not trying to do anything to manipulate their seed in March. Nothing to see here; move along.

MVC officials said Murray was an “MVC institution” but that 11 couldn’t be worked out due to scheduling. That’s why it’s relevant. If the shoestring, geographically vast Big Sky could make 11/20 work, why did the MVC present it as an impossibility last year?

See, you're thinking about the wrong games. Instead of the 20, think of the non-con 8 games. That's 2 less buy games they travel to each year, and given their locations, every travel expense is magnified.

[TheAsianSensation]

Teams get bids, not conferences.

Conferences get bids, not teams.

Which is right?

Both.

The literal truth is that teams get bids, not conferences, but the ability of a team to get a bid is heavily reliant on their conference's overall ability. It's a two-piece puzzle you have to put together. The individual team has to do their job, and the conference has to provide enough support for them. You need both to get a bid these days.

[RacerJoeD]

Will Valley teams not play road games at Illinois (as an example) and instead buy a lightly attended home game vs the Coe College’s of the world with two fewer games in the OOC?

[BigMacAttack]

Will Valley teams not play road games at Illinois (as an example) and instead buy a lightly attended home game vs the Coe College’s of the world with two fewer games in the OOC?

UE opens the season on Nov 8 at Illinois.

[VUGrad1314]

Is there any way to run a simulation of what a 20 game conference schedule with Murray State added to the MVC would have done to the metrics and resumes of Murray State of each MVC team and of the conference metrics as a whole?

[TheAsianSensation]

Is there any way to run a simulation of what a 20 game conference schedule with Murray State added to the MVC would have done to the metrics and resumes of Murray State of each MVC team and of the conference metrics as a whole?

There's so many interconnecting parts with RPI (particularly with SoS) that trying to untangle them is not possible....safe assumption is that Loyola would've added a Group 1 win chance to the resume, and one or two Group 2 win chances. Plus, the games LU sacrifices are likely cupcakes. So better SoS for them. However, they were so light on these wins that it wouldn't have been enough. If Loyola had 3 Group 1 wins, and Murray St could push them to 5, that would've been another story.

MVC likely would've moved from 8th in conference RPI to....8th. Murray helps, but the top 7 took off from the rest of the nation in RPI.

I think most years, Murray St would be in a position to be a key 4th or 5th signature win for an at-large contender. This year was kind of an outlier in that Loyola wasn't quite in position for that.

[VUGrad1314]

So why don't the university presidents\MVC leadership just bite the bullet and make the move? The MVC's best path to multiple bids is to:

1. Add Murray State and go to 20 conference games

2. Enter into a scheduling alliance with the A10 and the Mountain West

3. Have our top teams seek out the top teams in leagues like the MAC CAA HL OVC WCC CUSA Summit WAC etc and play them.

Just do it already

[ACECARD]

Will Valley teams not play road games at Illinois (as an example) and instead buy a lightly attended home game vs the Coe College’s of the world with two fewer games in the OOC?

UE opens the season on Nov 8 at Illinois.

Big Mac. Always enjoyed Mules posts. Keep telling it like it is.