by STL MVC » June 23rd, 2011, 8:11 am
In the six years since the C-USA lost Louisville, Marquette, etc., the Missouri Valley has finished higher in KenPom's ratings four times as an overall conference.
It's easy to be blinded by the success of Memphis, but Conference USA is not a better league. It's a larger league, but it's not better. Teams like UTEP, Tulsa, UAB, Houston and Southern Miss have had relative success during the past decade or so, but they would all fit nicely in the Missouri Valley. The rest of the league would finish near the bottom of the MVC. Rice hasn't had a winning season since god knows when. Southern Methodist is a joke, and so is East Carolina.
At worst, the two leagues are even.