UNI #3 Basketball story of 2010

by **valleychamp** » December 7th, 2010, 11:00 am

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news;_ylt=Ai0j7ZNJtZz2haDTCj2Do4fevbYF?slug=ga-colhoopsyear120710

**Sponsor**

by **MVCfans** » December 7th, 2010, 11:04 am

UNI became the first Missouri Valley Conference champ to advance to the Sweet 16 since Indiana State, with Larry Bird, in 1979.

Although this may be technically "correct" in regard to the champion advancing, it intentionally diminishes what the MVC has been over the past decade and is frankly misleading.

by **unipanther99** » December 7th, 2010, 11:17 am

Technically that stat is correct.

UNI is the first conference (tournament) champion to reach the sweet sixteen since '79. However, it's a completely useless factoid. It was buried among several other worthless factoids in the standard press release UNI put out during the NCAA tournament, and a bunch of national news outlets decided to run with it for some reason.

by **SubGod22** » December 7th, 2010, 11:24 am

The stat is worthless, but it makes the conference sound worse than it really is. I do feel there's a big difference between conference champ and tournament champ though and that should be distinguished in articles like this.

by **unipanther99** » December 7th, 2010, 11:26 am

SubGod22 wrote:The stat is worthless, but it makes the conference sound worse than it really is. I do feel there's a big difference between conference champ and tournament champ though and that should be distinguished in articles like this.

Agreed, but such is the state of journalism today.

by **Turner** » December 7th, 2010, 11:29 am

Sounds like the UNI SID is the one to blame.

by **valleychamp** » December 7th, 2010, 11:39 am

Turner wrote:Sounds like the UNI SID is the one to blame.

Yep clearly. Since a correct fact was stated. :Bam:

Its not UNI's responsibility to regulate how every media outlet is using these little random facts.

by **TylerDurden** » December 7th, 2010, 11:43 am

The problem is in translation.

The stat is "correct" in that the MVC tournament winner is the "Conference Champion."

The problem is that hardly anyone thinks of things in that manner. Most people think of the regular-season winner as the champion.

People will read that and think the MVC is the Atlantic Sun.

by **Turner** » December 7th, 2010, 11:51 am

valleychamp wrote:
Turner wrote:Sounds like the UNI SID is the one to blame.

Yep clearly. Since a correct fact was stated.

Its not UNI's responsibility to regulate how every media outlet is using these little random facts.

I'll amend my statement: Sounds like the UNI SID is the one to blame for promulgating a meaningless and misleading stat that has a deleterious effect on the perception of the Missouri Valley Conference.

Better?

by **unipanther99** » December 7th, 2010, 12:04 pm

Here is the press release in question, sent out a day prior to the Kansas game:
http://www.unipanthers.com/sports/m-bas ... 10aaa.html

This is one of 13 bullet points:

• The last MVC Tournament champion to reach the Sweet 16 was Indiana State in 1979. The Sycamores reached the NCAA Championship game in 1979.

In context of the full release, it just doesn't make sense that anyone would pick THAT of all things to run with and make a big deal about. It was just one of many factoids the SID included, trying to make that case that UNI could shock the world.