Kyle Whelliston on the problems of the MVC

[Red]

I agree with almost everything in the article and it sucks to say that. We need to turn this around quick and I don't understand why athletic directors and coaches don't develop a plan to correct the issues that exist.

[RoyalShock]

I agree with almost everything in the article and it sucks to say that. We need to turn this around quick and I don't understand why athletic directors and coaches don't develop a plan to correct the issues that exist.

Because every coach is looking out for himself and his program. How else do you explain Jankovich's scheduling since his arrival at ISU?

Having the league office institute penalties/incentives is the only way to get a concerted effort from conference schools. The MVC-MWC challenge was one step toward that.

But here's where things get difficult. Whelliston suggests playing more Horizon and A10 teams. Sounds good in theory until you begin to realize that while wins to those teams look good to a selection commitee, losses have the opposite effect. Conversely, those teams view losses to MVC teams the same way. Good MVC/MWC/A10/Horizon/CUSA teams are going to schedule as if they are bubble teams. So you try to get decent but sure wins or games that look good whether you win or lose. If you lose to another bubble team you don't look as good to the committee. If this was such an obvious solution in practice we wouldn't need the MWC-MVC challenge or Bracket Busters. It would be happening without league offices getting involved.

Do we go back to the 150 SoS RPI requirement? Given the current difficulties of scheduling that means you are going to end up trying to outbid the big boys for decent buy game opponents or being bought by a top-25 big-6 program for one or more road games or a very unbalanced series.

Sometimes you get lucky, like WSU did by being a buy team for Syracuse (and winning), getting the home-away-neutral with LSU (which didn't end up being anywhere near as beneficial as it looked) and the home-home with Texas Tech. UE getting a series with UNC.

The math will usually work out such that each MVC team will get one, two or even three good OOC opponents. But they don't offset the other 8 or so opponents that come from the bottom half of D1. And when multiple MVC teams lose to some of those bottom teams it's a death sentence for the league come tournament selection time.

Scheduling isn't the only problem (coaching, recruiting, school size/appeal, etc.) but it's a big one.