Updated MVCfans.com Arch Madness projections

[Play Angry]

WSU played Davidson, currently in first place in the Southern, and NCC, currently in first place in the MEAC. Both are top 150 RPIs. I think it's important to play teams from weaker conferences, but certainly in moderation. There are currently 4 teams in the MVC that have an RPI over 200. The only non-con game that WSU played against a team over 200 RPI was Tennessee State. This was scheduled as part of the exempt tourney.

We also scheduled home-and-homes against Oral Roberts from the Southland, St. Louis from the A-10, Tulsa from CUSA, and Tennessee and Alabama from the SEC. I'm not sure if Western Kentucky (Sun Belt) was a buy game or H&H.

BYU, DePaul, and William and Mary were part of the CBE in KC. Davidson was a return from the BB, so we won't see them again.

I guess what I'm saying is that Indiana State, Evansville, UNI, and Drake almost always have one BCS game from their in state foes. Every team in the MVC should be able to create a top 150 SOS if they just try a little bit, and you don't have to leave out the weak conferences all together.

I don't think Oral Roberts is a home and home. Western Kentucky was a buy game

Correct, ORU was also a buy game.

[pafan]

What do you do with the games that are part of a MTE? 2 of MSU's 4 games were MTE 1 is ORU who is traditionally pretty strong and the other every Bear fan would love to see removed Alabama A&M.

Don't do that MTE again?

I would probably make the penalty monetary ... for every "bad" game you play, you lose $5000 from the MVC NCAA disbursement.

[TheAsianSensation]

I would make MTE's exempt from any penalty for scheduling - nowadays it's so tough to predict how good or bad a MTE will be, or which teams will be available for it...well maybe you penalize anyway, but not anything harsh.

Obviously Wichita has scheduled very well. But can any Valley team get a home-and-home with Tulsa? Can get away with convincing Western Kentucky to be a buy game? Can get two games against SEC schools? That's what makes me nervous about scheduling policies.

I do think a good "non-rule" rule would be to avoid the following conferences as much as possible: SWAC, MEAC, SoCon (who were good, but realignment has hit them with the ugly stick), A-East, Southland, Big South, Atlantic Sun (who are garbage behind the top 2-3), WAC, and NEC.

That still leaves somewhat local schools in the Horizon, OVC, MAC, and Summit to work with for buy games.

[AndShock]

I would make MTE's exempt from any penalty for scheduling - nowadays it's so tough to predict how good or bad a MTE will be, or which teams will be available for it...well maybe you penalize anyway, but not anything harsh.

Obviously Wichita has scheduled very well. But can any Valley team get a home-and-home with Tulsa? Can get away with convincing Western Kentucky to be a buy game? Can get two games against SEC schools? That's what makes me nervous about scheduling policies.

I do think a good "non-rule" rule would be to avoid the following conferences as much as possible: SWAC, MEAC, SoCon (who were good, but realignment has hit them with the ugly stick), A-East, Southland, Big South, Atlantic Sun (who are garbage behind the top 2-3), WAC, and NEC.

That still leaves somewhat local schools in the Horizon, OVC, MAC, and Summit to work with for buy games.

I think any team can get a home-and-home with Tulsa. Other Valley schools can do home-and-homes with ORU and WKU. There isn't a reason that other Valley teams have to have buy games. If you can't afford it, do a home-and-home.

But Wichita State also has something they can't do that other teams can. UNI, Drake, UE, ISUb, Bradley, and ISUr can play a good in-state school.

[Wufan]

Every team in the conference should be able to get at least 2 BCS games a season. A second solution is to play a slightly worse schedule (not horrendous) and win A LOT of games.

[rlh04d]

I think any team can get a home-and-home with Tulsa. Other Valley schools can do home-and-homes with ORU and WKU. There isn't a reason that other Valley teams have to have buy games. If you can't afford it, do a home-and-home.

But Wichita State also has something they can't do that other teams can. UNI, Drake, UE, ISUb, Bradley, and ISUr can play a good in-state school.

Yup.

Obviously WSU has more leverage in scheduling, and can afford bigger buy games, but there is no reason they have to get buy games. And other MVC teams have scheduling leverage WSU doesn't as well.... The bigger names tend to want less risk.

The mvc's scheduling problems don't seem to be about inability to get good games. It's just dumb scheduling. The conference as a whole just isn't playing the scheduling game well.

[TheAsianSensation]

I think any team can get a home-and-home with Tulsa. Other Valley schools can do home-and-homes with ORU and WKU. There isn't a reason that other Valley teams have to have buy games. If you can't afford it, do a home-and-home.

But Wichita State also has something they can't do that other teams can. UNI, Drake, UE, ISUb, Bradley, and ISUr can play a good in-state school.

I disagree a bit about the particular schools, but all I have are hunches on my part, so I won't argue differently. I just think we would've seen more of those types of deals if they were attainable.

As for in-states, it's obviously a bit cyclical. But outside of the Iowas, the big boys hold the power. They can pretty much dictate matchups on their terms. They do it, but only when they're weaker.

In either event, scheduling policies definitely need to change. I guess I'm more worried about the bottom end than the top end of these schedules.

[Bmarq04]

But Wichita State also has something they can't do that other teams can. UNI, Drake, UE, ISUb, Bradley, and ISUr can play a good in-state school.

Not really. ISUr would love to play the Illini often, but the Illini don't want to play us. They see it as a no win situation. I would like to think Groce is more of a "play anyone anywhere" guy like he was at Ohio but I've heard that has changed now that he's in the mighty B1G.

This year we played Northwestern, DePaul, and about every other team in Illinois and when we claimed a B1G win, WSU fans especially, rolled their eyes and trashed on it. You're definitely not the only ones that can't get in state big boys to play you. Unless it works out that we end up in the same in season tourney, it won't happen.

[Wufan]

This year we played Northwestern, DePaul, and about every other team in Illinois and when we claimed a B1G win, WSU fans especially, rolled their eyes and trashed on it.

Come on now. DePaul plays in a different Big East than before and are at or near the bottom every year. Northwestern has NEVER been to an NCAA tournament. I think those are good games to schedule from an RPI/SOS stand point since those teams will play other teams with strong RPI and a self feeding SOS, but they aren't "good" wins. They are roughly equal to beating North Carolina Central, which I would call a good win for RPI, but not a resume building win. Illinois State should definitely continue to play those games. Besides that, Illinois played Bradley and UIC. I don't know that it is their responsibility to play EVERY D-I in the state.

[Bmarq04]

This year we played Northwestern, DePaul, and about every other team in Illinois and when we claimed a B1G win, WSU fans especially, rolled their eyes and trashed on it.

Come on now. DePaul plays in a different Big East than before and are at or near the bottom every year. Northwestern has NEVER been to an NCAA tournament. I think those are good games to schedule from an RPI/SOS stand point since those teams will play other teams with strong RPI and a self feeding SOS, but they aren't "good" wins. They are roughly equal to beating North Carolina Central, which I would call a good win for RPI, but not a resume building win. Illinois State should definitely continue to play those games. Besides that, Illinois played Bradley and UIC. I don't know that it is their responsibility to play EVERY D-I in the state.

I agree. I'm not saying they were great wins from that stand point, and I agree that they help RPI and SOS. I really was just making the comparison that WSU and ISUr are in the same boat when trying to play the perceived best teams in the state.