Current rankings

[91Bird]

I made the mistake of looking the current rankings on espn.com. Ugh, it's not pretty.
SOR - strength of record

RK TEAM W-L BPI RK SOS RK SOR RK
1 Loyola-Chicago 11-7 87 259 157
2 Drake 13-5 134 243 89
3 Southern Illinois 9-9 138 145 177
4 Valparaiso 11-7 164 237 150
5 Missouri State 8-10 184 212 235
6 Evansville 9-9 200 219 198
7 Illinois State 10-8 208 188 168
8 Indiana State 10-7 215 156 135
9 Northern Iowa 8-10 220 181 216
10 Bradley 8-10 227 325 270

 

[Retire 12]

I'll get you a heat chart ASAP.

It's definitely not pretty, league-wide.

 

[Flagship08]

This makes you wonder if whoever wins Arch Madness could get something like a 14 seed. Yuck.

 

[DannyCooksey]

This makes you wonder if whoever wins Arch Madness could get something like a 14 seed. Yuck.

or the Tuesday play-in game in Dayton---it'll be ugly for sure

 

[91Bird]

The Valley has had so much success in the last decade or more in the NCAA tournament. I'm surprised that the league has dropped off so much. Losing Wichita and Creighton hurt of course. But Loyola made their run last year. Hopefully it's just cyclical and the conference gets stronger again. The league is ripe for a team to emerge like Creighton and Wichita did. I hope that team is us.

 

[RicoBryson]

This makes you wonder if whoever wins Arch Madness could get something like a 14 seed. Yuck.

With the respect for the Valley, I really doubt it. 12 maybe...

 

[Flagship08]

This makes you wonder if whoever wins Arch Madness could get something like a 14 seed. Yuck.

With the respect for the Valley, I really doubt it. 12 maybe...

As far as seeding in the tournament goes there has never been any respect for the Valley. Seeding has been the bigger, consistent snub to Valley teams more than the lack of at large bids. This year could be worse since I don't recall the last time a team outside the top 100 RPI (or NET) has won Arch Madness which seems possible if not probable this year.

 

[Manchester Matt]

I know it’s bad, but I stand by my opinion that the league will get no worse than a 14 and probably a 13.

Lunardi has a 5-11 team in one of his 16 slots. The Valley is down, but there are much more miserable leagues out there.

He currently has Loyola as the Valley auto bid with a 13.

 

[Adunk33]

I've mentioned this before but figured I'd bring it up again regarding seeding. To me, regardless of how bad the league is, a conference champion should never have to be in a play in game (the first four). There is only one official way to make the NCAA tournament - win your conference championship. Those conference champions should not be punished with having to play an extra game before actually being in the tournament. If they want to keep those first four play-in games, take the last eight teams that got an auto bid and have them play in those games. It would definitely drive more interest to the first four instead of having two 11 seeds play for the right to play the Florida's of the world or two 16 seeds play for the right to play the No.1 seed.

I see the Valley champ as a 12/13 pretty much regardless. Even if its a Thursday team that wins it all.
P.s. This is the year at Arch Madness where a Thursday team makes it to Saturday.

 

[Metamoron]

If I remember correctly the history behind the play in game is interesting.

When tourney went to 64 teams for first time, there were X number of conferences and Y number of at large. If I weren’t so technically challenged I could look it up.

The money for getting in was very large, so several very weak independent teams created new conferences since all conference champions would eventually get in.

That meant that to stay in the nice bracket of 64 which works so well with seeding and regionals etc, they would need to reduce the number at large bids, which mainly at the time went to very deserving mid majors.

Then someone came up with the idea of play-in games so that these weak conference champions didn’t squeeze out deserving teams.

Made sense at the time and Redbird Arena was actually built so as to be included in the conversation for potentially hosting.

Facts may not be totally correct but it’s my story and I am sticking to it.

 

[ChiRedbirdfan]

I've mentioned this before but figured I'd bring it up again regarding seeding. To me, regardless of how bad the league is, a conference champion should never have to be in a play in game (the first four). There is only one official way to make the NCAA tournament - win your conference championship. Those conference champions should not be punished with having to play an extra game before actually being in the tournament. If they want to keep those first four play-in games, take the last eight teams that got an auto bid and have them play in those games. It would definitely drive more interest to the first four instead of having two 11 seeds play for the right to play the Florida's of the world or two 16 seeds play for the right to play the No.1 seed.

I see the Valley champ as a 12/13 pretty much regardless. Even if its a Thursday team that wins it all.
P.s. This is the year at Arch Madness where a Thursday team makes it to Saturday.

Regardless of conference affiliation have the four weakest teams in the play-in games would be my vote. I would rather watch the best teams play.

 

[ChiRedbirdfan]

The Valley has had so much success in the last decade or more in the NCAA tournament. I'm surprised that the league has dropped off so much. Losing Wichita and Creighton hurt of course. But Loyola made their run last year. Hopefully it's just cyclical and the conference gets stronger again. The league is ripe for a team to emerge like Creighton and Wichita did. I hope that team is us.

I would bet that Loyola has the best possibility to emerge as the next Creighton/Wichita. For recruiting they have best location, best academics and due to last year’s run the best basketball program image. They also are pumping money into campus/facilities and have deeper pockets than typical MVC unis. Additionally they have wealthier alumni that seem to be getting all lathered up on basketball. Throw in a provost/president with historical ties to Marquette that understands and supports the value of a successful b-ball program (this is a big change from the past) and a culture fur success is emerging. So the top down Loyola leadership schtick that I am told that is being passed onto prominent alumni is that they are thrilled with joining the mvc but ideally would like to move onto something bigger. They know they first have a lot of work to do but that is their goal

It is hard for me to see ISU making any material improvement in their basketball program profile...yes there will be up or down years and yes the ncaa drought will end sooner or later but the ongoing struggle will still reside. Though I have some frustrations with Muller I do appreciate his efforts to make ISU HOOPS as successful as possibe but I believe his or any other coach’s hands are tied due to ISU’s messy athletic situation..bifurcated conference for major sports , fcs football combined with the impact of the historical and ongoing decline of the MVC which is taking ISU further away from the money needed to succeed. Some peeps talking about the MVC returning to being a strong conference is confusing to me as the 50 year trend for this conference has been nothing but a gradual downward movement and it is still ongoing.

ISU needs to really dig deep and figure out a long term plan for athletics as planning on riding the current MVC horse into the future is consciously committing to the ongoing decline of ISU athletics. If a material/structural (not coaching or even new AD) change is made to ISU athletics only then is there real hope for material improvement in ISU basketball program profile. Otherwise accept ISU sports for what they are and expect less in the future.

 

[goredbirds4]

I've mentioned this before but figured I'd bring it up again regarding seeding. To me, regardless of how bad the league is, a conference champion should never have to be in a play in game (the first four). There is only one official way to make the NCAA tournament - win your conference championship. Those conference champions should not be punished with having to play an extra game before actually being in the tournament. If they want to keep those first four play-in games, take the last eight teams that got an auto bid and have them play in those games. It would definitely drive more interest to the first four instead of having two 11 seeds play for the right to play the Florida's of the world or two 16 seeds play for the right to play the No.1 seed.

I see the Valley champ as a 12/13 pretty much regardless. Even if its a Thursday team that wins it all.
P.s. This is the year at Arch Madness where a Thursday team makes it to Saturday.

The way it works now is the worst 4 at large teams play each other as 11 seeds or something like that.
Then the 4 worst 16 seeds play each other. These are the 4 games in Dayton.
There is pretty much 0 chance that an MVC team is playing in the play in games unless they were an at large (which is also not happening).
At this pace, even if Bradley were to win the conference in STL, I doubt they would be one of the worst 4 teams.

 

[PurpleRedbird]

I've mentioned this before but figured I'd bring it up again regarding seeding. To me, regardless of how bad the league is, a conference champion should never have to be in a play in game (the first four). There is only one official way to make the NCAA tournament - win your conference championship. Those conference champions should not be punished with having to play an extra game before actually being in the tournament. If they want to keep those first four play-in games, take the last eight teams that got an auto bid and have them play in those games. It would definitely drive more interest to the first four instead of having two 11 seeds play for the right to play the Florida's of the world or two 16 seeds play for the right to play the No.1 seed.

I see the Valley champ as a 12/13 pretty much regardless. Even if its a Thursday team that wins it all.
P.s. This is the year at Arch Madness where a Thursday team makes it to Saturday.

The way it works now is the worst 4 at large teams play each other as 11 seeds or something like that.
Then the 4 worst 16 seeds play each other. These are the 4 games in Dayton.
There is pretty much 0 chance that an MVC team is playing in the play in games unless they were an at large (which is also not happening).
At this pace, even if Bradley were to win the conference in STL, I doubt they would be one of the worst 4 teams.

Don't give Bradley a challenge. [emoji16][emoji16][emoji16][emoji16]

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[CaliRdBrd]

This makes you wonder if whoever wins Arch Madness could get something like a 14 seed. Yuck.

With the respect for the Valley, I really doubt it. 12 maybe...

No offense, but what “respect”?

Unless someone goes on an absolute terror, 14...book it

 

[Flagship08]

I just noticed 11 of 12 MAC teams are ranked higher than us in the NET rankings.. that conference is unbelievable this year.

 

[HailISNU]

Valley is currently ranked 13th, which is unfortunately right where it’s been for a while now, except for last year due to Loyola

 

[RicoBryson]

This makes you wonder if whoever wins Arch Madness could get something like a 14 seed. Yuck.

With the respect for the Valley, I really doubt it. 12 maybe...

No offense, but what “respect”?

Unless someone goes on an absolute terror, 14...book it

I could be wrong, but I never remember a Valley team 14 or above in the Big Dance.

 

[ricohill]

With the respect for the Valley, I really doubt it. 12 maybe...

No offense, but what “respect”?

Unless someone goes on an absolute terror, 14...book it

I could be wrong, but I never remember a Valley team 14 or above in the Big Dance.

Worst an MVC team has received is a 14 seed on 5 occasions. They are 0-5 in those games with and average margin of defeat of 15.8.

1989 Creighton (14) - L 69-85 to Missouri
1990 Illinois State (14) 0-1 - L 70-76 - to Michigan
1993 Southern Illinois (14) 0-1 - L 70-105 to Duke
2004 UNI (14) 0-1 - L 60-65 to Georgia Tech
2011 Indiana State (14) 0-1 - L 60-77 to Syracuse

 

[RicoBryson]

No offense, but what “respect”?

Unless someone goes on an absolute terror, 14...book it

I could be wrong, but I never remember a Valley team 14 or above in the Big Dance.

Worst an MVC team has received is a 14 seed on 5 occasions. They are 0-5 in those games with and average margin of defeat of 15.8.

1989 Creighton (14) - L 69-85 to Missouri
1990 Illinois State (14) 0-1 - L 70-76 - to Michigan
1993 Southern Illinois (14) 0-1 - L 70-105 to Duke
2004 UNI (14) 0-1 - L 60-65 to Georgia Tech
2011 Indiana State (14) 0-1 - L 60-77 to Syracuse

I stand corrected. Thank you