Valley only gets 3 bids???!!!!

[Panthers#1]

Check this web site out. http://www.collegeinsider.com/macy/

While I think the Valley has had a great year and there are some very good teams, I just don’t see how the league can get as many as five or six bids. At best I think they can hope to receive four invites, but I don’t think it will happen. The popular thought is that Northern Iowa is already in, based on their non-league schedule. That very well may be the case, but Bradley finished much stronger. They looked impressive in getting to the tournament championship game and remember that they didn’t have Patrick O’Bryant at the start of the season.

“The Missouri Valley is the most overrated league in the country. It’s a good league, but not a five or six bid league. That’s insane. They have done a great job of marketing their league, but lets remember that the league provides each school with enough money to buy three home games. The league RPI is so high because they bought games and all had good RPI heading into conference play. That is the biggest reason their RPI remained so high.”

Missouri Valley: 3
Bradley
Southern Illinois
Wichita State

WTF??? I'm getting scared again.

[ubuntuCAT]

Money to buy 3 home games??? anyone understand this argument?

[TheMacHouse]

There are going to be a few people out there that will look down on the Valley the next couple of days. I have decided not to let it bother me. If you look and UNI's resume from game 1-30 and not just part of the year as some other teams will want the committee to do they are in. If people can say Duke is a #1 even if they lose 3 in a row because of their whole resume than the same applies for UNI as an at large. I believe there is less than a 10% chance UNI will not make it and that is only if more upsets happen the next 2 days.

As far as buying 3 games to help RPI, doesn't big time schools do that for 10 non conference games.

[northwest iowa panther]

northwest iowa panther

At about the time Hartzell and the McDermot arrived on the scene, the MVC commissioner decreed that all Valley teams had to improve their nonconference schedules. He dictated that they had to schedule higher RPI teams away and on neutral courts. If they failed to do so in five years, they would suffer the withholding of their shares from the NCAA Tourney. This year is the fruit of the five year plan. Doug Elgin is no longer threatening to withhold money because all the Valley are playing much tougher schedules than five years ago. What you hear now is the BCS conferences complaining about the MVC manipulating the system in their scheduling. The MVC teams have simply scheduled tougher opponents to meet the Selection Committee's criteria. BCS teams have been slow to adjust their schedules and continue to overschedule at home.

[Cap'n Cat]

Cap'n Cat may be a dumbass, but it seems to me that beating Iowa = beating Iowa. Beating LSU = beating LSU. INSU beating Indiana = beating Indiana, etc, etc.......................


RPI, R.I.P.

[NJ Panther]

That seems way outside mainsteam thought. Just like when you fill out a bracket and you pick some far out upsets just because if they happen you'll have a huge advantage over everyone else, so you'll have some predictors try to go outside normative thought just in case their right. With the 23 most known predictors (as poster earlier) having UNI in, if your the lone voice that said no you'll look really awesome if your right, and no one will remember if your wrong. So yeah, expect some little known people and idiotic analysts (read Digger Phelps) to make outrageous predictions. I just don't think the 23 biggest prediction sites could all be wrong

[Panthers to the Bone]

To keep from getting out the Mylanta...the Selection Committee chair said they are looking at the total body of work and that includes RPI. UNI is fine. The fact that he stated the MVC gives money to their teams to buy 3 games per year, is maybe one of the worst peices of journalism. One, that is not mainstream knowledge, and two, that is highly inaccurate. Who on UNI's schedule would be a buy game? Upper Iowa (check), Florida A&M (part of a tourney), and Western Carolina (a team they were able to find to open the Wells Fargo Events Center).

SIU: Zero buy-in games...they play home and homes with all teams on schedule.
Wichita: One. Panhandle State, Texas Southern, Texas Pan Am (I think the last two were part of the South Padre Tourney)
MSU: Ga. Zero. Southern and TAMU-CC were part of their tourney
Creighton: Two. Arkansas Pine Bluff and Norfolk State
Bradley: One-Two. Chicago State (maybe---this might be a series), and Delaware State
Drake: One. Cornell. NDSU and Montana (part of their tourney)

And I'm not even going to go further. I think I rest my case though.

[KaBullseye15]

if the team thats holding up our conference rpi (us) doesnt get in then the rpi needs to be reevaulated. it may need to be anyway since digger crys about the valley all the time anyway and ESPN has more influence then they deserve. i think were in, and collegeinsider.com is about as reliable as as something thats not reliable (couldnt think of anything else).

[DWadle1983]

Check this web site out. http://www.collegeinsider.com/macy/



WTF??? I'm getting scared again.

Read this site which looks at all the bracket predictions http://bracketproject.atspace.com such as ESPN, CBS Sportsline, Fox, SI, CSTV and which apparently Kyle Macy isn't included. 23 of 24 bracket "experts" had UNI in ranging from an 8 seed to 12 seed. Only one recently added site, something called Cincinnati Rivals, doesn't have UNI receiving a bid. UNI still averages a 9 seed.

I see Go Bison is reading the thread. Congrats on the win tonight.

[lennyjones4]

Most brackets I've seen have WSU, SIU, Bradley and UNI all in.

[TH1974]

I think the Valley gets 4 teams, and UNI will be one of them.

[lennyjones4]

Hopefully they all stay out of the 8 vs 9 game!

[DWadle1983]

To keep from getting out the Mylanta...the Selection Committee chair said they are looking at the total body of work and that includes RPI. UNI is fine. The fact that he stated the MVC gives money to their teams to buy 3 games per year, is maybe one of the worst peices of journalism. One, that is not mainstream knowledge, and two, that is highly inaccurate. Who on UNI's schedule would be a buy game? Upper Iowa (check), Florida A&M (part of a tourney), and Western Carolina (a team they were able to find to open the Wells Fargo Events Center).

SIU: Zero buy-in games...they play home and homes with all teams on schedule.
Wichita: One. Panhandle State, Texas Southern, Texas Pan Am (I think the last two were part of the South Padre Tourney)
MSU: Ga. Zero. Southern and TAMU-CC were part of their tourney
Creighton: Two. Arkansas Pine Bluff and Norfolk State
Bradley: One-Two. Chicago State (maybe---this might be a series), and Delaware State
Drake: One. Cornell. NDSU and Montana (part of their tourney)

And I'm not even going to go further. I think I rest my case though.

Upper Iowa wouldn't count toward UNI's RPI since they're not D-I.

Panthers#1 the problem with comments like what Kyle Macy are quoting is that they're inaccurate as PTTB shows. If Macy is trying to make an accurate point, you wouldn't use such crap. Most major and mid-major teams play some low level conference teams at home. This is the first time I've seen an argument where the complaint isn't about the MVC and their road games.

Take a look at the non-conference schedule of teams like UConn, Florida, Pitt, Illinois, Boston College, George Washington, Colorado, Florida State, Texas A&M, etc., where their schedules are packed with home cupcakes.

Illinois, while playing some good non-conference teams, played at home South Dakota State, Texas Pan American, Texas Southern, Coppin State, SE Missouri, and Tennessee-Martin. How many of these teams does Illinois have home and home agreements? Probably none. These were games against teams that weren't projected to be the next Northwestern State let alone Hofstra that Illinois "bought".

[DWadle1983]

Kyle Macy predicted that he would receive a flood of MVC fan e-mails, so don't disappoint him. I didn't.

Dear Kyle:

By the time you've read this, the NCAA Tournament field will have been selected. You've got the MVC for 3 bids currently. Unlike most MVC fans, I'm not going to argue how many bids the MVC deserves, because it will be more than 3. I'm guessing 5 (Creighton left out).

I have three problems with the MVC's RPI is too high argument.

First, the "Scout" comment you quoted about the MVC buying games is absurd. Almost every major and mid-major team plays games at home against teams from the lower ranked conferences, and most at least 3 games a season. So why weren't other conferences being accused of "buying" games?

Second, there should be a home/road differential since the home team wins 2/3 of the time. Maybe .6/1.4 should be changed to .6/1.2, but a differential is accurate and fair.

Third, the reason the MVC's RPI is so high is mostly because the MVC won over 70% of its non-conference games, not because it, to use a popular term, "gamed" the system. But, how is this any different then what BCS conference teams have done for years?

NINE ACC teams had non-conference SOS's lower than Jay Bilas' favorite team, Drake. ACC teams racked up very impressive non-conference records by beating the cupcake of the week club, then racked up a good RPI by beating each other. How many BCS conference fans complain that most MVC teams, UNI the exception, haven't beaten anyone other than each other. Again, how is this different than many BCS conference teams?

I propose that the current 50% opponents winning %, 25% opponents opponents winning percentage be changed to 37.5% and 37.5% so that there is less of a reward for beating a conference opponent who played a weak non-conference schedule.

Kyle, if you disagree with these proposals, what RPI changes would you make?

[DWadle1983]

Today's name bracket experts updates as far as UNI's seeding: ESPN 10, CBS (Doyel) 8, CBS (Meija) 10, Fox 10, CSTV 7, USA Today 11, Nolan 8, College Hoops.net 9, (SI's hasn't been updated) equals UNI being a 9 seed.