The Missouri Valley Conference is ...

If the MVC becomes a major, then I'll be happily residing in the city that boasts the MVC's version of Northwestern.

 

The Missouri Valley will cease to be a mid-major when people stop saying, "The Missouri Valley shouldn't be a mid-major anymore." Much like nobody really considers Gonzaga one anymore.

In the meantime, screw your RPI and other numbers; I just don't see how three teams in the MVC who would be good enough, if they joined the ACC or Big East, to finish above .500. One or two, maybe. But not enough to say going .500, or even a few games above .500, in the MVC would be good enough to make the NCAA tournament.

 

No team in Boston, not even a blip on the sports radar since Flint days. Amherst is about 90 minutes west.

 

That formula or "RPI code cracking" that some espouse is still predicated on one major, major factor that is too often overlooked.

Winning.

MVC teams have to WIN those BCS games. The league has to be strong enough across-the-board to benefit each other. If the league goes .400 against BCS teams, no formula in the world is going to make any difference.

And in the end, that's the essence of why the MVC is doing as well as it is. It proves it is good enough in the only way that matters -- winning. And 13-11 on the road? That is another indicator of how competitive most of the teams in the conference are.

This isn't new. For the last three years, the MVC has consistently gone toe-to-toe with so-called big conference schools. It's been nearly a decade since the MVC was a one-bid league.

 

KP is right. No one has cared about UMass since Bruiser trashed the program. I don't think either Boston paper has a beat writer on them anymore. And URI is quite a bit closer to Boston than Amherst.

 

Sadly, I did not see her this weekend at the MVC tournament.

 

Agreed, though the MVC teams simply ate each other up this season.

 

The Mo Valley is just the "in" mid-major conference these days. In the 80s, it was the Metro with Louisville and Memphis. After that, it was the A-10 with Temple, UMass, Xavier and St. Joe's. Now the Valley is looking to take that mantle.

These conferences were/are considered mid-majors, but the Metro and A-10 featured major schools. I'm not sure I'm ready to call Creighton, Wichita State and Southern Illinois major schools just yet.

 

HELL YES ... only because so many of them end up winning national championships.

 

As an aside, when does Southern Indiana start making its move to D-I?