• Welcome to BradleyFans.com! Visitors are welcome, but we encourage you to sign up and register as a member. It's free and takes only a few seconds. Just click on the link to Register at the top right of the page, and follow instructions. If you have any problems or questions, click on the link at the bottom right of the page to Contact Us.

MVC schools' '25-'26 MBB schedules

Will the out of network games be streamed on ESPN Select this season? Most of them were previously on ESPN+ but ESPN has had a rebrand and introduced to ESPN Select and ESPN Unlimited plans. Seems like Select is the same as what ESPN+ used to be.
 
Buxcies07 said:
Will the out of network games be streamed on ESPN Select this season? Most of them were previously on ESPN+ but ESPN has had a rebrand and introduced to ESPN Select and ESPN Unlimited plans. Seems like Select is the same as what ESPN+ used to be.
Click to expand...
I haven't seen any report detailing how this change will affect the Bradley games and the MVC deal.
 
Decent opportunity to win that whole thing....
but there's an awful lot of 200-300 NET teams there - only one of the ten teams (using last year's #'s) that was even close
to Quad 1 or 2 (UAB at 106, but it would have to be sub-100 to be Quad 2 at neutral site)
 
yoda said:
Decent opportunity to win that whole thing....
but there's an awful lot of 200-300 NET teams there - only one of the ten teams (using last year's #'s) that was even close
to Quad 1 or 2 (UAB at 106, but it would have to be sub-100 to be Quad 2 at neutral site)
Click to expand...
It doesn't appear there will be any "winner" of this event.
After they had a tournament format with two divisions and two winners in the first two Jacksonville Classic events (2021 & 2023), last year they switched to a "Showcase Format" with each team having two games against predetermined opponents, and no champion named.
The Jacksonville Classic website has not been updated with info about their 2025 event, but with 10 teams, each playing two games*, it appears they will be doing the "Showcase Format" again.
*A few of the teams listed have posted their schedule, and they show only two games in the Jacksonville Classic, with opponents TBD
 
yeah, me too, but schools like Marquette will only offer buy games to schools like Valpo, who play in a strong enough conference
that they will have an NET in the 100-200 NET but will NOT be strong enough to pull an upset. So the only Valley teams that
get these opportunities in the regular season are Valpo and Evansville.
So in the end, don't envy the scheduling job by Evansville or Valpo because it's only a product of being so bad.

Remember when Evansville did get a chance to knock off the #1 team in the nation and THEY WON on Kentiucky's home court?
They could have turned that win into a great season, but they had so much internal turmoil and team chemistry issues, that after beating the #1 ranked team and winning 9 non-conference games, they tanked and went 0-19 vs MVC opponents and ended up one of the worst teams in DI.
 
wow- their fans oughta be asking for refunds....
only FOUR home games in the non-conference season, one is a DII and the other three are bottom dwellers,
all well above 225 in NET (2025)
 
yoda said:
wow- their fans oughta be asking for refunds....
only FOUR home games in the non-conference season, one is a DII and the other three are bottom dwellers,
all well above 225 in NET (2025)
Click to expand...
I have been following SIU hoops since I attended there during part of the Rich Herrin era and I've never seen such a p*ss poor OOC schedule that is so unbalanced between home and road games, both in terms of number of home vs. road games and in the quality of the home games. Even Barry Hinson, who was averse to scheduling decent opposition, didn't have such bad schedules and had a good balance of home and road games. Mullins had almost all home games.

I'm hoping that the Nevada and Richmond games are the front ends of home and homes. Memphis is a buy game and the other road games are returns.
 
Illinois State head coach Ryan Pedon had some interesting things to say in the press conference after the Redbirds' exhibition loss at Illinois.
Pedon, who came to ISU from Ohio State, is learning what other mid-major coaches have experienced for years. The "high-majors" only want to play Quad 1 opponents or Quad 4 opponents. Quad 1 because wins greatly benefit them, while losses don't hurt. And Quad 4 because they can run up the score and win by 30 or 40 points. The metrics that the NCAA now uses to determine at-large teams in March include credit for beating bad teams by large margins.
And he notes that in a rare exception, like their scheduled game vs. USC, the Trojans were willing to play ISU on a "neutral court", 9 miles from their campus (and 2000 miles from Normal, IL) because the "neutral court" increases the chances it turn out to be a Quad 1 game for them.

"Mid-majors are getting squeezed out of this thing."

https://twitter.com/x/status/1980061492717425022
 
Da Coach said:
And Quad 4 because they can run up the score and win by 30 or 40 points. The metrics that the NCAA now uses to determine at-large teams in March include credit for beating bad teams by large margins.
Click to expand...
This benefits both teams in such games. First, one team can blow out a cupcake in a mismatch and see it as a positive come Dance time, as well as not having to play "real" competition, and the other receives a nice check for willing to get blown out.
 
Da Coach said:
Illinois State head coach Ryan Pedon had some interesting things to say in the press conference after the Redbirds' exhibition loss at Illinois.
Pedon, who came to ISU from Ohio State, is learning what other mid-major coaches have experienced for years. The "high-majors" only want to play Quad 1 opponents or Quad 4 opponents. Quad 1 because wins greatly benefit them, while losses don't hurt. And Quad 4 because they can run up the score and win by 30 or 40 points. The metrics that the NCAA now uses to determine at-large teams in March include credit for beating bad teams by large margins.
And he notes that in a rare exception, like their scheduled game vs. USC, the Trojans were willing to play ISU on a "neutral court", 9 miles from their campus (and 2000 miles from Normal, IL) because the "neutral court" increases the chances it turn out to be a Quad 1 game for them.

"Mid-majors are getting squeezed out of this thing."

https://twitter.com/x/status/1980061492717425022
Click to expand...
unfortunately, many of the people commenting on what Pedon said are kinda mocking him since he got blown out so massively.
If you're gonna complain that they won't schedule you, then what do you expect when you don't give them any more challenge than
if they scrimmaged their women's team- LOL
But this whole scheduling thing for mid-majors is a lose-lose situation. Either you lose by 40 or surprise them and beat them, in which case they;ll never schedule you again.

But we do need NOT just for MVC teams to luck into scheduling P-5 teams, but BEATING THEM. It's better than the alternative even though,
as Brian Wardle just said in his interview- (last year Drake beat Miami, FAU, Vanderbilt, Kansas State and Missouri)...
and that just makes them all the more likely to avoid the top teams in the MVC,
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top