Latest realtimerpi standings

[Bravesfan]

I'm impressed! Six top 100 teams, but not one that really jumps out as a bonified at-large contender, at least not yet. But this shows that the Valley is still a solid conference despite being a "down" year:


Men's Basketball - Missouri Valley (2008-2009)

Conf. RPI Rank: 8 Conf. SOS Rank: 6
Only games against Division I opponents are counted.
Teams that made the tournament are in bold
Rankings update every 5 mins.
Last updated - Tue Jan 13 18:07:29 EST 2009 Switch to Power Ratings



RPI Rk Missouri Valley Conf All RPI SOS Rk SOS
55 Illinois St. 3-2 14-2 0.5767 252 0.4659
56 Evansville 3-3 9-5 0.5718 46 0.5558
60 Bradley 5-1 10-6 0.5690 53 0.5482
68 Creighton 3-2 13-4 0.5610 190 0.4898
94 Drake 4-1 12-4 0.5420 171 0.4971
97 Northern Iowa 5-1 10-6 0.5380 114 0.5192
135 Southern Ill. 2-3 6-9 0.5151 35 0.5648
153 Missouri State 0-5 7-9 0.5044 49 0.5499
218 Indiana St. 2-4 3-13 0.4713 34 0.5659
224 Wichita St. 0-5 5-10 0.4642 95 0.5290


It's a little hard to see, but six of the Valley's teams have top 100 SOS, which is something I had worried about prior to the season. I didn't think some of the schedules looked all that great, but except for three teams with sub-150 SOS's, the rest have done well. Look for those four sub-100 SOS teams to improve their SOS's as they continue to play through the conference season.

[TheAsianSensation]

As good as 6 inside the top 100 is, none inside the top 50 is a darn near fatal flaw right now.

[Bravesfan]

As good as 6 inside the top 100 is, none inside the top 50 is a darn near fatal flaw right now.

Definately. Well, at least the NIT will be well represented with Valley teams again this year!

[BradleyBrave]

The RPI is more meaningless this year than ever before. The BCS has slowly gotten their way. Book it. One NCAA, several NIT and CBI for the MVC this year.

[TheAsianSensation]

Actually, if it's meaningless, that means lower and lower RPI teams will get in. If RPI matters, the Valley teams are in trouble. If they're meaningless, Valley teams can pass it off as insignificant and try to get in based on the rest of the resume.

Meaningless RPI is a GOOD thing.

[georgethedog]

The MVC could easily get two teams in the NCAA with good rpi's IF two teams go on a major run and both finish 15-3 or even 16-2 in the league. The rpi's for those teams would go up quite a lot and probably be enough.

[Bravesfan]

The MVC could easily get two teams in the NCAA with good rpi's IF two teams go on a major run and both finish 15-3 or even 16-2 in the league. The rpi's for those teams would go up quite a lot and probably be enough.

I agree. I've been saying all along that we need two or three teams to separate well ahead of the rest of the pack. This year, six teams finishing well ahead of the bottom four will not get us four bids like it did in 2006 since we don't collectively have too many great non-conference wins. However, if like you said george that two teams can finish well ahead of the pack with 15+ wins, we may very well get two teams into the NCAA Tournament while avoiding the mess we got into last year with one team running away with things. Of course, both of these teams would probably be advised to at least split against each other just to make sure the committee does not find any excuse to exclude a team. But this would probably be the best case scenerio for this season.

After this, look for two or three teams in the NIT along with one or two in the CBI. To get six teams into postseason for the second time in four years says a lot about how far the Valley has come, even if we are lacking a couple of powerhouse teams this year. And if this is a "down" year for the Valley, then look out in the near future how strong we can be again!