NCAA official bracket

[Da Coach]

The NIT Selection Show is on ESPN2 at 8:30 pm Central. It will also be streamed on ESPN+.

[Da Coach]

Printable bracket - https://www.cbssports.com/college-ba...printable-men/

[houstonbrave]

I feel it hard to complain about Missouri State not getting in the tourney in 2006 because we got in because they did not. mvc was not getting 5 in.

[Bradley8792]

"They had a magnificent season, they had great metrics," McClelland told CBS after the bracket reveal. "But when you start to look at their nonconference, and the games that they played outside of conference, that was something that we had to take a look at. Under normal circumstances with those additional bids, they would have been in... but when you start splitting hairs you have to look at something, you have to find something and that's ultimately why they were not in the field."

Help explain this to a novice. isn’t the whole point of the NET to look at all aspects of their schedule including strength, wins/losses, etc? Why did they ever have the NET that they had? I’m no fan of ISU but that could easily be Bradley in the future. What a joke.

[BUSongwriter]

Regular season conference championships meant something . . . until they didn't. RPI meant something . . . until it didn't. NET meant something . . . and now it doesn't. I guess "Quad 1" is the holy grail now, and the power conferences have found a way to stack the deck.

Also, I find it interesting how many of the analysts are picking Drake to upset Washington State, yet Indiana State losing to Drake is a loss that keeps them out of the tournament.

Go MVC in both tournaments, especially BU.

[Da Coach]

I feel it hard to complain about Missouri State not getting in the tourney in 2006 because we got in because they did not. mvc was not getting 5 in.

I'm not complaining. It was a wonderful experience for fans to play in the tournament, and knock off Kansas and Pitt, and play well against a great Memphis team.
But, Missouri State probably should have been selected instead of Bradley. They got screwed. Missouri State had an RPI of 21 and was tied for 2nd in the league. Bradley's RPI was 33 and they were the #5 seed.
The reason they took Bradley and bumped MSU was because Bradley beat the 4-seed Creighton and the 1-seed Wichita State to reach the final, before losing to 2-seed SIU, while Missouri State got upset in the quarterfinal round by 6-seed UNI. Nonetheless, MSU's profile was superior to Bradley's.

[Da Coach]

Regular season conference championships meant something . . . until they didn't. RPI meant something . . . until it didn't. NET meant something . . . and now it doesn't. I guess "Quad 1" is the holy grail now, and the power conferences have found a way to stack the deck.

Also, I find it interesting how many of the analysts are picking Drake to upset Washington State, yet Indiana State losing to Drake is a loss that keeps them out of the tournament.

Go MVC in both tournaments, especially BU.

Good points. And I recall years where the "Eye Test" was their laughable way of ignoring all the analytics, and selecting inferior teams.

[Stevezall]

Wow, the Valley has been let down twice in that regard! So UAB gets in by winning their tourney and we best them on the Road! Amazing and we beat Utah Stste and Vermont!!! I think this shows the parity of high mid major Basketball! I hope UAB makes a good run and I hope we have a home game against them next year! That would make a great high mid-Major Matchup!!!!

[egib52]

I think the MVC needs to get creative, and find ways to increase the profile of the league and chances to get it the tournament. It is clear its a 1 bid league going forward. Maybe reach out to all of the schools to see if they can get donors to put together a neutral site invitational tournament with a bigger conference for NIL money or something. P5 won't schedule Valley schools, so we need to find some way to up the opportunities. The Mountain West got 6 teams in.

[houstonbrave]

We need to schedule tough - not stupid tough and win. Then we have an argument. ISU blu had tough losses at Michigan State and Alabama and a good win with Toledo. The rest was not great.

[BUSongwriter]

I think the MVC needs to get creative. . ..

How much do you think having Arch Madness a week early hurts MVC teams chances? I love Arch Madness, but that entire week on the bubble is a killer, with pretty much nowhere to go but down as the focus shifts to other conferences. I know it's scheduled early because of CBS national television consideration, but I'd rather have our tournament final on ESPN2 and end on Selection Sunday or at least Saturday. Maybe I'm wrong, but if Arch Madness ended today Indiana State would have been safely in brackets throughout this week and tougher to take off the board with a close loss to Drake in the final hours. Thoughts?

[egib52]

How much do you think having Arch Madness a week early hurts MVC teams chances? I love Arch Madness, but that entire week on the bubble is a killer, with pretty much nowhere to go but down as the focus shifts to other conferences. I know it's scheduled early because of CBS national television consideration, but I'd rather have our tournament final on ESPN2 and end on Selection Sunday or at least Saturday. Maybe I'm wrong, but if Arch Madness ended today Indiana State would have been safely in brackets throughout this week and tougher to take off the board with a close loss to Drake in the final hours. Thoughts?

I don't think it changes anything. I think if the championship was today we would have heard the same things. It is all about non-conf, and conf member strength. The MVC should be perennially a 2 bid conf if not more.

[egib52]

We need to schedule tough - not stupid tough and win. Then we have an argument. ISU blu had tough losses at Michigan State and Alabama and a good win with Toledo. The rest was not great.

Easier said then done. BW has said before teams won't schedule us, and no one will come to Peoria. 10-15 years ago, you could at least get a 2 for 1.

[bradleyfan124]

We need to schedule tough - not stupid tough and win. Then we have an argument. ISU blu had tough losses at Michigan State and Alabama and a good win with Toledo. The rest was not great.

The problem is the Power conference team wont play mid-majors. Like DaCoach said earlier Illinois did not play any mid -majors this year. That is wrong.

[Stryker]

How much do you think having Arch Madness a week early hurts MVC teams chances? I love Arch Madness, but that entire week on the bubble is a killer, with pretty much nowhere to go but down as the focus shifts to other conferences. I know it's scheduled early because of CBS national television consideration, but I'd rather have our tournament final on ESPN2 and end on Selection Sunday or at least Saturday. Maybe I'm wrong, but if Arch Madness ended today Indiana State would have been safely in brackets throughout this week and tougher to take off the board with a close loss to Drake in the final hours. Thoughts?

Personally I don't think it would change anything. Indiana State is not in fhe field for two reasons:

1) Too many teams with at-large resumes like Dayton, UNC, etc did not perform in their conference tournaments which results in bid steals.

2) Despite Indiana State's Net of 29, their best win all year was at Bradley. Their OOC wins were over bottom feeder teams. If they had beaten teams like UAB, Utah State, and Vermont, like Bradley did, they would have been in the tournament. Instead they lost by double digits to Michigan State and Alabama, the only two good OOC teams they played. Their NET was propped up by a good W-L record over bad and average teams, and no bad losses. You have to actually beat a good team at some point during the year to get in the tournament.

As unfortunate as it is, this is way the selection committee makes their decisions. And honestly I am not sure I can really argue all that much against it. Michigan State was a bubble team (However much we want to argue about that) and was good enough to get in, and Indiana State lost to them by 12. Kinda hard to make a case when you have lost to another bubble team by double digits. Losing to ISU was also not great for Indiana State down the stretch.