ESL brought a good point in his comment on my last post. That point was that the Valley has a conference RPI of 12 right now, which will certainly not do Missouri State any favors. The question I have is what happened to the Valley? Their conference RPI over the last 8 years (as far back as I found info) goes like this:
03-04: 11
04-05: 8
05-06: 6 (ahead of the Pac-10)
06-07: 6 (ahead of the Big 12)
07-08: 8
08-09: 9
09-10: 9
10-11: 12
So what gives? Have Valley teams started scheduling soft? Have the big boys discrimnated against a conference that had broken into their territory? Is this a natrual ebb and flow of conference quality? I have no idea. Thoughts?
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Scheduling is down for sure, and that's part of the problem. Part of the blame? The success of mid-majors in 2005-06. That was "The Year of the Mid-Major," when 4 Valley teams made the tourney, Bradley and Wichita State both made the Sweet 16, and George Mason went to the Final Four.
That's when the high-majors wised up. It's going to be harder now for mid-majors to get the high-majors on the schedule, at least on a "fair" basis, like home-and-home. That means fewer quality wins and lower strength of schedule for mid-majors. That will translate into fewer at-large berths.
If the mid-majors want to get back to the way things were from 06-07, they may have to start taking some 2-for-1s, or 1-shot deals with high-majors. It sucks, but the high-majors hold the hammer here.
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