MVC – Endless List of Scenarios

Don’t Bother With Possibilities

(St. Louis, MO) – Forget about ‘what ifs’? in the Missouri Valley Conference. With five Saturday games on tap, there is an endless list of scenarios. Mike Kern, our friend from the Valley office, sent us an EIGHT PAGE list of scenarios!

The Valley is ‘a hot mess’!

Here’s What We Know

Valparaiso, Indiana State and Evansville are playing Thursday night in the opening night of Arch Madness. Evansville (10-20, 4-13) is the tenth seed. Valpo (14-16, 7-10) and the Sycamores (14-15, 6-11) could end up in a tie for eighth and ninth place. In that scenario INS would receive the 8 by virtue of their regular season sweep of the Crusaders. Either way, they will play one another in Thursday night’s tournament opener.

One of four teams currently tied for fifth place at 9-8 will become the seventh place team and face Evansville in Thursday’s late game. Of the four (Northern Iowa, Bradley, Illinois State and Southern Illinois), only SIU and Illinois State face one another on Saturday. They play in Carbondale.

UNI travels to Indiana State and Bradley is on the road at Loyola.

The Title is Up For Grabs

Drake (22-8) and Loyola (18-12) are tied at 11-and-6. The Bulldogs travel to Springfield, Missouri for a game with Missouri State (16-14,10-7). If the Ramblers falter against Bradley (and the Braves beat them earlier in the year) and the Bears defeat Drake, MSU will receive the number one seed.

The tri-champions would be crowned, but the Bears would win on tie-breakers (head-to-head matchups) and become the top seeded team at Arch Madness. Loyola would be number two and the Bulldogs become number three.

However ….

If the Bears lose and Loyola knocks off Bradley, the Ramblers would tie Drake for the title and become the number one seed.

But then the real fun begins. Should the Bears drop to 10-and-8, it is possible for three of those 9-and-8 teams to win and create a four-way tie for fourth place.

Did I say there was an endless list of scenarios? Head-to-head comparisons, the N.E.T. rankings and maybe even a coin flip could come into play.

In spite of the endless list of scenarios, Arch Madness is poised to be the craziest, most competitive four-day tournament in history. All ten teams face both the end of their seasons and the opportunity to go to the Big Dance, and not much in between.

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