Sweep And You’re In

Top Three Valley Teams Have Clear Mandate

(St. Louis, MO) – There is a three way tie for the Missouri Valley Conference regular season title. The clear mandate for Loyola, Missouri State and Drake is, ‘Sweep And You Win!’

Three teams tied at 10-and-6 with two games to go is unheard of in Valley history. Not only is the race historically tight, the loss totals are historically high. No team in the 111 year history of the MVC has won a conference championship with more than five losses.

But it will happen this year.

Sweep And You’re In (Well kind of!)

Since Drake and Missouri State play on Saturday if any of the three teams sweep their remaining two games, they will claim a share of the title. Loyola finishes the season at fourth place Northern Iowa and then host Bradley. If the Ramblers sweep, the worst they can do is tie for first place.

If either Drake or Missouri State win Wednesday night and then defeat the other team on Saturday, they’re scenario is identical to Loyola’s. Those two teams would receive the first and second seeds at Arch Madness and have the luxury of playing a team that had to qualify for the quarterfinals by winning a game a Thursday night game in St. Louis.

Since the Valley’s first tie-breaker is head-to-head competition, Loyola would be the champion if they tied with Drake, since they swept the season series with the Bulldogs. However, Missouri State wins in a tie with the Ramblers because they swept the defending champions.

What About the Panthers?

This is where it gets interesting. If UNI can defeat Loyola and Drake and Missouri State lose Wednesday night, we’d have a four-way tie headed into Saturday! If only one of those teams lost there game and then defeated the other team on Saturday, we could have a four-way tie when the season is over.

Panther coach Ben Jacobson says his fans are ready to come out and cheer tonight.

 

 

Breaking a 4-Way Tie

Northern Iowa would be the champion! No matter which team lost between Drake and Missouri State, the Panthers would be 4-and-2 against the other three teams and UNI would catapult from fourth to first!

A Three-Way Tie Including the Panthers

With Loyola and Drake, the Ramblers are in. They swept and Bulldogs and would have split with the Panthers.

With Loyola and Missouri State, the Panthers are in. They would have swept the Bears and split with the Ramblers.

If Loyola then loses on Saturday and the three-way tie ends up with Drake, UNI and MSU, it would depend on who won the Saturday game between Drake and Missouri State. Should the Bulldogs  win, they would tie UNI for round-robin victories and would be the champion by virtue of their better N.E.T. rating.

With a Missouri State win, Northern Iowa would once again gain the top spot. For the Panthers, if they sweep they have all kinds of chances to take the top seed at Arch Madness.

For the other three, sweep and you’re in!

Do Good

PS. Check my numbers. I wasn’t good in advanced math!