I don’t know why I feel personally invested in the success or failure of the Valley. I went to a Big 12 school, a MAC school and a Colonial school. But I do - ACC-jonesing blowhards like Billy Packer can do that to anyone. Lest we forget, last weekend talking heads Packer and buddy Jim Nantz criticized the NCAA selection committee for putting in four Missouri Valley Conference teams, the same as their beloved ACC, thus leaving out ACC tourney wanna-bes Maryland and Florida State. Better to have bottom-bracket backbenchers from the “power” conferences than the number 3 and 4 teams from a mid-major conference with high RPI. The Valley has six teams in the RPI top 35. The ACC has three.
So how did the Valley fare on the first day of the first round?
MVC: 1-0
ACC: 2-0
Big East: 0-3
Big 10: 2-0
Big 12: 1-1
PAC-10: 2-0
SEC: 4-0
The real test, of course, is today, when the three teams that the committee encumbered with unnecessarily bad seeds take the court. If NC State loses to Cal and Southern Illinois and Northern Iowa beat West Virginia and Georgetown, respectively, does that mean that the Valley is as good as the ACC? Or better than the Big East, which would then be no better than 3-5?
Of course it doesn’t. The committee selects and seeds teams based on their performance this season, not on whether the conference has won games in past tournaments.
UPDATE: So things didn’t go so well for the Valley this afternoon, with Northern Iowa falling to Georgetown and Southern Illinois losing to West Virginia. The smaller conferences acquitted themselves admirably, however, with 14 seed Northwestern State of the Southland Conference taking out Big 10 foe (and 3 seed ) Iowa, and 9 seed Bucknell of the Patriot League upsetting 8 seed Arkansas (from the SEC).
This doesn’t address a larger point about seeding, however. Northern Iowa was a 10 seed with an RPI of 25. They faced a 7 seed with an RPI of 36. The other 10 seeds had RPIs of 51 (NC State), 56 (Alabama) and 58 (Seton Hall). Southern Illinois was an 11 seed with an RPI of 29. They faced 6 seed West Virginia, which had an RPI of 38. The other 11 seeds had RPIs of 26 (George Mason), 52 (Wisconsin-Milwaukee) and 55 (San Diego State). if the committee is going to continue to seed mid-major conference champions and high-RPI runners up in the double-digits, it will continue to be an uphill battle.
