by shockalot » October 18th, 2016, 9:29 pm
Getting back to the point of this thread...
If my information is correct, here is the list of this year's brain dead and mostly unchallenging matchups as illustrated by the preseason picked order of finish for each team, (I'll also put the presumed winner in bold ):
Loyola (7) vs. San Diego St. (1)
InSt. (5) @ Utah St. (6)
UNI (3) @ Wyo. (10)
UE (9) vs. Boise St. (5)
MSU (4) @ Air Force (9)
WSU (1) @ Co. St. (7)
BU (8) vs. Nevada (2)
IlSt (2) vs. New Mexico (3)
Drake (10) vs. Fresno St. (4)
SIU (6) @ UNLV (8)
Now just look at this BS. It is almost totally lacking in essentially equivalent match ups, my main gripe, and also, IMO, stacked against the MVC. Their are only 3 roughly equivalent (in terms of best to worst in each league) match ups, and 2 of them have the MVC team on the road. Other than Ill. St. everyone else in the MVC got a disadvantageous match up either in terms of an all but certain loss or an all but certain win of little RPI value. Certainly there are also some all but certain wins for the MWC top teams that are of lesser RPI value (again IlSt vs NM being the exception) but winning against a low RPI team on the road is better than doing so at home. All 5 of the top MWC teams play on the road but only NM goes against an equivalent match, the rest are practically gimmes, while the MVC's #5 and 6 teams play essential equivalents on the road, giving the advantage to the MWC.
Once again, the MWC will likely "win" the challenge because the match ups are not done based on at least rough equivalencies, and not because they are the superior conference. IMO, the MVC has let itself get hosed by the overall match up scenarios every year. Making it yet again, the "MVC/MWC Unchallenge", Un-interesting and Un-successful.