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Looking at results so far this year (and I know it's early, but at same time, most teams have played 6-8 matches), I don't see a dominant Top 25 team in the conference. The middle to bottom tier teams haven't won enough to give the conference RPI much of a lift, so I'm thinking The Valley will get just 2 teams, if that, into the NCAA this year. Which means that this will be a very cutthroat season in conference, and the conference tournament will probably be the be-all and end-all for NCAA dreams.

Based on how teams have performed to this point, I'd rank Wichita State and Northern Iowa about dead even, followed by Creighton, Missouri St and Southern Illinois.

I've always found it tough to get a good comparison of MVC teams during the non-conference part of the season. Some teams play super tough schedules, while others play much easier ones.

I mean, at first glance, one might think Drake is terrible (sitting at 0-8), but they've played a fairly tough schedule (at least looking at last year's Pablo numbers of all their opponents). Conversely, SIU's 8-1 record looks really good, but their slate of opponents aren't near as tough.

And of course, there are always some teams that take a while to get their team chemistry worked out, but get better and better as the season progresses. And some that look good early, but are shackled with key injuries.

Rich Kern's estimated RPI after last weekend:

Creighton 7
Wichita St 25
UNI 40
SIU 81
MSU 120
Ill St 124
Bradley 157

UNI has won 65 MVC matches in a row. The conference record is 69 wins (by UNI from 98-01). Something to keep an eye on these next few matches to see if they can break that record or not.

valleychamp wrote:UNI has won 65 MVC matches in a row. The conference record is 69 wins (by UNI from 98-01). Something to keep an eye on these next few matches to see if they can break that record or not.

If they can win Friday night at Creighton, I think they can pull it off. But that's a challenging hurdle.
Winning at Drake shouldn't be a problem this year. Then they are home vs. Evansville, SIU (which is no gimme match either, but at least it's at home), Indiana State, and Illinois State.

Fun stuff for us fans to talk about, but I hope the team is totally ignoring such things and concentrating on only the opponents ahead.

I'm planning on driving over to Omaha for the match Friday night.

I really wish I could see it, make sure you keep us updated Jay. Creighton has stumbled a bit recently while uUNI has cleaned things up but they are more than capable of upsetting the Panthers in this match.

PantherSigEp wrote:I really wish I could see it, make sure you keep us updated Jay. Creighton has stumbled a bit recently while uUNI has cleaned things up but they are more than capable of upsetting the Panthers in this match.

Hopefully we can continue the streak.

valleychamp wrote:UNI has won 65 MVC matches in a row. The conference record is 69 wins (by UNI from 98-01). Something to keep an eye on these next few matches to see if they can break that record or not.

Snap!!! Jays defeat UNI 3-1.

LMS wrote:

valleychamp wrote:UNI has won 65 MVC matches in a row. The conference record is 69 wins (by UNI from 98-01). Something to keep an eye on these next few matches to see if they can break that record or not.

Snap!!! Jays defeat UNI 3-1.

UNI decided to stop the streak so as to preserve the 2001 team's record, since that team was just inducted into the UNI Hall of Fame.