specialsauce wrote:There's a lot of factors going into a ranking like that. What teams were expected to do, what they actually did, their SOS's, their W's and L's. If you take all of that in consideration, I'd go with:
1. WSU 8-3 - No bad losses (although a 17 point home loss even to a good team doesn't look good. No quality wins (although LSU's RPI has risen to 60. Won't hold in SEC play though)
2. Ill St 5-3 - No road wins, bad losses to Murray and Tulsa, decent win over St. Joe's
3. Loyola 8-2 - Based on their preseason expectations, they have exceeded expectations. They have no good wins (SDSU is not the same as years' past, even though that's a good W for Loyola), No bad losses (lost a one possession game at NC State)
4. UNI 4-5 - No good wins (Arizona State is kinda meh), no terrible losses (although losing by 23 to a mediocre Iowa team isn't too hot looking). Based on expectations, they seemed to have fallen short.
5. Ind St 4-6 - Easily the conference's best win vs. Butler, a series of one-possession losses and some bad ones to Northern Illinois and at home to WKU (18 points). No constancy at all here.
6. MSU 6-3 - No good wins (best one is to #130 NDSU). Played Valpo close at home but ultimately lost. Bad losses to Air Force and especially DePaul.
7. Evansville 7-4 - 2nd most wins in conference, BUT they've loaded up on a high fructose diet of cupcakes. They have an OK home win over Boise State. No terrible losses.
8. SIU 5-5 - No eye-popping wins, and everybody they've played with a pulse they lost.
9. Bradley 4-6 - Best win is a win at #196 EIU. The rest is... not good.
10. Drake 0-9 - When you're 1 of about 3 schools yet to record a D-1 win into late December, well 'nuff said.
Good assessment. This is the good side of you. Very knowledgeable.
It looks like middle of the conference will be another tight race this year.