Paul posted an article on Friday about possible changes to MVC tournament:
1. Moving the Women’s tournament to St. Louis.
2. Double Bye for the top two teams.
3. only the top 10 teams make the tournament.
I like the idea of both Women’s and Men’s tournaments running simultaneously. We had this back when we were in Mid-Con. Valpo was a much more competitive team in the Mid-Con, but are ended up going to more regular season Women’s games because of the combined tournament.
The double bye scares me because of the last time we had the double bye in Conference tournament in Horizon League we lost with maybe our best team ever. Of course our NIT run that year was a lot of fun.
I have no problem with only taking the top ten teams to the MVC tournament.
https://www.thevictorybell.com/p/changes-coming-for-arch-madness
I like it and totally agree with the double bye. If a team wins the regular season, it should mean more and that team should have an advantage.
I like it and totally agree with the double bye. If a team wins the regular season, it should mean more and that team should have an advantage.
I would agree with a reward for a regular season champion....in a league where that needs to take place. The fact of the matter is the MVC has a lot of teams that could have the potential to make a splash in march, sometimes the best team to represent you isn't the team that ran the table in the tournament. Belmont proved as much last year. In the ncaa tournament the would have likely received a similar seed than UNI
Will destroy friday at Arch Madness for those that go. Just a fact. And thats the coolest day...considered the best run tourney of all mid majors dont see why ya mess with it
There we have it folks. The Arch Madness is officially Farce Madness.
Quality changes:
Men's and women's at the same time and place
10 team field
The Farce:
1st and 2nd seeds get byes to the semis
I expect all session passes to be at an all time low
There we have it folks. The Arch Madness is officially Farce Madness.
Quality changes:
Men's and women's at the same time and place
10 team field
The Farce:
1st and 2nd seeds get byes to the semis
I expect all session passes to be at an all time low
Still racing downhill because this only greases the slope. At this point I have no idea what can save mid-major basketball but this ain't it and eventually (perhaps quickly) we will regret it.
I respect your viewpoints, but I like the changes. If a team wins the regular season they should be rewarded. Let’s push to get the best teams to play in the NCAA tournament, and not see a team that gets hot or lucky in a few games to win and then be a sacrificial lamb in the tournament.
The MVC is not the HL. There are about 4-5 teams a year in the MVC who can win games in March. In a league where your top 4-5 teams are teams that can compete in the tournament, you want that team that gets hot in March
Why is a big deal to have the men’s and women’s conference tournaments at different sites? St. Louis is an overall better site than Coralville.
Who here has gone to Arch Madness? I’ve gone every year since they joined the MVC, except twice. Once when it was Covid year and they only had limited tickets and last year because my Mother had some health issues. It is amazing tournament with great competitive games because the conference is competitive. Most of the games are great! I go for the whole tournament regardless of how Valpo does. Except for year that Covid shut everything down and Valpo made it to the title game, it is the same 50-100 Valpo fans that go to St. Louis. I don’t think it will reduce the attendance, I believe it will be enhanced. But time will tell.
Who here has gone to Arch Madness? I’ve gone every year since they joined the MVC, except twice. Once when it was Covid year and they only had limited tickets and last year because my Mother had some health issues. It is amazing tournament with great competitive games because the conference is competitive. Most of the games are great! I go for the whole tournament regardless of how Valpo does. Except for year that Covid shut everything down and Valpo made it to the title game, it is the same 50-100 Valpo fans that go to St. Louis. I don’t think it will reduce the attendance, I believe it will be enhanced. But time will tell.
For the top 2, why would you buy all session passes if you are only there for 1-2 days?
For the other 3-10. Why should they attend? Of course you are going to have that one off miracle run by a middle/low seed (we all know this well as being the first 11 seed to make it to the weekend in Valley history), but at the end of the day, you are a team going on game #3 against a team going on game #1, whom have had 2 games worth of material to look at as to your tournament strategy. The math doesn't look good for you either way.
Have seen a lot of folks online share that they arent going anymore after this, and they significantly outnumber those that say they will still attend. For most of those sharing their opinions online, it was never about the format change, it was about the comments made by the league office today in the presser.
Along with the changes to the MVC tournament, the NCAA Cabinet has approved the new 5-year eligibility rule. With Coach Powell's emphasis on player development and attempts to retain team members as long as possible, the rule could be a slight positive for VU. Indeed, Powell's philosophy may be the optimal approach and only hope for a mid-major.
If Valpo can keep its best players a little longer (and larger programs become more patient by a year in poaching transfers), VU could have a bit older, more experienced teams. Power programs will also have another year to retain their own players that do not go pro, and they might be willing to wait before recruiting more experienced transfers (juniors or seniors rather than sophomores) from mid-majors. I am just trying to be desperately optimistic by looking at this with a glass half-full outlook.
I think these are great changes. It adds accountability to your program.
I have no interest in watching the bottom dwellers of the Missouri Valley conference play each other, even if it’s Valpo. if you’ve sucked all season maybe it’s time to invest a little bit more into your program. But I understand a lot of people like participation medals.
I think this will strengthen the conference to try and get the best team into the tournament and get some additional money for the conference. The more money, the greater the benefit for all schools.
And there’s significantly more benefits than just dollars with a valley team getting a win in the tournament.
Plus the bottom dwellers don’t have good attendance at the tournament so we’re talking peanuts on impact on attendance.
Great and smart move by the MVC.
Plus the bottom dwellers don’t have good attendance at the tournament so we’re talking peanuts on impact on attendance.
You give good points, but this one is the one I question. The bigger attendance problem will be that two teams don't start play until Saturday, so if those teams don't bring their fans down earlier, Friday could be pretty empty. Especially if those teams are like Bradley/Drake/ISUr who do travel well, that will play a noticeable impact on attendance.
Plus, in past years, there have been a total of 8 men's teams playing on Friday, which gives a good boost to the cumulative Friday attendance. Now, there will only be 4 men's teams playing on Friday, and 4 women's teams instead. As much as I hope that people stick around to watch their women's teams, if you are an Arch Madness attendee who is there for the men's tournament and your team gets eliminated on Thursday, are you going to be swayed to stay because your women's team (might) be still in it? Probably not as much as the Valley would hope.
I don't base my thoughts of attendance decline on the loudest voices on social media promising they'll never be back, I assume that the average Arch Madness attendee who goes to support their team will still be there. But practically speaking, there will be fewer teams in contention for the first half of the tournament, which mathematically should lead to a decrease in overall attendance.