What's Up In The Missouri Valley: What's Up In The Missouri Valley 2/2/2018

Twitter Mailbag: What teams are poised for postseason success?--Mid-Major Madness

Should promising midmajors look to move up to more prestigious conferences or continue to dominate their current conference for years to come?
— Peyton Williams (@PeytonWXYZ) February 1, 2018

In short, yes. Programs should always be looking to improve their situation in the college basketball landscape. But they shouldn’t move just to move. There has to a be a fit. Wichita State moved up because the program was being held back by staying in the Missouri Valley. Valparaiso took their spot because they fit in well with the basketball culture. Gonzaga is a good example of the opposite end of the spectrum. If there were ever a good opportunity that presented itself, they’d almost assuredly consider it. Until then, though, I’m sure they’re content with dominating the WCC year in and year out.

What potential Mid-Major Conference Challenges would you like to see happen in the future?

I'd love to see MVC vs A10 Conference Challenge one day. Thoughts? @A10Talk @MVCfans
— Valpo Hoops Fan (@Valpo_Hoops) February 1, 2018

This may be a bit of a hot take, but I don’t really care for the conference challenges. I’d rather just see good mid-major teams schedule a series with each other. Conference challenges can be a good way to promote two leagues, but it sucks when a team that is legitimately good gets stuck with a bad matchup that doesn’t help them.

One thing I wouldn’t mind seeing is geographical challenges. Let’s take Indiana for example because I live here. Let’s get an event with Valparaiso, Ball State, IUPUI, Fort Wayne, Evansville and Indiana State. Fans would come out for that and it would probably be a relative success. Something like that would be a lot more interesting to me than miscellaneous conference challenges.
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Who's coming out of MVC's Arch Madness to go to the Big Dance? So many underachieving teams who could get hot in conference tourney.
— Al Peterson (@BigAl_WMU) February 1, 2018

You’re probably best suited to just pull a name out of a hat and hope for the best. Loyola has been the best team to date, but then there’s a team like Missouri State that has underachieved but has talent. Drake, and Bradley have had good seasons so far, and Evansville or Indiana State could get nuclear hot from downtown. It probably won’t be Northern Iowa or Valpo though.