It's still early, but with a month to go in the non-conference portion of the schedule, the MAC is having a great year in women's basketball. Buffalo and Ball State are undefeated. Toledo's only loss is to Louisville, Central's only loss is to Purdue, and Ohio's only loss is to Michigan. Buffalo and Toledo are top 25 in RPI. Tonight Ball State beat Butler, one of the better teams in the Big East. Buffalo has already beaten Nebraska from the Big 10 and Clemson from the ACC. Ball State and Central both beat Vanderbilt from the SEC. Toledo beat Dayton. Could this (finally!) be the year when the MAC gets an at-large bid to the women's tournament?

Nope. At- large bids aren’t for the likes of the MAC. One of those teams would need to win out their OOC, lose no more than one or two MAC games and lose in the MACC final. Even then, unlikely. The Nama team was probably worthy and didn’t get a sniff.

(11-30-2017 05:47 AM)H2Oville Rocket Wrote:  Nope. At- large bids aren’t for the likes of the MAC. One of those teams would need to win out their OOC, lose no more than one or two MAC games and lose in the MACC final. Even then, unlikely. The Nama team was probably worthy and didn’t get a sniff.

But if I keep saying this every year, eventually I'll be right.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, the MAC has the 7th best RPI rating right now, as a conference. The conferences ahead of us are PAC 12, Big 10, SEC, ACC, Big 12, and Big East.

Naama's team didn't beat a single top 50 RPI team, which I've read that the committee emphasizes heavily. This year Dayton, Western Kentucky, or any number of other MAC teams (Buffalo, Central, Ohio, Ball State) could end in the top 50, so we will have opportunities. (Currently Buffalo is 12, and Western Kentucky is 21.)

Last year, with 6 conference losses, we got a 10 seed in the NCAA tournament. The worst at-large teams usually get a 10 or 11 seed, so we were good enough last year to be at large. I understand that, with a loss in the conference finals, we would not have been good enough. But if we had lost 4 conference games last year and then lost in the conference finals, that would have done it.

The committee uses any excuse it can find to keep out mid-majors. The fact the MAC champion gets blown out in the first round doesn’t help.

(11-30-2017 06:49 AM)Dwight Wrote:  

(11-30-2017 05:47 AM)H2Oville Rocket Wrote:  Nope. At- large bids aren’t for the likes of the MAC. One of those teams would need to win out their OOC, lose no more than one or two MAC games and lose in the MACC final. Even then, unlikely. The Nama team was probably worthy and didn’t get a sniff.

But if I keep saying this every year, eventually I'll be right.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, the MAC has the 7th best RPI rating right now, as a conference. The conferences ahead of us are PAC 12, Big 10, SEC, ACC, Big 12, and Big East.

yep, all the conferences that gobble up the at large because you know, their 8th team is better than MAC's second. Ask any of them and they'll tell you so.

well, the MAC women have definitely been good this year non-conference. Some pretty impressive wins. Ball St has a big one at Purdue coming up and CMU always schedules tough. Didn't know Buffalo had those wins already

Ball State beats rpi 20 Purdue today to move to 7-0. Purdue is the only team to beat CMU. West is loaded this year. Good teams in the east as well. buckle up guys

(12-04-2017 09:45 PM)T4C8 Wrote:  Ball State beats rpi 20 Purdue today to move to 7-0. Purdue is the only team to beat CMU. West is loaded this year. Good teams in the east as well. buckle up guys

Its certainly a good win for Ball State especially given it was played at Purdue but it appears Purdue is a little down this year. Their record following the Ball State game is 5-4.

(12-05-2017 09:09 AM)temoxley Wrote:  

(12-04-2017 09:45 PM)T4C8 Wrote:  Ball State beats rpi 20 Purdue today to move to 7-0. Purdue is the only team to beat CMU. West is loaded this year. Good teams in the east as well. buckle up guys

Its certainly a good win for Ball State especially given it was played at Purdue but it appears Purdue is a little down this year. Their record following the Ball State game is 5-4.

Opening MAC game December 30: Central Michigan at Ball State. Wow!

Hard to tell how good Purdue is this year. They have played a tough schedule, but CMU was probably their best win so far, as they have lost to all their other tough opponents. Even in their wins, they weren't the Purdue of old - for instance they scored 61 points against a 1-7 Marist team that is giving up about 75 points per game otherwise. Still was a good win for BSU, but maybe not as good as some years.

Similarly, CMU beat Iowa State, which most years would be a huge win, but right now Iowa State has an RPI of 241, and has lost to (among others) Northern Iowa (RPI 166) and Drake (RPI 162). I don't know, maybe all the chaos swirling around Fennely the past few seasons has finally had an effect there.

Right now the top MAC teams in RPI are:
20 Buffalo
33 UT
58 BSU
66 CMU
70 WMU

WMU has played a tough schedule, but is 3-5. Of course those RPIs tend to drop as most MAC teams traditionally have weaker OOC opponents at the end of the OOC season, and then in league play the teams with real low RPIs (EMU is 270 so far, for example) pull the rest down.