The Bulldogs rank first in the conference in offensive turnover percentage at just 15.1%. What I love about this Drake team is its ability to take care of the basketball. In addition, Drake will be out for blood after coming up short against Bradley to end the year. This experienced Bulldogs team will have revenge on its mind, as it was outlasted by Loyola Chicago in the MVC Tournament title game in 2022. Drake ranks 27th nationally in D-I experience and returns 67.1% of its minutes from a team that went 25-11 a season ago. This high level of success can be attributed to the Bulldogs being one of the most experienced teams in all of college basketball. In his fifth year as head coach, Darian DeVries is looking to punch his second ticket to the Big Dance with Drake.ĭeVries has to like his chances after the Bulldogs finished the year 24-7, just one game shy of Bradley. This brings me to the second head of our two-headed monster, the Drake Bulldogs. Now that we have that laid out, let’s dive into Arch Madness. Need a Spark: Missouri State, Murray State.The Contenders: Southern Illinois, Belmont, Indiana State.The regular season concluded with Bradley winning its final 10 conference games, outlasting Drake by a single game for the MVC regular-season crown.Īlthough it came up just short, Drake has a lot to be proud of, winning 10 of its last 11 games, with its only loss coming to eventual champion Bradley in the season finale.Įven though Bradley and Drake were able to create separation in the regular season, there were four teams that finished within four games of first place.ĭue to this widespread arrangement of talent throughout the MVC, I have broken down the league into tiers in order to find places to best make investments before the conference tournament gets underway on Thursday afternoon. This increase in talent level can be attributed to the additions of Murray State, Belmont and UIC to the fold. And since the payouts come based on wins, they could use all the help they can get.This season, the Missouri Valley Conference has had its most talent top-to-bottom in quite some time. If this run further legitimizes the MVC as a quality basketball league (a perception that should have solidified long ago, but definitely after Wichita State so clearly translated its success into March), it might lead to stronger seedings for the champion, or even years with multiple bids. And that’s where the intangible elements of Loyola’s success might come into play. The Missouri Valley chooses to reimburse its tournament representative’s travel costs, then divide the money evenly, meaning Loyola will see roughly the same amount as Missouri State or Southern Illinois.īut it also means that a dry spell can have a big impact once the money runs out. Next year’s total, the first to include Loyola-Chicago’s winnings, will be even higher.Ĭonferences can choose how to divvy up the money they make from NCAA tournament success. Thanks largely to Wichita State’s past successes, the conference will distribute a record $6.4 million in NCAA tournament monies for 2018. The Missouri Valley pulls in about $11 million in annual revenue, comprised mainly of March Madness payouts, with other money coming from its conference tournaments, a television deal with ESPN and a multimedia rights deal with sports marketer Learfield. The Valley is still earning money from former member Wichita State’s various runs as well. The rolling payout structure is also interesting, spreading out the payments and allowing for year-upon-year building, should a team make another run. About 65 percent of the conference’s revenue comes from successes in the NCAA tournament, so winning runs like Loyola’s go a long way toward establishing a steady future for the whole league. But for the Missouri Valley, which doesn’t offer top-tier football, it’s a windfall. That’s a drop in the bucket for bigger leagues like the Atlantic Coast Conference, which make $375 million in annual revenue fueled primarily by college football. Regardless of how well the Ramblers perform in the Final Four this weekend, they’ll have clinched about $8.5 million for their conference. In simple terms, for every tournament game a school plays, not including the championship, the NCAA rewards that team’s conference with about $1.7 million, paid out over six years. The NCAA has a complex way of rewarding teams for their tournament success.
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