The Braves will face some significant teams from last season's NET rankings, including San Francisco (No. 66), Santa Clara (No. 105) and Washington State (No. 44).
Bradley men's basketball season tickets start at $100 for all 17 home games. Lower bowl seating starts at $200 per seat.
I think ISU proved a point last year about what happens when you don't schedule enough Q1 games.
I think ISU proved a point last year about what happens when you don't schedule enough Q1 games.
I was OK with that! Those were good wins for Valpo!
@mwsportsfan Ind State is the ISU I was referencing. IllSU seems to be the acronym people use for the redbirds
I have always pointed to issues about not scheduling enough Quad 1 games (especially when Valpo was very good). While I still think this is good to pursue (if for no other reason than fan interest), it seems more and more to be a hopeless endeavor. Let's take Bradley as a hypothetical example. They schedule these three potentially good games. USF is good, but Santa Clara ends up down from last year. Washington State is as good, but drop a bit playing a WCC vs. Pac 12 schedule. The MVC is generally good and ranks in the top 12 in conferences. Bradley has a good season - beats WSU and Santa Clara, but loses to USF - and ends up 26-6 with three MVC road losses and a loss in the conference tournament. Let's say they ended up with 6 Q1 games and were 3-3. They end up getting compared to an eighth place 18-14 Big 12 team with an ungodly number of Q1 games (15+) because of conference realignment. I would hope Bradley would get the at-large, but it seems from recent history that it is more likely they would not. The solution is probably that the MVC on the whole needs to raise its level to be more in line with a conference like the MWC.
For now, Valpo just needs to focus on improving significantly and getting more D1 wins (yeah, I know that sounds obvious).
@vu84v2 I'd even go as far as to say that the MVC needs to partner with the A10 for a "challenge" much like the MAC vs Sun Belt. I have said as such on the MVCFans forum and was met with major distain. Apparently they think the A10 is "beneath" the valley when they are actually quite comparable and can give a good amount of Q1 games.
A "challenge" against the A10 or MWC would be great - just not sure those conferences think the MVC is good enough to do such an agreement. Statistically, the A10 is nearly always above the MVC.
