You guys are essentially making the argument that the worst student at a very good school like Boston College is worse than the average student at SUNY Cortland. The analogy is saying the worst Big East team is worse than an average MVC team like Bradley. Sorry not buying it. You are nuts if you expect Bradley to beat DePaul by 20. Mighty mighty Bradley huh? And with Illinois State...ok they were good once recently? Who cares...every team has a good year every so often but that doesn't make you Big East material. Are we to crown Vermont as the new kings because they beat Cuse once? Same concept.
The MVC was the #8 best conference and that was WITH 2 powerhouses. One of them (Creighton) is now gone. They will definitely be at best the #10 conference if not worse. If there was a MAAC vs. MVC challenge a few years back when Siena beat Ohio State, when Manhattan, Iona, and Fairfield were good, they would give the MVC a run for their money. If they played each others teams I don't think you would see a big difference with the exception of Wichita State killing the MAAC teams.
The only point I'm making is that just about any D1 team could go 2-16 in the BE. Depaul lost a lot of close games to good teams, and they did that because they are a bad team. Saying that bad BE teams are better than bad MVC teams is kinda silly anyway. A bad team is a bad team. What does it matter?
Why do you lump mid majors with majors? You are ignoring the obvious dividing line that separates them. If I was comparing the MAAC to the MVC then yeah a bad team is a bad team and they are basically on the same level for the most part. But comparing the Big East to the MVC with the assumption that they are just as competitive and contain equally quality teams is just nonsense. A bad team isn't just a bad team. It's not black and white. The worst student at Harvard is going to be better than the average student at Adelphi University. That's just the way it is...there are different levels, thus it's all relative. Creighton did not play 1 ranked team last year in the regular season and finally lost when they faced their first in the tourney.
You say any team can go 2-16 in the Big East but look how many close games they had. They actually have good players they just can't win close games for whatever reason. Melvin, Young, and Crockett would beat Bradley 70% of the time. I can't even believe we are having a serious discussion about how the MVC stacks up against the Big East. Might as well talk about how the middle America East team can hang in the ACC next.
A bad mid major, and a true mid major like SIU, Brad, and a program like Depaul are at the same level in terms of how strong the team is. Depaul is a high major in conference only. Every MVC team could do as well if not better than they have performed not only last year, but the last 7 years.
I addressed your point about the close games. Bad teams keep losing them. That defines Depaul. The answer to why is that as a team, Depaul has terrible chemistry. They do have talented players, but they don't work together. Clearly, they have an awful coach.
And, the MVC isn't the MAAC. That's a legit mid major conference.