MVC Announces Changes to Arch Madness

Belmont Vision Multimedia. (Zach Watkins)

Arch Madness is getting a makeover. 

Since 1991, St. Louis has been the home of the Missouri Valley Conference’s men’s basketball tournament, but this season, the women’s tournament will be joining its male counterpart in the Gateway to the West.

“Change is never easy, but having the entire MVC men's and women's basketball championships under the Arch Madness umbrella and turning it into a week-long celebration of our conference benefits the women's game,” said women’s basketball head coach Bart Brooks in a statement.

Instead of taking place the week after the men’s tournament, the opening round of the women’s tournament will start on Wednesday, March 3, and the men’s opening round will follow the next day. 

The second round for each tournament will be on March 5, the semifinals will begin on March 6, and the conference championship games will conclude Arch Madness on March 7.

This will offer MVC fans the opportunity to watch both their men's and women's teams in one location, as opposed to in years past, when the events were held in different locations on different weeks. 

The change will be even harder for the MVC’s last-place teams.

As opposed to previous tournament brackets that featured all 11 MVC teams and gave the top two seeds a first-round bye, the newest bracket features only the top 10 teams. 

While acknowledging he may not feel the same way if he were the 11th seed, Belmont director of athletics Scott Corley agreed with the conference’s decision.

“You have to take care of business in the regular season, and if you’re an 11 seed, then you didn’t win enough games,” said Corley. “I don’t think that’s the end of the world, personally.” 

However, a different decision by the MVC has sparked much fiercer debate.

Under the new bracket, the top two regular-season teams will get byes until the semifinal round. This means a top-two seed would need to win only one game to reach the MVC Championship game. 

During last year’s tournament, both Belmont’s men’s and women’s teams were top-two seeds, and both were knocked out in the quarterfinal round. 

After the men’s team became the first No. 1 seed to be defeated by a No. 9 seed in the quarterfinals of the MVC tournament, rumors swirled that the change was in response to the Bruins’ loss.

However, discussions about seeding changes started before last season, and the Bruins’ loss did not directly impact the decision, said Corley.

Some outlets, midmajormadness.com in particular, criticized the change as solving a “non-existent problem” and claimed the new bracket represents a “major overcorrection.” 

Midmajormadness.com objected to how the MVC will be favoring the top seeds and argued that the best teams routinely win Arch Madness. They asked the question: “If the best teams are usually winning, why do we have to protect them?” 

Corley pushed back against the criticism the changes have received online.

“I understand change is difficult for a lot of people, but hopefully people will understand it’s the right move in the environment we’re in,” said Corley.

Arch Madness’s changes correspond to those of the NCAA tournament, which will expand from 68 teams to 76. 

By attempting to protect its top seeds from early upsets, the MVC hopes it has raised the possibility of securing one of the eight extra at-large bids. 

“If the top two seeds in the valley are able to play on that Sunday, given the strength of our conference, there’s a scenario where those top two seeds could get into the NCAA tournament,” said Corley.

Heading into his first season as head coach for Belmont’s men’s basketball team, Evan Bradds is not concerning himself with the changes in seeding. 

“I'm more about tell us who we play, where we play, and when we play, and competing to win,” said Bradds in a statement.

While Bradds was not overly concerned with the seeding changes, Corley mentioned his familiarity with top seeds receiving a double-bye.

Belmont’s previous conference, the Ohio Valley Conference, followed this model in its tournament, and Corley thinks it places more of an emphasis on teams’ regular-season games. 

“I do think there’s value in the regular season,” said Corley. “It’s a very difficult conference schedule, and if you can get through that gauntlet with a top-two seed, I think there’s merit to saying you get rewarded for that.”

The MVC will have to wait and see whether an additional team will get rewarded with one of those eight extra at-large bids until after the conference tournaments, which take place March 3-7 at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.