Missouri Valley conference tournament

This is part 7 of a 32-part series covering each conference and conference tournament.  These previews are meant to provide every bracketologist with the information they need to make informed projections about the teams of the conference.

The final standings:
Wichita St 18-0
Indiana St 12-6
Northern Iowa 10-8
Missouri St 9-9
Illinois St 9-9
Southern Illinois 9-9
Bradley 7-11
Drake 6-12
Evansville 6-12
Loyola(Chi) 4-14

Tournament format:
All 10 schools gather on a neutral court in St Louis.  Event runs from March 6 to March 9, playing every day.

The matchups:
8) Drake (15-15) vs. 9) Evansville (13-18)
7) Bradley (12-19) vs. 10) Loyola(Chi) (9-21)

1) Wichita St (31-0) vs. 8/9 winner
4) Missouri St (19-11) vs. 5) Illinois St (16-14)
2) Indiana St (21-9) vs. 7/10 winner
3) Northern Iowa (16-14) vs. 6) Southern Illinois (13-18)

The stakes:
Well, it's pretty obvious what the stakes are for Wichita, so I'll save the keystrokes there.

The conference behind them has been terrible this year, with just one other team even on the NIT bubble in Indiana St.  And make no mistake, they are on that NIT bubble.  Anything less than a finals loss to Wichita might mean no MVC team in the NIT.  Their win at Notre Dame has evaporated into nothing, and that's their signature win.  Indiana St's RPI is hovering in the 70s, and teams have been left out of the NIT with RPIs in the 70s before.  UNI did beat VCU but lost way too many times, Illinois St did beat Dayton, and Missouri St's profile just has empty calories.  Frankly, I'm not sure the conference deserves a team in the NIT.

All this means is that three, and maybe four schools, will have CBI or CIT chances.  UNI, Illinois St, Missouri St will have decisions to make on if they want to play these tourneys.  Drake could actually get CIT-eligible, but let's hope there's enough integrity with these events to have to dip that low to fill out a field.

All and all, this is the simplest conference in the country.  Send Wichita to the 1 line, Indiana St to the NIT, and whoever wants to play in EIEIO events can.  Done.