Guys -- to keep my brain sharp, I write for Examiner.com as the Bradley Braves Examiner. Most of my work focuses on the Valley as a whole. I hope you enjoy the articles that I post here from time to time.

This is an interesting question - this article examines the question from a statistical viewpoint.

http://www.examiner.com/x-7020-Bradley-B...n-anything

I agree with much of what you say, but understand the need to do it.

If you take the beliefs of those that have experience predicting who will be good players and who won't, they should be able to statistically get within 85 or 90% of the top 25 correct. There will always be teams that gel in a special way that makes them better as a whole than individually, and teams that are fantastic players individually that don't gel, as well as teams like Wichita State in 2007 that collapse internally due to whatever reasons falling way short of expectations.

I think the only point needing made about the preseason poll is one you also brought up: How does SIU get more votes than UNI? You break it down well, and even SIU fans can't argue any logic RIGHT NOW. It may change by the end of the season, but UNI won the Valley last year, and returns all 5 starters. They ARE the team to beat, and it will be up to the teams this year with different players at some positions to knock them off, and there are 5 or 6 teams with the talent to give them a run.

It will be interesting to see how it turns out, and how our preseason MVC poll looks at the end of the year.