Point Rating System (as of Jan. 3): MEN | WOMEN
INDIANAPOLIS – The Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) has adopted new qualifying procedures for its annual men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, it was formally released Thursday. The GLVC Point Rating System will be used to determine the top eight men’s and women’s teams that will advance to the 2018 GLVC Basketball Championship Tournaments, which will be held March 1-4, at the Vadalabene Center on the campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
In past years, the winner of the East and West Divisions secured the top two seeds in the 12-team tournament, which was made up of four teams from each division along with four wildcards.
The 2018 event will feature an eight-team format with no automatic qualifying bids to divisional champions, nor is there a number of tournament bids allocated for each of the three five-team divisions.
In an effort to place the best eight teams in the postseason tournament, GLVC men’s and women’s head coaches voted to adopt the GLVC Point Rating System at their annual summer meeting, which was then formally ratified at the GLVC Fall Meeting in September.
The GLVC Point Rating System is designed to provide a team more points for a win on the road or at home against top competition based on conference winning percentage, while distributing fewer points for a win against weaker competition. Points are also distributed for losses, with more points awarded for a loss against stronger competition versus if the team lost at home or on the road to a struggling team.
The eight teams with the highest ratings at the end of the regular season will qualify for the postseason tournament. In the event of a tie, the league’s existing interdivision tiebreak criteria will be applied as outlined in Section 3.C.2.b of the GLVC Handbook. A head-to-head road win remains the first tiebreak, but the second tiebreak that involves head-to-head competition against all remaining institutions in order of their overall conference record played at the same site, will instead reference the order of the Point Rating System rankings rather than the actual standings.
The GLVC website will continue to display the three five-team divisions on its standings page, as divisional titles will be awarded at the conclusion of the regular season. However, the listed conference winning percentage on the standings will no longer be used to qualify teams for the tournament. A given team’s win or loss early in the conference season will have an assigned point value based on their opponent’s winning percentage, although that point value is likely to fluctuate should that opponent improve or weaken throughout the remainder of the conference season.
Furthermore, team ratings, which will be determined by total points divided by league games played, may not be comparable with other teams in the league given each team’s bye this season.
For example, based on the assigned point values, Missouri-St. Louis would currently be the men’s tournament’s No. 1 seed with a rating of 4.33. The Tritons, who are 2-1 in league play, earned five points for a home win over William Jewell (.667 GLVC win %), six points for a road win at Truman State (.667), and two points for a road loss at Drury (.667). Conversely, in Bellarmine’s two GLVC games this year, the Knights picked up home wins against Lewis (.333) for four points and UW-Parkside (.000) for three points. Bellarmine’s current rating of 3.5 is tied for seventh-best.
On the women’s side, however, Bellarmine (.500) would currently be the No. 8 seed in the tournament based on conference winning percentage, but the Knights own a rating of 3.5, which is tied for fifth with Drury. The Knights picked up five points at home over UW-Parkside (.500) and two points in a home loss to Lewis (.667).
At the end of the season, each team’s ratings will be determined by results against opponents’ winning percentage as they ended the regular season, not what it was when the result occurred.
Since the addition of the bye game and the uncertainty of the opponents’ final conference winning percentage, the GLVC will publish an updated document with current ratings and team-by-team point distribution following each night of competition, which will be made available at the bottom of the standings on GLVCsports.com.
Included below is the GLVC Point Rating System, followed by the amended tiebreak criteria from GLVC Handbook Section 3.C.2.b:
GLVC POINT RATING SYSTEM
Points shall be awarded for each conference contest played:
7 points – win over a .750 or better team on the road
6.5 points – win over a .750 or better team at home
6 points – win over a .500 or better team on the road
5 points – win over a .500 or better team at home
4.5 points – win over a .250 or better team on the road
4 points – win over a .250 team or better at home
3.5 points – win over an under .250 team on the road
3 points – win over an under .250 team at home
2.5 points – loss at home or on the road to a .750 or better team
2 points – loss to a .500 or better team at home or on the road
1 point – loss to a .250 or better team at home or on the road
.5 points – loss to an under .250 team on the road
0 points – loss to an under .250 team at home
GLVC POINT RATING SYSTEM TIEBREAK – SECTION 3.C.2.b
- Head-to-head competition if the win is on the road.
- Head-to-head competition with all remaining institutions in order of their overall GLVC Point Rating System ranking played at the same site, considering only contests where the tied teams played the same opponent at home or played the same opponent on the road.
- Head-to-head competition if the win is at home.
- A coin flip by the Commissioner.