Updates: Summit and Southland

-->

Not the coach and the TV Show...

Summit League

Summary: That night in Fort Wayne will be retold for at least the next decade.  The Mastadons missed a couple opportunities to knock off Top 100 teams early, but the Hoosiers dropped the trap game.  The Summit League is actually a little stronger (or the other perennially strong mid-majors are weaker because of defections) than years past.  Denver started poorly, but has strung together a couple win to think they could join the upper crust.  Omaha has not.  North Dakota State and IUPUI did not make a mark in any of their opportunities.

What I got wrong: Omaha probably isn’t there yet and will likely end up middle of the pack.  Western Illinois was total trash, then went and stole one at Fort Wayne.  They will be tough to pinpoint the rest of the way.  South Dakota looks feisty.

Prognosis: Oral Roberts played a doozy of a non-conference slate and could have stole a few of those games.  This isn’t as deep as their champion caliber teams, but they can play with any of these teams.  There will be a lot of 7-9 teams to sort out with Fort Wayne and North Dakota State on top.  The other guys can wreak havoc but will cannibalize each other.  The fact that half the conference plays at high tempo, half play slow, and Oral Roberts is the amoeba, should lay out some interesting matchups and gambling opportunities, if your book carries Summit action.

SUM Preseason Realtime 1 Fort Wayne Fort Wayne 2 Omaha North Dakota State 3 North Dakota State IUPUI 4 IUPUI South Dakota State 5 South Dakota State Oral Roberts 6 Oral Roberts Omaha 7 Western Illinois Denver 8 Denver South Dakota 9 South Dakota Western Illinois

Southland

Summary: This conference does not have that bracket threat this year.  There is much more parity without a dominant Lumberjack squad to anchor it.  They may rise to the top, but Corpus and Sam have more talent and should rival.  Houston Baptist has looked solid.  The trouble with the Southland, as well as other small conference schools, is the sheer number on non-D1 games that skew the schedule trends.  These teams all got smoked in their buy games (except Nicholls, Lamar, and New Orleans inexplicably picked up road wins), played hit or miss against their peers.

What I got wrong: Nothing of significance.  The Top 5 are intact.  It’s crazy how bad some of the defenses are… only Nicholls can point to tempo, and they may not be able to reap much of the benefits.  New Orleans may play up out of the cellar.

Prognosis: Corpus remains the pick, but likely slip into the play in game.  McNeese and Abilene have shown the least thus far and get bumped to the bottom.

SL Preseason Realtime 1 Texas A&M Corpus Christi Texas A&M Corpus Christi 2 Sam Houston State Sam Houston State 3 Stephen F Austin Stephen F Austin 4 Houston Baptist Houston Baptist 5 Southeastern Louisiana Southeastern Louisiana 6 Northwestern State Northwestern State 7 Nicholls State Nicholls State 8 Abilene Christian New Orleans 9 McNeese State Incarnate Word 10 Incarnate Word Lamar 11 Central Arkansas Central Arkansas 12 New Orleans Abilene Christian 13 Lamar McNeese State