11/4 KenPom ratings update
Missouri Valley teams went 5-2 on the opening day of the season Monday
Day 1 of the 2025-26 college basketball season was relatively successful for the Missouri Valley Conference, as Valley teams finished 5-2 on the day. Murray State, Belmont, Southern Illinois, Drake and UIC picked up wins, while Bradley and Indiana State dropped their openers.
Throughout the non-conference, we’ll give periodic updates on where Valley teams stand in the all-important computer metrics, as the conference tries to position itself to earn multiple bids to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2021.
For the time being, we will showcase the KenPom rankings, which are used to help determine the NCAA Tournament field. The NCAA NET rankings don’t come out until December, as that metric only uses results from this season to formulate its rankings. KenPom uses a combination of what has happened and what the formula believes WILL happen in the future. In the early part of the season, the KenPom and NET rankings can show some variance for each team, but they generally line up by the time we get to March.
With all that out of the way, here are where Valley teams sit in this morning’s updated KenPom rankings:
#104 Belmont — Up 4 spots after beating #275 Air Force at home, 79-63 (Next: Hosts #243 Tennessee State Saturday)
#116 Bradley — Drops 10 spots after losing to #113 St. Bonaventure on a neutral floor, 69-63 (Next: Hosts #269 Central Michigan Saturday)
#117 Northern Iowa — Dropped 1 spot (Next: Hosts #161 Cal State-Northridge Thursday)
#122 Illinois State — Dropped 1 spot (Next: At #164 Ohio Thursday)
#123 Drake — Down 1 spot after beating #264 Northern Arizona on a neutral floor, 77-71 (Next: Hosts #215 Robert Morris Thursday)
#126 UIC — Up 9 spots after beating #306 Detroit Mercy at home, 91-71 (Next: At #140 Oregon State Friday)
#128 Murray State — Up 6 spots after beating #200 Omaha on a neutral floor, 85-77 (Next: Hosts #365 Mississippi Valley State Friday)
#130 Southern Illinois — No change after beating Non-D1 McKendree at home, 83-42 (Next: Hosts #315 Kansas City Friday)
#220 Indiana State — Drops 34 spots after losing to #163 Charlotte on the road, 92-76 (Next: Hosts Non-D1 Illinois Tech Thursday)
#253 Evansville — Drops 5 spots (Next: At #2 Purdue tonight)
#284 Valparaiso — Drops 1 spot, (Next: Hosts #331 Eastern Illinois tonight)
On the conference side, KenPom has the Missouri Valley Conference listed as the 10th-best league in the country. Last season, only seven conferences received multiple bids to the NCAA Tournament:
SEC +20.06
Big Ten +18.58
Big 12 +17.17
Big East +14.76
ACC +14.27
Mountain West +7.38
Atlantic 10 +6.27
The American +3.55
WCC +2.34
Missouri Valley +0.90
Conference USA -0.99
Ivy League -3.24