Lots of good discussion in this thread since yesterday. Start with this one.
I really can't see how Ilinois State gets in. I don't care how many wins they end up with. Their SOS is 119. They're 0-1 vs. the top 50 and 2-1 vs. the top 100. They have 18 wins over teams with an RPI of 116 or worse. Their best road win is 152 Loyola-Chicago
Illinois St is hard to analyze on the matrix.
1. The problem is that both Wichita St and Illinois St, have one loss in the MVC against each other. So some are only putting Illinois St as a cinference champion and not at large. But it's impossible to tell.
Here is what we can tell from the Matrix
There are 97 brackets, there are 134 "votes" for Wichita (86) and Illinois St (48). So 37 people view the second place MVC team as getting an at-large, whether it is Illinois St or Wichita. I suspect it's more people view Wichita St as an at large.
2. That being said, Illinois St has a KP of 46 which is solid. These teams are apples and oranges, and you can't compare quality wins and quality losses amongst them. The problem is that the RPI identified too many of these types of teams as top 50 -- a stronger analytic only view a few as top 60 teams. Wichita St 16, Illinois St 46, Middle Tennessee 52, UNC Wilmington 56.
I have no problem giving any of those the benefit of the doubt on Selection Sunday, Just like St. Mary;s and Valaparaiso last year. I think that is the way it should be. But in terms of what happens it is not.
Wichita St also has an empty resume, but as the company is openly looking at other analytics other than RPI, I can't see something as high as 16 being ignored.
3. The MVC tournament is always played a week earlier, so at least we will know about them sooner rather than later. I would say cheer for Wichita St in the MVC tourney, and the bubble can take its chances with Illinois St.