My mistake on the Kuehl transfer to Oshkosh, then I'll change my rankings to:

1. SP
2. WW
3. RF
4. SUP
5. EC
6. LAX
7. OSH
8. PLT
9. Stout

I think Superior is getting better all the time.

Here's my predictions:

1. SP
2. WW
3. RF
4. PLT
5. SUP
6. EC
7. LAX
8. Stout
9. OSH

I think EC and LAX are losing so much that I can't predict them to finish much higher.  They are losing the two most impactful centers in Plendl at EC and Robinson at LAX and EC is losing many others including Halama.  I guess Plattevile is getting in transfer Katelyn Kuehl the NAC freshman of the year from Wisc Lutheran. While I know SP is losing Averkamp and Bandow I just can't bet against them.  Everyone thinks WW is so good and young but they are losing 3 players who have started and 27% of their points in Bestor, Swanson, and Burg.

LA RAMS, I think I am agreeing with you.  What the MIAC needs to do is shorten their conference season so they don't have to spend many games playing teams like Carleton and St. Kates twice each when they could use those games to do, for example, like UWRF did and play Carthage and Simpson and Thomas More, teams that will help their strength of schedule. 

With how UWW plays and how tough it is for an opposing team to get a call at UWSP, doesn't surprise me that they got T'd up.

Carthage's SOS is 14, UWEC's is 32, and Gustavus's is 74.  When records are nearly equal, I think that is a huge factor.

WLCALUM83, Again, my opinion doesn't mean squat but I think they would be #8, behind Chicago, UW-Stevens Point, Washington U, UW-Whitewater, Ill. Wesleyan, UW-River Falls, and UW-Eau Claire, and right in front of Carthage.  Of course they could be rated higher than teams in other regions.  Hopefully for all of rooting for teams on the bubble, a lot of top seeds get the automatic bids.

80sshorts, I just did the calculations based on D3Hoop's strength of schedule that looks like it includes last night's games and what I see is U of New England now sitting at 10th in the Northeast region and 49th overall.  Of course, I'm just a guy with an excel spreadsheet, and like you said, a lot of tournaments going on this weekend.  Looks like their strength of schedule hurts them:

Team   RegRec   RegW%   OWP   sos rank   OOWP   rnk pts
Amherst   23-0   1.000   0.607   16   0.581   0.598
Tufts   20-4   0.833   0.650   3   0.570   0.519
Babson   22-2   0.917   0.540   93   0.538   0.494
Rh Island   22-3   0.880   0.563   59   0.553   0.492
Bowdoin   18-5   0.783   0.617   12   0.572   0.471
Williams   17-6   0.739   0.658   2   0.580   0.467
Colby   19-6   0.760   0.627   8   0.572   0.462
SoMaine   19-5   0.792   0.597   24   0.556   0.462
Em'uel   20-5   0.800   0.549   77   0.521   0.431
UofN Eng   22-5   0.815   0.531   118   0.502   0.424

I don't know the status of any RF bid to host but can tell you being part of the Twin Cities it would be a pretty good destination.  RF is probably less than 45 minutes from the Mall of America.

A few years back when Rich Melzer was playing for UWRF they would routinely have more than 1,000 people in the stands, one year they average 960 per home game.  I know one game against UWEC they 1800 people and against Platteville over 1500.

I didn't expect that SP WW result at all.  I was thinking SP would win but it would be close.  Now Saturday's EC at WW game should be fun to see.  I'm thinking that it will be close if WW can keep Halama from going off.  I think WW is a little better on the perimeter but they will have a tough time getting anything going on the inside against Plendl.

Something that surprised me is how much SP has an all conference player like Ashley Averkamp sit.  Myranda Tyler actually plays more minutes than her, and more importantly to me, Tyler was in at the end of a close game while Averkamp was on the bench.

I'm going to be interested to see the results between this weekends games between Eau Claire and Stevens Point, and River Falls and Whitewater, they should give a hint of who the favorite for the conference title should be. 

Also, I saw that La Crosse lost to #4 Calvin by 20, obviously Calvin is good but that's a big loss for a team that's hoping to contend for the WIAC title.

Stevens Point's schedule hasn't been easy, St.Thomas, Illinois Wesleyan, Millikin, River Falls, Whitewater, they all are very highly ranked teams.  So far they have played the 9th toughest schedule in D3, River Falls has played the 16 toughest schedule and Eau Claire has played the 14th toughest schedule for comparison.  SP played and beat Ill. Wesleyan by 14 while EC lost to them by 9.  Another game for comparison - EC beats Whitewater by 5 while SP wins by 21. 

I just watched River Falls beat Stevens Point 67-63.  SP was up at half by 3 but RF came on in the 2nd half and got the lead up to 10 or 11 from eight minutes to four minutes left.  Interior defense was the difference, RF outrebounded SP 47 to 29 and held SP to zero 2nd chance points.

While Tiffany Gregorich did lead the team with 17 pts there were three players in double figures.  And I would have to say reserve wing Tess Lueders was the player of the game, she came in to get 6 pts and 8 huge rebounds, most of them at the end of the game.

I streamed the RF game.  Seemed to me that Carthage got some bailout calls near the end of regulation that gave them some free throws to keep them in the game but looking at the stats, fouls and free throws were even for each team.  What really hurt RF was poor shooting from outside and their defense wasn't quite up to par, they let Carthage attack the basketball more than they usually do.

Also, I was a little curious about Point Loma Nazarene.  What I found out is they are a NAIA D1 team.  Here's how it compares to NCAA for women's bball:  NCAA D1 15 scholarships, NAIA D1 11 scholarships, NCAA D2 10 scholarships, NAIA D2 6 scholarships. 

I think RF is for real, they return 5 starters and 8 players that played significant minutes last year.  They have 5 seniors and among those the only conference preseason all american pick in Tiffany Gregorich and the best rebounder in the conference in Maranda Dohrn. 

In their non conference games they beat Gustavus, picked second in the MIAC, Simpson, picked first in IIAC and Concordia-Wisconsin, picked second in their division of the NAC.  So Coach Holbrook is finding as tough a nonconference competition as she can find. 

While I've said RF is for real I still think Point is the best in the conference and it will be tough to get through that two week stretch of Point, WW, Lax, and EC.  Also, did you see that RF's nomination for Women's BBall Athlete of the week this week was Holly Riesselman, a 6'2" junior center that just transferred in this year, that's gotta help with depth.