Mid-major Basketball power rankings: Dayton, Gonzaga and ETSU rises up

15. Northern Iowa Panthers (25-6, 14-4 Missouri Valley)

Of all the teams in the top-25 rankings, Northern Iowa is the only one who is done playing before Selection Sunday. It’s not a good thing though, as the Panthers fell in the quarterfinals of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament to Drake in a shocker. It’s another bad loss on a resume that already had the team on the bubble cutline.

Northern Iowa has a big win over Colorado and overall very good metrics. But the losses to Drake, Southern Illinois, Illinois State and Indiana State negate that a bit. And the win over Loyola-Chicago is affected by their own loss in the MVC quarterfinals to Valpo on the same day. At this point, a 4, 6, 7, or 8 seed is going to get the auto-bid, while the Panthers will have to wait over a week to learn their fate.

If they can somehow get one of those last four at-large spots, Northern Iowa could be a dangerous team to face in the NCAA Tournament. Conference Player of the Year AJ Green (19.7 ppg and 3.0 apg) can go off in any game and all five starters average at least nine points per game. They’ll have to root for the top teams on this list to win their respective tournaments and avoid bid stealers, which always happens each year.