The Missouri Valley Conference became the darling of the college basketball world in 2006 when the conference sent four teams to the NCAA Tournament and, Commissioner Doug Elgin maintains, should have sent a fifth. (That was the year the NCAA snubbed 20-8 Missouri State.) The Valley was what every league that wasn't part of the BCS should aspire to be.

Since then, the conference sent two teams in 2007 and one team each of the past two seasons as the number of at-large teams from outside the power conferences dropped to four. And in each of the past two seasons, that one MVC representative, Drake in 2008 and Northern Iowa in 2009, has gone out in the first round.

MVC coaches and officials say this is the year the trend gets back to the way it used to be. For several years, conference teams were loaded with youngsters. Now, those teams are loaded with experienced players who can win the key nonconference games that will impress the NCAA Tournament selection committee.

This season, the MVC's 10 teams will have 31 projected starters returning, compared to 23 last season. (In 2006, the league had 38.) Also, all 10 of the conference's coaches are back, just the third time that has happened in the past 20 years.

"I think there's going to be a lot of scrutiny of our men's basketball program this year," Elgin said Tuesday at the MVC's media day. "One of our primary objectives every year is to earn multiple bids, and I don't think there's any doubt that top to bottom in the league we're going to be much stronger."

So when the MVC gets its chances — whether it's Creighton playing Michigan in Orlando, Fla., Indiana State playing in the NIT Season Tip-Off, or conference favorite Northern Iowa playing in the Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands — the conference will need to win some tough nonconference games. How well its teams do in those games in November and December probably will determine how well the conference fares in March.

Northern Iowa, which had a school-record 23 wins last season and returns all five starters, will be the team most likely to carry the MVC's banner nationally. Creighton has three starters back from a team that went 27-8.

"Our league right now is not getting the level of respect it deserves nationally," Southern Illinois Carbondale coach Chris Lowery said.

The incentive revolves around more than pride. The amount of money a conference receives from the NCAA Tournament depends on its success in that event. Elgin said that 72 percent to 75 percent of the league's gross revenue comes from the tournament distribution. Last season, it received $4.3 million, about $420,000 less than the year before.

NOTES

Northern Iowa was the near-unanimous choice to win the conference, getting 38 of 39 votes in the poll of league sports information directors, media and coaches. Creighton was second and received the other first-place vote. The rest of the poll's order: Illinois State, SIUC, Wichita State, Bradley, Indiana State, Drake, Missouri State, Evansville. … Osiris Eldridge of Illinois State was chosen preseason player of the year. … Creighton was the choice to finish first in women's basketball, followed by Illinois State, Drake, Northern Iowa, Indiana State, Bradley, Missouri State, Evansville, Wichita State and SIUC. … Two of the five players on the preseason women's all-conference team are from St. Louis: Indiana State's Kelsey Luna (St. Joseph's) and Drake's Jordann Plummer (Cardinal Ritter). ... The MVC women's tournament again will be played at the Family Arena in St. Charles and will be there at least through 2011.