The Missouri Valley Conference touts itself as a better league than it was a year ago. That doesn’t mean it will receive as many NCAA Tournament bids.

With an unprecedented four awarded in 2006, the Valley was celebrated as a mid-major marvel. Critics of the selection committee’s generosity – CBS’ Billy Packer among them – were temporarily silenced when Bradley and Wichita State reached the Sweet 16.

“We’ve come back from a year in which we had a lot of doubters,” Valley Commissioner Doug Elgin said Tuesday. “The performance in the NCAA Tournament was sweet validation against the backdrop of the criticism we came under on Selection Sunday. What our teams have done as an encore this year is pretty impressive.”

Impressive, for sure, but a bounty of bids still might be hard to come by. Regular-season champion and 11th-ranked Southern Illinois, whose RPI is No. 4, is a lock. And so is the winner of this week’s MVC tournament in St. Louis, if it’s someone other than the Salukis (25-5).

Creighton (19-10) and Missouri State (21-9), the Valley’s second- and third-place teams, probably need one win apiece in St. Louis to secure a bid.

Then there’s Bradley (20-11), which finished fourth in the regular season but is a respectable No. 46 in the RPI. Last year the Braves ended up fifth in the Valley, lost in the conference finals and then beat Kansas and Pittsburgh in the NCAA Tournament.

Bradley coach Jim Les points out that his Braves have the same RPI as they did a year ago at this time and still got into the NCAA Tournament as an at-large team.

“We believe our league deserves multiple bids, potentially three or four, and we’d like to believe we’re in the hunt,” he said.

Elgin and the coaches say the argument for the Valley’s strength lies at the bottom of the league, not the top.

The bottom four teams came into the week with 57 wins. Only the Southeastern Conference had more wins from its worst four teams, with 61.

Early season surprise Wichita State (17-13) succumbed to the rigors of conference play. The Shockers joined Bradley in last year’s Sweet 16 after knocking off Seton Hall and Tennessee, and they were as high as No. 8 in the Associated Press Top 25 this season. But losses to three of the four bottom teams marked a free fall that landed them sixth in the standings.

The league has a 79-32 nonconference record highlighted by Missouri State’s win over Wisconsin in November. The Bears are the only team from outside the Big Ten to beat the Badgers, now ranked fourth after being No. 1 last week.

No Valley team is lower than No. 142 in the RPI (Indiana State), and the league’s No. 6 RPI is one rung ahead of the Big 12.

Northern Iowa’s Ben Jacobson said in leagues such as the Big 12, there never is a debate about its second- and third-place teams getting NCAA bids. Some prognosticators have five NCAA bids penciled in for the Big 12.

“But with us, there is a rumbling about Creighton and Missouri State having to win a game (in St. Louis) to get in,” Jacobson said. “My feeling is three teams should be in because our league is so good top to bottom.”

Missouri State’s Barry Hinson learned the hard way not to take anything for granted. He’s still flabbergasted that his Bears weren’t the fifth Valley team to make the NCAA Tournament last year despite being No. 21 in the RPI.

After last year, Hinson said, he told his players the only people they can count on to get into the NCAA Tournament are themselves.

That may be especially true this year.

“No one owes you anything,” Hinson said. “You have to earn it.”