TBI's Conference Calling 2014-15 College Basketball Conference Rankings (Part 1)

Oh, hai. Been a long time.

Normally around this time of year, I'm trying furiously to churn out a full-on conference preview for every league in America. And normally by opening day, I haven't even covered more than a dozen of the 32 conferences. If I were Joe Blow Single Guy writing in his underwear with Cheeto stains on his fingertips, I'd have a lot more time to finish these things, but kids and a wife have this annoying habit of asking for a little time with Daddy. And since none of you are paying any of my bills, the writing is usually let to slide.

Still, I'm always interested in how the conferences stack up at this time of year, which is why TBI is still going to turn out a full set of conference rankings. We all know who the worst league in America is (hint: it's one letter away from being SWAG, something that the conference in question almost totally lacks), and everybody's got their own perspective on who's the best. (Sit down, SEC fan. That ridiculous all-conference second-team ballot says it all.)

But now, here comes The Back Iron to settle it all. Strap in, kids, and prepare to bitch as we unveil the bottom half of the nation's leagues.

Below, you'll find TBI's picks for conference regular-season (and we'll presume tournament) champions, along with each league's expected Player of the Year and a potential Game Changer selection. The Game Changer may be a newcomer or returnee, but he'll certainly be a player who's not getting the publicity he deserves for his ability to shift the balance of power in his league.

Conference Calling's 2013-14 College Basketball Previews: #25 OVC

Pictured: Belmont (right), rest of OVC (left).

In this space last season, we expected Belmont to walk into the Ohio Valley Conference and begin running the league like a boss. Rick Byrd's club did exactly that, toppling the Fighting Canaans of Murray State and making its sixth NCAA tournament in eight years.

In the subsequent offseason, stars filed out of the league one after the other. Belmont lost all-conference backcourt duo Ian Clark and Kerron Johnson, along with steady forward Trevor Noack. Murray State lost its own backcourt, Isaiah Canaan and Stacy Wilson, along with workhorse forward Ed Daniel and his equally notorious hair. Tennessee State lost its star forward Robert Covington and two other double-digit scorers.

So, the door is open for a new boss. UT-Martin is the only OVC school that didn't lose a double-figure scorer, but are we really going to pick the Skyhawks to step up that big?

Eh, maybe not so much.

Everybody absorbed a little attrition, but who's going to react the best to their new cast of characters? Read on after the jump and see who should go dancing from the OVC.

(All statistics and rankings per StatSheet.com unless otherwise noted.)

Conference Calling: Players to Watch for Championship Week (Part I)

Conference tournaments begin in the next few hours, with the Big South tipping off near Myrtle Beach and the Horizon League playing its openers tonight.

It's about to get real, kids.

In honor of those events starting, let's examine each league and find one player who can determine his team's fate as relates to an automatic NCAA Tournament bid. We'll hit the first 10 today, the next 10 on Thursday and finish up on Saturday, by which point most brackets should be close to set.

Tournaments will be presented in the order they begin after the jump.

Conference Calling's 31 in 31 Series: 2012-13 OVC Preview

The Conference Calling 31 in 31 preview series will examine each of the NCAA Division I auto-bid conferences (so no Great West or independents), one per day, leading up to college basketball's opening day on November 9. 

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The Ohio Valley Conference got a major shot of adrenaline in the form of a talented Murray State team riding a loaded starting lineup, an All-America guard and a surprisingly potent schedule to a 23-0 start, a top-15 AP ranking and a No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament. With Isaiah Canaan still in a Racers' jersey, four of the six announced OVC games to be televised on ESPN feature MSU.

The fly in the ointment for a Murray State team looking to win the league by four games once again is the addition of a veteran Belmont squad that terrorized the Atlantic Sun for most of the last decade. There ain't nobody winning this one by four games unless Canaan or one of the Bruins' guards breaks a leg.

Of course, looking around the rest of the league, is there anyone else qualified to win? Maybe not, but the Murray-Belmont battle is the kind of drama that hasn't surrounded basketball in Nashville for a while now. Well, aside from wondering how Vanderbilt's gonna hock up their opening NCAA tournament game, but that shouldn't be a concern this year.

Read on to see which titan takes TBI's No. 14 conference.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: As I write this, I'm nursing a 102-degree fever. If I don't go quite as in-depth on the OVC's teams as I have on some of the other leagues, please don't take it personally.]