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I've already explained this. I'm not complaining about our schedule this year. Nobody thought we would have a chance at an at-large bid. Our goals for this season were to win 30 games and to qualify for the C-USA Tournament. I was just explaining why ULL has a higher RPI than us. The difference is simply that we played several SWAC teams while ULL played at MMP. That's a fact. However, going forward, Grambling should be the only SWAC team on our schedule.Originally Posted by dawg80
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Great NON-CONFERENCE Scheduling - first 7 games are top 50 - next 2 are around 100. Most of mid-week games are Top 100 - Nicholls State being an exception.
Boyd's world has a great list of teams we need to schedule of course this is based off this year.
http://www.boydsworld.com/sa/louisiana_tech.html
Opponents marked in red will do damage to the team's RPI, even if the team beats them. Opponents marked in yellow will do damage if the team loses to them. Opponents marked in green will improve RPI, even if the team loses to them.
Potential Opponents, < 150 Miles
Opponent Distance W L WP OWP Contribution Alcorn State 99.39 13 36 0.265 0.418 0.237 Arkansas-Pine Bluff 122.42 22 25 0.468 0.403 0.335 Grambling State 3.41 17 27 0.386 0.396 0.292 Jackson State 143.84 25 26 0.490 0.366 0.337 Louisiana-Monroe 34.24 20 35 0.364 0.551 0.320 Northwestern State 59.98 33 22 0.600 0.546 0.436 Stephen F. Austin State 134.00 27 28 0.491 0.523 0.376
Potential Opponents, > 150 Miles and < 300 Miles
Opponent Distance W L WP OWP Contribution Arkansas 258.53 26 29 0.473 0.553 0.375 Arkansas State 255.38 27 27 0.500 0.526 0.382 Arkansas-Little Rock 153.06 26 26 0.500 0.530 0.383 Baylor 269.58 24 27 0.471 0.563 0.376 Central Arkansas 176.74 28 25 0.528 0.526 0.396 Dallas Baptist 250.19 37 17 0.685 0.535 0.476 Houston 250.81 33 22 0.600 0.533 0.433 Houston Baptist 259.03 24 29 0.453 0.487 0.348 Lamar 191.81 35 17 0.673 0.508 0.464 Louisiana State 170.18 39 17 0.696 0.597 0.497 Louisiana-Lafayette 164.05 37 19 0.661 0.571 0.473 McNeese State 166.18 29 23 0.558 0.500 0.404 Memphis 236.76 19 37 0.339 0.504 0.295 Mississippi 220.03 40 16 0.714 0.584 0.503 Mississippi State 232.60 40 14 0.741 0.570 0.513 New Orleans 231.24 30 24 0.556 0.539 0.413 Nicholls State 218.85 26 30 0.464 0.498 0.357 Prairie View A&M 259.58 8 32 0.200 0.396 0.199 Rice 253.68 32 20 0.615 0.559 0.447 Sam Houston State 211.27 37 19 0.661 0.509 0.458 South Alabama 291.90 38 18 0.679 0.516 0.469 Southeastern Louisiana 189.69 36 18 0.667 0.514 0.462 Southern 163.52 10 31 0.244 0.422 0.227 Southern Mississippi 211.12 36 18 0.667 0.551 0.471 Texas A&M 254.67 41 13 0.759 0.583 0.525 Texas Christian 274.97 38 14 0.731 0.540 0.500 Texas Southern 251.65 19 23 0.452 0.400 0.326 Texas-Arlington 260.96 29 26 0.527 0.532 0.397 Tulane 233.06 37 17 0.685 0.530 0.475
There are 300 DI teams.
We scheduled:
298. Prairie View A&M (Urban Invitational)
296. Southern (Urban Invitational)
293. Alcorn State
285. Grambling State
285. Grambling State
That's the reason we aren't Top 25 right now.
According to warrennolan.com, USL had the toughest (as in #1 in the nation) SOS in OOC games. Although they were only 16-10 in the OOC games, their RPI in those OOC games was #7 nationally.
Our OOC record of 18-5 with a SOS of 164 gave us an OOC RPI of 31.
Schedule SLU, Dallas Baptist, Baylor, Houston, McNeese, Miss St and Ole Miss, UTA, USL/ULL, and Arkansas every year. To heck with the worthless SWAC teams.
Although the names of the teams may be different, the same scheduling philosophy should be applied in men's basketball that is being advocated for baseball. In OOC games, schedule winning teams with good schedules and then WIN them.
It's a combination of our performance and the performance of our opponents and the opponent's opponents that make up the math formula used to calculate the RPI. Just as in basketball, the major conferences may lock us out from their schedule if we get too good.
The one caveat: C-USA is a major conference in baseball.
Teams will be looking to schedule us, hopefully.
Yes, hopefully that will be the case.
What makes that poll so bad is that Tech swept both ULL and Rice and Tech is ranked below them. It appears that only what you do in the first half of the season counts. Tech went 18-12 in the first 30 games and 19-4 in the last 23. That's backwards thinking. It appears that you only have to play good teams to get a high ranking. It doesn't matter whether you win or lose.
Logic does not apply to RPI. Wins, Losses, and SOS are used (we have a very weak SOS compared to LaLaff and Rice). Head to head is not used to directly determine ranking. The poll does not necessarily rank which teams are "better" than others, but it gives a very good indication of which teams are the top teams in the country.
Yes, RPI sucks, but RPI isn't a poll. It's a computer ranking. Everybody knows the formula. There are ways to game it like ULL did. RPI is archaic and needs a better replacement. Basketball has a credible alternative to RPI (KenPom) and a few others. The only alternative for baseball that I know of is ISR, and I don't know if anybody really pays attention to it.
RPI is a ranking, but it's not a poll. It shouldn't be used to determine who is "best". That's what head-to-head play is for.
Rather, RPI is useful in evaluating who "deserves it" more ... that is, who accomplished more over the course of a season.
Tech is better than Rice by virtue of it's sweep over the Owls. But Rice (by their RPI) did more to earn a post-season berth by virtue of their results against a tougher schedule over the course of the season.
That said... while RPI can be a helpful tool in comparing teams' season, but it shouldn't be used as the be-all-end-all metric for determining who's in and who's out of the tournament. But as a jumping-off point for further discussion, it's not terrible.
Exactly. This is what happens when you give old jocks (AD's) a calculator and ask them to come up with a playoff qualifying system. Truth is, if they were good with calculators in the first place they would be doing something else for a living.
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