Interesting analysis about baseball RPI...
- Thread starter dawgstudent
- Start date
I still haven't figured out why we don't just schedule as tough as possible in baseball. This article, and I've seen several posters say the same, basically points out there's nothing good that comes from scheduling SWAC schools.
Thing is, you don't have to really schedule all that tough. Just don't schedule 200+ RPI teams and replace them with teams around 150. That's what Mississippi has done in both basketball and baseball the last several years, and they've been rewarded with good RPI rankings. RPI is a terribly flawed formula, but as long as that's the formula the selection committees use, we need to take a few lessons from Bianco and Kennedy and schedule smarter.
They should remove your bottom four or five games from the analysis alltogether. MSU has traditionally played a few games against JSU and Valley, and its good for those programs. The RPI system shouldn't punish teams for games like this, which have some history, and aren't purposefully chosen to make the schedule easier.
Or just tweak it so if you play a team below #200 it's treated like you played the #200 team. Once you get that low, it really doesn't matter who you play. Maybe limit it to 4 or 6 games so you can't load up on those teams. But it's a shame you get punished so much for playing SWAC teams that need those games.
The real losers in this are the SWAC schools. They're basically carrying around a scarlet letter with their RPI. Like Philly said, it's good for those programs to play us.
They should drop your highest and lowest game from the RPI formula. I think that was discussed a couple years back, but I don't guess it ever got implemented. I think the push back was 'what if you lose the lowest RPI game'? Is it fair to drop a potentially harmful outcome?
They should drop your highest and lowest game from the RPI formula. I think that was discussed a couple years back, but I don't guess it ever got implemented. I think the push back was 'what if you lose the lowest RPI game'? Is it fair to drop a potentially harmful outcome?
Random question, but why are the SWAC schools even D1? I guess there's a financial incentive? Do the positives outweigh being completely outclassed in every sport?
Probably for the road guarantees in basketball. And a few in football. That's one of the reasons I'm proud that MSU was the school that started playing JSU and Alcorn in football regularly, and would have played Valley if they had been able to keep their scholarship numbers up enough for it to count towards a bowl. It's just another I-AA game for us, but that money makes a tremendous difference for them.