Not necessarily.
If we didn't play the five sub-300 teams on our schedule, our RPI would be 34 right now with the potential for #22 if we won out.
Got to stop playing teams like FAMU, Alabama State, Green Bay, Little Rock, Tennessee Martin. Those five wins are worth -28 spots in our RPI.
The sweet spot is plating teams between Jacksonville State (185) and Stephen F. Austin (126) as the worst teams on the schedule.
Here are the regional teams that fall into that sweet spot and the teams that should be on our non conference schedule next year
Wofford
Nicholls State
Winthrop
Georgia State
Georgia Southern
Tennessee Tech
Tulane
UT Arlington
Louisiana Tech
Austin Peay
Tennessee State
Elon
Southeastern Louisiana
Mercer
UAB
These games are "RPI Neutral" meaning wins don't help you that much and even losses don't absolutely kill you. Next year you get Cincinnati at home and a Big 12/SEC challenge game that will help the RPI, as well as a holiday tournament.
Even if you expanded your reach to around 200, you pick up teams like Rio Grande, ULM, North Texas Sam Houston and Savannah State. We played FIVE sub-300 teams this year. RPI killer.
Look at a team like Rio Grande:
http://warrennolan.com/basketball/2018/schedule/UTRGV
Nothing on there that scares you. But they are an infinitely better choice to play than FAMU. Why?
They have four conference games against top 100 teams every year + they step out of conference and play ACC and Big 12 teams.
Once FAMU hits their conference schedule, the highest ranked team they play is 202 and the majority is sub 300. When they lose to those sub 300 teams it hurts us just a little.