Stolen from Cousin Jeffrey on SPS.....

[CadaverDawg]

This is some pretty good info he found, and it makes me feel even better about our hosting likelihood. Not that I was wavering, but some on here are.


There have been three sub-40 RPI teams to host since 1999 (current format), all gifted to northern schools.

year - RPI - team
2000 - 42 - Minnesota
2001 - 62 - Ohio State
2002 - 44 - Notre Dame

None of those were the #1 seed, and none of them won their regional. In fact, we were the #1 seed at the 2001 Ohio State regional, which we won.

There have only been six hosts who had an RPI outside of the top 32 (out of 224 regionals in that time).


87% of teams with RPI in top 12 have hosted.
77% of teams with RPI in top 16 have hosted.

And this has gotten better for top teams in the last 6 years:
93% of teams with RPI in top 12 have hosted.
83% of teams with RPI in top 16 have hosted.

Edited to add: Arkansas currently sits at rpi #38 with a likelihood of finishing between 30-38 I would assume.

[M.Fillmore]

Per Warren Nolan
MSU RPI is 10
Remaining games: three versus OM (RPI: 20); one versus ORU (RPI: 102); three versus South Carolina (RPI: 11)

UPig RPI is 39
Remaining games: three versus Tennessee (RPI: 119); three versus Auburn (RPI: 49)

It will be hard for the Pigs to catch up in RPI.

[CadaverDawg]

Yea, and I think we need to cancel the Oral Roberts game. It would be a killer to **** our rpi up with a bone headed loss to them the last week of the season. If we win 2 of 3 against Ole Miss, we definitely need to cancel it. What do you guys think? Any reason to play that game?

[Rick Danko]

Yea, and I think we need to cancel the Oral Roberts game. It would be a killer to **** our rpi up with a bone headed loss to them the last week of the season. If we win 2 of 3 against Ole Miss, we definitely need to cancel it. What do you guys think? Any reason to play that game?

What would that do from a PR standpoint? Just curious others opinions, but I can imagine the headlines: "Mississippi State afraid of Oral Roberts" or something to that affect. I am obviously speculating but while I agree with you Cadaver, I just don't see how we could keep this from being a PR nightmare if we openly chose to cancel a game just to protect our RPI, in fact for some reason I almost feel it would hurt us. JMHO.

[Will James]

What would that do from a PR standpoint? Just curious others opinions, but I can imagine the headlines: "Mississippi State afraid of Oral Roberts" or something to that affect. I am obviously speculating but while I agree with you Cadaver, I just don't see how we could keep this from being a PR nightmare if we openly chose to cancel a game just to protect our RPI, in fact for some reason I almost feel it would hurt us. JMHO.

10 day forecast shows a 0% chance of rain that day... so we can't bank on that.

[CadaverDawg]

What would that do from a PR standpoint? Just curious others opinions, but I can imagine the headlines: "Mississippi State afraid of Oral Roberts" or something to that affect. I am obviously speculating but while I agree with you Cadaver, I just don't see how we could keep this from being a PR nightmare if we openly chose to cancel a game just to protect our RPI, in fact for some reason I almost feel it would hurt us. JMHO.

I have no idea. I was under the impression that several teams had done this in the past to a late non conference game, but I may be wrong. When I think of the overall benefit it would give our program to host a Regional, I really wouldn't give a shit what kind of PR it gave us as long as we host. But I see your point on that.

Maybe some of these other guys can tell us if a team has ever done things like that.

[Rick Danko]

I have no idea. I was under the impression that several teams had done this in the past to a late non conference game, but I may be wrong. When I think of the overall benefit it would give our program to host a Regional, I really wouldn't give a shit what kind of PR it gave us as long as we host. But I see your point on that.

Maybe some of these other guys can tell us if a team has ever done things like that.

Not sure but you could be right on other teams having done this before, I am just not a researcher who would even know where to look for that info. And I do agree with you on not giving a shit on the PR, so long as the tournament committee doesn't look at it in some sort of unfavorable way. I would guess that is why Cohen and Stricklen make the big bucks and not me, to make decisions like this.

[Rick Danko]

10 day forecast shows a 0% chance of rain that day... so we can't bank on that.

Agreed, can't bank on it... of course I am of the belief that weather companies throw a dart at the wall to decide weather for any extended period of time, so who knows what will be accurate closer to the day. But I will say this, if the first sprinkle of rain were to hit the grass, I would call it. Hell may not be a bad idea for the sprinklers to "malfunction" the night before the game, Bull Durham style.

[dickiedawg]

Agreed, can't bank on it... of course I am of the belief that weather companies throw a dart at the wall to decide weather for any extended period of time, so who knows what will be accurate closer to the day. But I will say this, if the first sprinkle of rain were to hit the grass, I would call it. Hell may not be a bad idea for the sprinklers to "malfunction" the night before the game, Bull Durham style.

That might not be too far fetched. Happened at the softball field two years ago. Not during the season, though.

[Drugdog]

Call me Jaded, but if it comes down to some team gettin screwed, well u know who it will be.

[Todd4State]

What would that do from a PR standpoint? Just curious others opinions, but I can imagine the headlines: "Mississippi State afraid of Oral Roberts" or something to that affect. I am obviously speculating but while I agree with you Cadaver, I just don't see how we could keep this from being a PR nightmare if we openly chose to cancel a game just to protect our RPI, in fact for some reason I almost feel it would hurt us. JMHO.

Depends on how we handle it. What I would do is buy out the game- basically pay them the money for the game, and then maybe reschedule the game when we have an opening or play them in a weekend series another year. It's not like Oral Roberts is going to bitch about not having to spend money to send their team out to Starkville or to buy gas for the bus, or put up their team for a night or two depending on when they come down.

I don't know if a team has ever canceled a game before, but I do know that we had a game with Mississippi Valley in place in case we needed to play a game one year because we were under the 56 limit because of rainouts. We ended up canceling because we had a losing record that year.

[Ronny]

Yea, and I think we need to cancel the Oral Roberts game. It would be a killer to **** our rpi up with a bone headed loss to them the last week of the season. If we win 2 of 3 against Ole Miss, we definitely need to cancel it. What do you guys think? Any reason to play that game?

..is hope for rain.

Cohen will claim playing Oral Roberts "will get some of our bullpen much needed work headed into post-season play."

That sounds good, but remember Cohen had to bring in Holder to close down Alcorn.

Oral Roberts is a crappy team who we should beat easily. Yet if we dick around & lose to them, our season is all but ruined.

But I do agree playing them at this point in the season is ridiculous, & is also a negative mark against the scheduling genius who decided it would be a good idea to play Oral Roberts on May 14th.

[engie]

Do not see the big deal about the ORU game. They likely finish in the rpi top 100 -- so losing to them would not be nearly as big of deal as people are making it out to be.

I like the opportunity to try to develop any sort of confidence in a 4th starter at this point...

[CadaverDawg]

Do not see the big deal about the ORU game. They likely finish in the rpi top 100 -- so losing to them would not be nearly as big of deal as people are making it out to be.

I like the opportunity to try to develop any sort of confidence in a 4th starter at this point...

I thought someone said they were a 120-ish RPI team. That's why I didn't want to play them. But if they're top 100 I'm ok with it.

[Todd4State]

Do not see the big deal about the ORU game. They likely finish in the rpi top 100 -- so losing to them would not be nearly as big of deal as people are making it out to be.

I like the opportunity to try to develop any sort of confidence in a 4th starter at this point...

Maybe if they beat us they will. They finish with six out of seven teams with a RPI lower than 200. I'm not sure how much playing them will bump their RPI up though.

[engie]

I thought someone said they were a 120-ish RPI team. That's why I didn't want to play them. But if they're top 100 I'm ok with it.

Their projected final RPI is #87 right now...and that's without them beating us...

[Coach34]

Their projected final RPI is #87 right now...and that's without them beating us...

they get a huge bump for playing us on the road

And I agree with Engie- getting a 4th starter some innings is what we need to do