I hate to link anything Matt Stevens- but his baseball RPI article

[Coach34]

actually has some decent info- RPI top 10 = virtual lock to host

http://www.cdispatch.com/msusports/article.asp?aid=24238

[Ghost of Hank Flick]

After getting past the douchy title and references to himself as the Dispatch Sports Blog, I see there is little chance we won't host, and maybe little chance Arkansas does.

It looks like the only teams taken from outside the top 30 were non-traditional baseball sites like Notre Dame, Michigan, Oregon State. Arkansas is at 41 and in the SEC, that doesn't bode well for them.

If only 3 schools inside the top 10 didn't host since 2006 and we get snubbed having the most storied home field in all of college baseball then...

I think if we win 2 of 3 we are gold. I just hope if we lose 2 of 3 the committee doesn't put a ton of stock in our road record because it is the only losing road record in the top 25 other than Miami. Only FSU is even close at 11-8 in the top 15 (USC would be 5 games over .500 if they beat us 2 of 3).

[Coach34]

If we lose 2 out 3 we dont deserve to host imo- we need to take care of business

[State82]

That's some pretty insightful data right there. But I agree that if we lose 2, even though we would remain in the rpi top 16, we wouldn't deserve it anyway. We would be .500 in conference and that won't get it done. If we lose 2 our host chance drops to just around "0".

[Esmerelda Villalobos]

Who exactly is on the selection committe?

[CadaverDawg]

That's some pretty insightful data right there. But I agree that if we lose 2, even though we would remain in the rpi top 16, we wouldn't deserve it anyway. We would be .500 in conference and that won't get it done. If we lose 2 our host chance drops to just around "0".

This is where I disagree with you and every single one of our fans that say we "won't deserve" to host if we lose to USC.

Do I think we WILL host if we lose this series? No. But would we still deserve to host if we lost? I say, Yes.

That is what the whole RPI discussion is about. If they are going to give the SEC 4 host sites, then RPI is the best way of determining who those hosts should be, because RPI takes into consideration all of the key factors and who you play during the year. We would have a better résumé, and far better RPI than Arkansas, so it should still be us And USC hosting in my opinion.

To me, this is more of that "MSU mentality" stuff we've been talking about. Don't just accept that we don't deserve a host spot bc everyone else says we need to win this series. Not when historically RPI is strongly considered, and our RPI shows that we deserve to be in the discussion regardless of what happens this weekend.

I guess I'm not understanding why at this point in the season we are ahead of USC and Arkansas in RPI and RPi clearly matters a ton to the committee....yet, we are the ones that supposedly have to beat the number 11 RPI team in order to host, while Arkansas gets to rest easy with a cupcake RPI? It doesn't make sense, and I'm not accepting it. At worst, it looks like we will have an 11 or 12 RPI if we lose to USC this weekend. And nothing about a 12 RPI and top 7 SOS says "we don't deserve it" if we lose to USC.

If we don't deserve it, who does? A team that has a lower RPI and lower SOS? Why? Because we are lil Ol Misipi Tate and have to achieve more than other teams to "earn" things? It's horse shit to think like that. Everyone needs to get the SEC record out of their heads, and look at this as an overall résumé, because the SEC schedule means nothing due to being so unbalanced. We deserve a host site due to our overall body of work, period. As long as we finish with a top 12 RPI and a top 10 SOS, we should host.

[Todd4State]

That's some pretty insightful data right there. But I agree that if we lose 2, even though we would remain in the rpi top 16, we wouldn't deserve it anyway. We would be .500 in conference and that won't get it done. If we lose 2 our host chance drops to just around "0".

Even though the rest of the SEC got to play and beat up on significantly weaker teams in Tennessee, Georgia, and Missouri in some form or fashion?

I disagree. We should host based on our RPI and SOS.

We have the most difficult schedule in the SEC and have only been swept once which was on the road at Vanderbilt.

[The Croom Diaries]

This is where I disagree with you and every single one of our fans that say we "won't deserve" to host if we lose to USC.

Do I think we WILL host if we lose this series? No. But would we still deserve to host if we lost? I say, Yes.

That is what the whole RPI discussion is about. If they are going to give the SEC 4 host sites, then RPI is the best way of determining who those hosts should be, because RPI takes into consideration all of the key factors and who you play during the year. We would have a better résumé, and far better RPI than Arkansas, so it should still be us And USC hosting in my opinion.

To me, this is more of that "MSU mentality" stuff we've been talking about. Don't just accept that we don't deserve a host spot bc everyone else says we need to win this series. Not when historically RPI is strongly considered, and our RPI shows that we deserve to be in the discussion regardless of what happens this weekend.

I guess I'm not understanding why at this point in the season we are ahead of USC and Arkansas in RPI and RPi clearly matters a ton to the committee....yet, we are the ones that supposedly have to beat the number 11 RPI team in order to host, while Arkansas gets to rest easy with a cupcake RPI? It doesn't make sense, and I'm not accepting it. At worst, it looks like we will have an 11 or 12 RPI if we lose to USC this weekend. And nothing about a 12 RPI and top 7 SOS says "we don't deserve it" if we lose to USC.

If we don't deserve it, who does? A team that has a lower RPI and lower SOS? Why? Because we are lil Ol Misipi Tate and have to achieve more than other teams to "earn" things? It's horse shit to think like that. Everyone needs to get the SEC record out of their heads, and look at this as an overall résumé, because the SEC schedule means nothing due to being so unbalanced. We deserve a host site due to our overall body of work, period. As long as we finish with a top 12 RPI and a top 10 SOS, we should host.

Excellent points. It does go along with the 'MSU mentality' a little bit. We should be clamoring for a hosting sport regardless of what happens in this series whether we feel like we 'deserve' a hosting spot or not.

If we were to lose to USC 2 out of 3 in this series, there is still a strong chance for us to host. We could play them again in the SEC Tourney and win. And then we could potentially beat Vandy. If we won the first 3 games of the SECT then I think our RPI would be back in the top 10 and right there for a hosting spot. If in the rubber game of the series this week Henderson is rounding third to score the game-tying run and he pulls a hamstring and they tag him out I'm not going to say South Carolina out-played us for the spot. Baseball is way too fluky to base it off one series. Yes, it should carry a lot of weight I don't think this should be viewed as a do or die series (from the eyes of the selection committee, I hope the players take that mindset however).

[Esmerelda Villalobos]

We could probably lose 2 this weekend and still be 11th or 10th

[CadaverDawg]

We could probably lose 2 this weekend and still be 11th or 10th

Really? And we know our SOS will not go down....so realistically we SHOULD host regardless of this weekend.

[Esmerelda Villalobos]

Yes. We could get swept and maybe drop to 12th. We could lose out and lose first round out sec and still be top 16 easily

[Buddy]

According to Boydsworld.com, a sweep this weekend will put us in the Top 8 in RPI and we can do nothing to fall out of the Top 16.

http://boydsworld.com/baseball/rpi/rpineeds.html