I'm too lazy to look it up. I have seen a couple of posters say that RPI is just a tool, but I know one year, the 16 host teams had the top 17 RPI's in the country. In baseball, it seems like they rely on it way more than Basketball.
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I'm too lazy to look it up. I have seen a couple of posters say that RPI is just a tool, but I know one year, the 16 host teams had the top 17 RPI's in the country. In baseball, it seems like they rely on it way more than Basketball.
My research shows UC Santa Barbara hosted as the #24 RPI last year and that was the lowest. Teams like Virginia and Radford had Top 15 RPI's and did not host.
ETA: They also had a SOS of 62. Considering UCLA and CSF hosted, that was not a gimmie regional due to lack of west coast regionals. However they went 2 and through in their regional because they got buzz sawed by Virginia.
Nat'l Seed/Team/Record/RPI
#1. UCLA (42-14) #7
#2. LSU (48-10) #3
#3. Louisville (43-16) #13
#4. Florida (44-16) #1
#5. Miami (44-14) #2
#6. Illinois (47-8-1) #12
#7. TCU (43-11) #6
#8. Missouri State (45-10) #9
I'm still trying to wrap my mind around all that. It seems like it would hurt big schools like SEC schools that play a lot of OOC home games and make them look worse in RPI. Conversely, it helps schools like Northern and Midwestern look better because they have to play a lot of earl season road games. So, I just did a little calculation. Throw out the tie more or less. I know our own performance is only 25% but lets look at what our adjusted record would be. We have 18 wins in Starkville, 4 at neutral sites, and 6 on the road. That drops from 28 to 24.4. Our losses (I don't remember what was where but I already calculated it) rise from 13 to 14.8.
So, according to the RPI adjustment, our record is 24.4-14.8, or more or less that we are viewed as a 24-15-1 team, not a 28-13-1 team. So, 50% is opponents strength. But we play a lot of SEC teams that likely have the same problem we have, a lot of home games that don't count as a full win and are magnified if they lose. How, do we end up rated so high? You can't even look at our SEC opponents without adjusting their overall records downward a few wins and add a loss or two. Still decent records but I guess everyone else's RPI sucks that bad. It seems like there's no such thing as a good RPI. Just a baseline of the Top40 or so and after that the sucking starts.
We are worrying way too much about being a national seed
It's an attainable goal, one that, oh by the way, we've never accomplished since the tournament expanded.
Obviously it's not the end of the world if we don't make it but it would represent our most successful regular season of at least the last 18 years.
We will only be a nat seed if we win all 4 Series that are left and sweep 2 of them. Other than that no chance. If we lose more than one of the 4 series we will be in danger of not hosting.
If we win each series left then we may be able to play our way to a national seed in the SECT.
Our SOS is now projected to fall to #12. Hardly a big deal. If we win the rest of our series, we will be a national seed.
The flip side to that is that each additional game means incrementally less than the ones before it in terms of the RPI calculation. That is especially true towards the end of the season. All teams are starting to settle into a subset of where they will finish in the RPI, and that subset gets smaller and smaller with each passing game. Right now I'd guestimate that our RPI could get as high as #6 or #7 if we finish red hot, or possibly drop to the low 20's if we have a disappointing finish.
We are definitely in the gray area now where we are on the tightrope between a national seed and just a first round host site. If we continue winning, our RPI should stay high enough for a national seed even though our SOS will definitely drop some.
If we go 8-4 the final 4 SEC series, we just have to hope the committee uses some common sense and says these guys beat UF, Vandy, and LSU 2 out of 3 on the road. No one will have that on their resume.
I think some of y'all are over-complicating it. Right now as of today, we are a National Seed. We have 4 more series against teams we can and should beat. It is going to be extremely hard to lose a National Seed if we win all 4 remaining series. Even if we were the #8 currently, it would take a team getting red freaking hot to jump a team that is winning every series and already considered a National Seed.
Plus this year is different in that the SEC and ACC are leaps and bounds ahead of the others.
So in my opinion, just winning the rest of our series should wrap up a National Seed. Unless something crazy happens
We need to pull for vandy and usce vs aTm, perhaps even om (spit!). If we win the west, we'll be a national seed imo. If we don't win the west, I don't think we'll be a national seed
Would the sec get 4 national seeds? I doubt it... Usce, Florida, and aTm are all ahead of us in sec standings and rpi at the moment
Probably 20 something. Not sure.
But just like we can look at RPI history, how many times has a team not been a National Seed with 3+ series wins on the road of a National Seed or Host school + 18 or more SEC wins?
If we weren't currently considered a National Seed, I would agree that we need some sweeps and good fortune.....but right now we are likely the #5-#7 National Seed, so I can't see us winning every remaining series and dropping from the Top 8.
I may be crazy though
The one common characteristic of those national seeds is they are all well north of 40 wins. I haven't researched it for past years but my guess is almost all have had 40+ wins which we won't have. Not that there is anything magic about that number. My main objective is host. Then let the chips fall where they may. Host, and Cohen has earned his keep in my opinion.
It could all become a moot point, because even if we aren't a National Seed we could still end up hosting a Super if a Natty Seed loses, which is very possible these days.