HUGE KUDOS to Mark Few!

RPI is way overrated. It’s based on the idea certain leagues are really that good or not based on past years. The WCC was a young league. We will be stronger next year but will that matter? Syracuse was not that good and still got in when UAB, St. Bonaventure and St. Mary’s all should have been in before Syracuse. And, VT tonight is another that was better than many of the teams in the Dance.

While I agree that the RPI is way overrated.
It is not based on the idea that certain leagues are really that good or not.
It starts with all teams at 0-0 every year so until weeks into the season isn’t all that useful, but it does provide a better yardstick for measuring conferences, because of the large sample size than most anything else.

It uses a relatively simple set of calculations.
Back when I was interested in figuring it out in detail I spent an afternoon and set up a spread sheet that duplicated it. It really is that simple, which in part is what makes it overrated.
The NCAA selection committee isn’t using it as much these days thankfully, BPI and Kenpom are making their marks, but it is still used as an organizational principle.

Many teams in the dance every year are worse than many in the NIT. The dance is required to invite one team from each conference. The conference’s themselves choose how that particular invitation is decided upon. All but one, the Ivy, have determined that for economic reasons a season ending tournament is the route to go.

The advantage the NIT had for many years was that it could invite the best instead of merely conference champions. Sadly that isn’t the case today. The NCAA essentially put the NIT out of business then bought the name and revivified it; making it the shell that it is today.

Another form of corruption… and conspiracy. Oops, I used the wrong word. It isn’t a conspiracy, it’s just the combined efforts of a group of people who wield power and influence to get money so they can wield more power and influence to get even more money. I apologize for using the word conspiracy. I don’t know what I was thinking.

competition between post season tournaments is not a conspiracy.
That the NCAA chose to expand their tournament while the NIT chose to “maintain standards” and a smaller tournament making it less popular is not a conspiracy. It is two competitors who chose different paths. One won the other lost…And both competitors were about making as much money and popularity as possible.

Well, just because teams start off 0-0 they start of with pre-season rankings that set the tone for RPI’s throughout the season.

Yes I understand that there are no conpsiracies in the big money arena of college basketball. Like I said, I don’t know what I was thinking. It’s all clean, pure competition at its’ best.

No the rpi has no preseason rankings.
Each team starts at 0-0.
The basic calculation is RPI = (WP * 0.25) + (OWP * 0.50) + (OOWP * 0.25)
Then each team wins some; Each team loses some.
The modern version weights home wins slightly less than road wins. Neutral games have no thumb on the scale either way.
Win, lose, and where, neutral, home, or away are the only independent variables in the calculation
There is no ranking as such there is only the currency of the calculation at the end of the day, week, hour, month or as the selection committee uses it. at the end of the regular season before the conference tournaments.

THE RPI IS NOT A POLL. It is the result of a relatively simple calculation.

But this system is not corrupt because it ends up sending 7 pac 12 teams to the ncaa tournament and 1 each from the wcc, wac, mwc and so many other conferences.

No corruption or conspiracy, right grasshopper? LOL!

Usually the WCC has more teams…is that part of your conspiracy?
Usally the MWC has more teams…is that part ofyour conspiracy?
Usually the Pac 12 has fewer teams …is that too part of your conspiracy?
The WAC used to get more teams now it doesn’t…is that too part of your conspiracy?

That the MWC has in the past had more teams dancing than the P12 is part of your conspiracy too?

The conspiracy if there is one is that the Pac12 has in recent years despite having more money, better facilities, better coaches and usually better tournament results still hasn’t been consistently doing better than the MWC and the WCC…

Could you please stop beating the dead horse of a conspiracy? You are not convincing …anyone but yourself as near as I can tell.
If you don’t feel like stopping the beating, how about simply taking a break? The horse will certainly not die, or live for that matter, if you stop talking about it incessantly.

The selection show said it was all about RPI

Every year for the last few years sometime about the beginning of February different media members are taken to Indianapolis and get to walk through the process as voting members. I have read about it several times on ESPN.com, cbs sports, nbc sports, sports illustrated sporting news, basketball prospectus, I think even the desnews or sltrib had a rep there in the last couple of years.

The process is not a secret, they have been trying to educate the public on the process for quite awhile now.

The fact that you do not bother to learn about it when you claim to care about it, when it is made so public is something I would be ashamed to make public if it were me.