Rip Rpi

[ColoradoPanther]

We've had quite a few Bilas discussions in the past. He's been good about giving out the backhanded compliments, but I guess that's better than some.

Based on his above comments, I simply think he's trying too hard to "explain it away" similar to what every analyst is doing. One of the bottom lines of all the RPI madness is that the entire Valley went 66-27 OOC this year (71% win pctg). Some schools played tough schedules and others played softies, but all the Valley schools won, and that's the biggest driver of the overall RPI ratings. Heck, even 9th place Indiana St beat Indiana. Certainly doesn't hurt when one of the cellar dwellers pulls out a Big 10 win too. And thankfully, nobody played an OOC RPI 300+ schedule, like GW or Florida State did.

It also seems like a stretch that the Valley could collectively decide which mid-majors would end the year with good records, then specifically schedule those teams. I wish it was that easy. Overall, ALL the schedules pulled together don't look like much, but wins, wins, wins are part of the answer.

[DWadle1983]

Hello, Panther fans. Looking forward to our game on Friday, it should be a good one.

I heard Jay Bilas on Dan Patrick's show today during lunch and he made some interesting comments about the MVC. Essentially, he said he thought the MVC learned how to game the RPI by scheduling its OOC games against teams from other mid-majors that were likely to have very good records. By racking up wins against these teams, it inflated their RPI which led to victories over other high-RPI teams.... all from the MVC. Bilas summed it up by saying that the MVC didn't have wins against good teams, but wins against teams with good records.

I thought his theory was interesting, so I looked at the schedules of the top 5 in the MVC.... there were definitely wins against schools from other mid-majors with gaudy W-L records, but it didn't seem to be a huge pattern. Also, I saw a reasonable number of games against BCS conferences-- especially by UNI (impressive win at LSU, BTW).

Any thoughts on Bilas' theory about RPI-gaming by the MVC?

We've picked apart Bilas' comments in the past on the site, and what we have concluded is that he makes assertions with no evidence.

I was just reading on Yahoo a little bit ago an article entitled "NCAA Tourney draw stirs more debate than it settles" printed from the AP where an AP writer mentioned the Tournament Selection complaints and said "The mid-majors also made progress. Among the new multibid leagues were the MVC (four) and the Colonial (two), although both commissioners had hoped for more. Utah State, which was left out in 2004 despite being ranked in the Top 25, also made it this time."

When was the last time the MVC didn't receive multiple bids?

There are a number of stories being printed that Billy Packer had not seen a MVC game this season.