Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Bear11, post: 2575012, member: 7934"] It really is a shame that RPI is still emphasized by the committee in any form. It is a horribly misguided system, especially given the nature of women's basketball. At the level we are talking about here, only a team in the top 40 or so has any chance to upset a top 5 team. After that, the result is essentially predetermined. It doesn't matter if your opponent is number 100 or number 300, it will be a blowout either way. The good computer ranking systems take this into account, and don't penalize a team for a blowout over a bad team. The only games which truly matter in nonconference for the elite teams are the few games against other elite teams. All the other games are just there to fill out the schedule, and can essentially be disregarded. Unfortunately, the RPI weights all games equally, so a blowout win over a team with a bad record is tremendously damaging. This makes it possible to "game" the RPI, by playing a lot of middling teams that will finish the season with strong records, but aren't major threats to actually beat you. Given the computer power available to us today, it is said that a pen-and-paper method like RPI is still given any weight at all. Sorry for the rant, I am a big fan of advanced metrics and can't stand the dinosaur that is the RPI. [/QUOTE]