Just a little heads-up re: RPI

Baseball Insider Board
#1

I meant to post this earlier today, before the Grambling game, but ran out of time and didn’t get to it. Message is for our fans to NOT be concerned if our RPI dips a spot or two this week - even if we win 3 of 4 (Gramlbing, and 2 of 3 vs. S. Carolina); or, even if we sweep Carolina. RPI is based on winning, but not winning alone. When you play one of the bottom 10 teams (of about 300) in the RPI (Grambling), your SOS will take a hit. As many games as we’ve played, not a large one - but a hit, none-the-less. And S. Carolina is not having one of their typical years (you’d normally expect them to have a top 20 RPI, and they currently sit in the mid-60’s).

The good news is that our SOS is extremely high - #4 as I type this (probably before they factor Grambling in). The trade-off for that is almost anyone you play that is not in the top 20 or 30 tends to bring it down. All things considered, however, that’s where you want to be. The thing to remember is that the other schools with lofty SOS will also play some teams that aren’t rated very highly during the remainder of the season. And, we still have Missouri State and #3 Texas Tech coming to Baum, along with SEC series with A&M (#20), LSU and surprising Georgia (#6) left on our dance card.

So long as we win the series this weekend, we’re just fine - even if we drop a couple of notches. And that pretty much goes for the rest of the SEC season; win each series, and we’re a lock for a top 8 seed. Maybe an SEC Championship as well!

#2

RPI still #4 after Grambling

#3

is being mitigated by other teams we’ve played. I noticed this morning that Arizona has now climbed up into Group 1.

Still, glad Grambling wasn’t a two-game series.

#4

Yes, that’s the other “X” factor that you just can’t predict that affects your day-to-day RPI - how other teams you have already played will do in a given week. As you point out, Arizona is surging. Another team coming on lately is (spit) Texas, who we beat twice (even though they lost to A&M yesterday; but then, that will eventually be a wash since we’ll play the Aggies soon). Only Texas Tech has more Group 1 wins (12) than we do (11, tied with Florida, though the Gators have fewer losses to that group than we do).

Bottom line is that we’re in great shape so long as we continue to win series.

#5

SOS to me is the important thing.we will be VERY well prepared for the regionals!

#6

One more RPI tidbit. The NLR game is considered a neutral site by the NCAA, and thus the RPI formula. So it’s a little better for us than if we played them at Baum.

#7

There’s no doubt it’s a neutral site. NLR is about as close to Ruston as it is Fayetteville. I doubt the fan ratio Tuesday night was no more than about 8,500 to 1. :lol:

I remember when we lost the Liberty Bowl to Tenn in that gawd-awful rip-off in Memphis at that neutral bowl site. O.H. wrote a column not long after the game at another neutral site. He suggested WMS in Little Rock. My dad got a great kick out of that line.