FanPost

RPI is Everything: Who to pull for and who to pull against

One could argue that RPI is more important for getting into the tourney than actual wins. Two years ago, you may recall, we beat UGA twice but they got in and we didn't because they had a higher RPI than we did. We currently sit at 60 and on the margins of the conversation about teams getting the last spots. So what needs to happen for us to be able to move up the RPI index?

1) We need to win. From this point until the end of the SEC Tourney, every loss will drop us in the RPI with the exception of a loss to the Gators. Each win should slowly move us up the index.

2) We need our non-con opponents to win as many games as possible.

These are the teams that we need to be pulling for in the last part of the season to help both our RPI and our SOS.

Current RPI's of teams we lost to (not great, but not disastrous):

Mercer (165)

Tulane (147)

Dayton (111)

Cincy (34)
VCU (38)

Current RPI's of teams we beat (again, not great, but close enough to give us hope)
S. Dakota St. (68)
Oregon St. (176)
Villanova (64)
Charleston S. (186)
Lamar (318)
Texas Tech (216)
Oakland (110)

3) We need all the SEC's non-con opponents to do as well as possible to raise the overall SOS of the SEC (I didn't look these up but we are obviously not doing very well in this area). As far as SEC opponents themselves, it's all basically a wash since we all play each other. So, it doesn't matter that much if UK and Ole Miss lose or win from here on out. A minor argument might be made for the benefit of the success of SEC teams that we have or will have played twice:


Auburn (209) (Screw that! I'm not pulling for Auburn)
LSU (114)
Tennessee (85) (I can hold my nose on this one against other SEC schools)
Georgia (123)
Miss. St. (225)

4) These are the teams that we need to pull against with their RPI's in parentheses. I've excluded likely conference champions and teams that we have played. And, of course, we could be hurt by upsets in the conference tourneys of the bigger conferences so we need those lowly teams to suck in their conference tourneys. They usually do but there is a surprise or two every year. RPI's change almost daily, so these will be slightly different by the time you read this. Anyway, pull against these teams:

  • Temple (41)
  • Oregon (42)
  • Creighton (43) or Wichita St. (39) (We need one to win but not both)
  • Boise St. (45)
  • Notre Dame (46)
  • Southern Miss (47)
  • St. Mary's (49)
  • UMass (51)
  • St. John's (53)
  • Baylor (54)
  • Saint Louis (55)
  • Stanford (56)
  • Indiana St. (58)
  • California (59)
  • Wyoming (61)
  • BYU (62)
  • Charlotte (63)
  • FSU (65)
  • Rutgers (66)
  • AZ St. (67)
  • North Dakota St. (69)
  • Eastern KY (70)
  • Air Force (72)
  • Detroit (74)
  • Maryland (75)
  • Virginia (78)

FanPosts are just that; posts created by the fans. They are in no way indicative of the opinions of SBN and the authors of Roll Bama Roll.