RPI

[david aka the TYZ]

So every year around January a team's RPI and SOS really start to get scrutinized and argued over. And every year I always say the same thing that the RPI is flawed and I want to know how they go about getting their initial rankings, etc. If it is truly a computer generated ranking based on winning and losing as I understand it is then right now when everybody is 0-0 shouldn't everyone be tied for first in the RPI?

I never remember to check out rankings early in the year but today I did. The live-rpi that we have referenced on this site in years past is still showing last year's numbers, but if you go to the forecasted RPI it has rankings. They are forecasted rankings of course but seemingly would have to have a human element to them. I was fooled at first because there is a current RPI ranking for everybody but it seems evident to just be a ranking in alphabetical order after looking over all the teams. So maybe everybody is currently tied for 1st which I personally have always questioned.

http://www.rpiforecast.com/live-rpi.html
http://www.rpiforecast.com/index2.html

Thought this could be some good early season fodder for this board. I will try to keep an eye out on the actual rankings through the first few weeks to see how the rankings shape up. FWIW it is interesting to see UC is listed as having the 13th toughest non-conference schedule.

 

[Bearcat_NTS]

So every year around January a team's RPI and SOS really start to get scrutinized and argued over. And every year I always say the same thing that the RPI is flawed and I want to know how they go about getting their initial rankings, etc. If it is truly a computer generated ranking based on winning and losing as I understand it is then right now when everybody is 0-0 shouldn't everyone be tied for first in the RPI?

I never remember to check out rankings early in the year but today I did. The live-rpi that we have referenced on this site in years past is still showing last year's numbers, but if you go to the forecasted RPI it has rankings. They are forecasted rankings of course but seemingly would have to have a human element to them. I was fooled at first because there is a current RPI ranking for everybody but it seems evident to just be a ranking in alphabetical order after looking over all the teams. So maybe everybody is currently tied for 1st which I personally have always questioned.

http://www.rpiforecast.com/live-rpi.html
http://www.rpiforecast.com/index2.html

Thought this could be some good early season fodder for this board. I will try to keep an eye out on the actual rankings through the first few weeks to see how the rankings shape up. FWIW it is interesting to see UC is listed as having the 13th toughest non-conference schedule.

The RPI has no human element and there is no "preseason" ranking like the Sagarin or KenPom. However, those projections you see on live-rpi.com are based on the Sagarin...so there is a human element to those projections before any game has been played.

The RPI is not subjective like the BCS rankings were. This is the calculation for RPI:
.25*(your winning percentage) + .50* (opponent winning percentage) + .25* (opponent's opponent winning percentage)

In calculating your winning percentage there is a factor for road/home/neutral games so that number isn't the traditional winning percentage. For example if UC wins tonight but then loses their next game (both at home), their RPI winning percentage would be 0.6/1.4 = 0.428 rather than 0.500.

 

[BCM]

You know it's basketball time in Cincinnati when this annual thread comes round

 

[Bearcat_NTS]

Just quickly checked Live-RPI, they forecast us to have the 5th best OOC SOS.

 

[ervins84]

Just quickly checked Live-RPI, they forecast us to have the 5th best OOC SOS.

While a lot of the ooc schedule isn't big school sexy names, they mostly avoided the bottom feeders. Most of the " bad teams" we play like morehead, stony brook, midd Tenn, and NC Central are all competent teams. And while vcu and SD st aren't the traditional names some fans would want, they will have solid rankings in all the computers.

Overall I think they did a good job scheduling this year and hopefully the extra bottom feeders in the aac won't pull our rating down too much throughout the year.

 

[#BearcatNation]

Agreed with what you guys are saying. I'd take an OOC like this every year. We have plenty of big tests, but it's not overwhelmingly difficult. Gives the team 4 games to get used to each other against lower level (but not absolutely pathetic) opponents. Then come December, we get tested by some legitimate teams to prepare us for conference play. I really don't mind the AAC when it comes to basketball. Football on the other hand.....