RPI Tournament Battle

watertown 1987 guy n said:

A good story in the Washington Post yesterday about the RPI and statisticaly who has made the cut. A few interesting paragraphs.

Since the tournament field expanded to 68 teams in 2011 (37 of the at-large bids until the American Athletic Conference automatic bid reduced that to 36 in 2014), a total of 147 at-large bids have been handed out. Thirteen of them have gone to teams with 13 or more losses (8.8 percent). The 14-loss teams have earned 3.4 percent of those bids. That’s the danger zone in the loss column. In terms of the RPI, just two teams have cracked the field with a rank of 60 or worse. On the other side, 94.5 percent of teams ranked 50th or better have made the tournament one way or another since 2011. Still lingering in the 50s? You’re squarely on the bubble. Since 2011, the only eligible major conference teams in the top 50 of the RPI to miss the cut have been Missouri (No. 49) and Minnesota (No. 50) last season.

In general, you can draw a safe cutline for teams with an RPI above 70, as the worst RPI team to earn at at-large bid in the 68-team era was No. 67 USC in 2011. If Selection Sunday were today, that would eliminate the following notable teams: Miami (Fla.) (RPI 71), Seton Hall (73), Minnesota (76), Kansas State (80), Michigan (81), Alabama (83), Florida (84), Clemson (85) and George Washington (86). As noted above, realistically, only Minnesota, Seton Hall and Miami have any hope of cracking the tournament field with impressive finishes.

Three teams truly precariously perched entering the season’s final week all reside in the Big Ten: Indiana (RPI No. 46), Purdue (59) and Illinois (61). Purdue and Illinois play the last game of the regular season. That’s likely do-or-die for the Illini, but the Boilermakers can finish no worse than 11-7 in the Big Ten. The last time a Big Ten team posted a winning conference record and missed the tournament was Illinois in 2010, but that team sported 15 total losses. The Big 12 – is also the nation’s best according to the RPI.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...really-looks-like/?wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1

Click to expand...