Conference RPI

[RoyalShock]

I posted this on ShockerNet and thought it was worth re-posting here.

A lot is made of conference RPI as a way to rank conferences by strength. There is also a myth I read from fans on a yearly basis that once conference season starts the league's RPI stays relatively constant since they are playing one another.

75% of a team's RPI is comprised of how their opponents (and opponents' opponents) do. Since roughly a third of a team's games are against non-conference foes, those team's performances in their respective leagues can have a significant impact on the conference RPI.

Case in point, even though there were no MVC games yesterday, the league nearly jumped up to 12th from 13th. (.5103 to the Ivy's .5107) The MVC is actually closer to 9th (Horizon .5226) than 14th (WCC .4939).

Should Valley foes do relatively well I could easily see the MVC jumping back into the top 10 of conference RPI.