2006 Ragin' Cajuns Baseball RPI

[GoneGolfin]

It is now looking like it will be extremely important for Troy to win the Sun Belt automatic bid. A Middle Tennessee or Florida International bid could be the Cajuns' bid. I will need to see the pRPI numbers tomorrow, but I do believe that Louisiana is positioned as the second Sun Belt at-large school for reasons cited in earlier posts. I am speculating that the RPI differential will be under 15 spots.
Brian

Well, the pRPI differential this morning is exactly at 15 spots. But there could still be movement with two more days of play remaining. Cajun fans should be pulling for Vanderbilt, Hawaii, UC Irvine, and other teams within the vicinity of South Alabama. Losses by Kent State, Oral Roberts, Missouri State, San Francisco, UNC-Wilmington, and Missouri helps the Cajuns. Southern California and Texas Tech are threats to pass the Cajuns in RPI. Ironically, Texas Tech could help the Cajuns by saddling Baylor with a third conference tournament loss and six consecutive conference losses (finishing 13-17 in conference games). Such a loss makes things tight for the Bears. But such a win for Texas Tech could vault them ahead of the Cajuns in pRPI, which could widen the gap with USA.

30 0.579 34 19 34 19 Arizona State
31 0.576 34 24 34 24 Baylor
32 0.575 41 16 41 16 Fresno State
33 0.574 37 23 40 23 Kansas
34 0.572 35 21 35 21 Mississippi State
35 0.571 35 23 35 23 Vanderbilt
36 0.571 35 24 35 24 Louisiana State
37 0.571 40 14 41 14 Hawaii
38 0.570 38 19 38 19 South Alabama
39 0.570 38 21 38 21 Southern Mississippi
40 0.570 35 21 35 21 UC Irvine

Division I Overall
Rank Rating W L W L Team

41 0.566 30 24 30 24 Stanford
42 0.565 28 28 28 28 Florida
43 0.561 42 17 42 17 Jacksonville
44 0.560 29 25 29 25 Long Beach State
45 0.560 43 15 44 15 Notre Dame
46 0.560 43 20 44 20 Wichita State
47 0.559 31 24 31 24 Missouri
48 0.559 40 19 40 19 North Carolina-Wilmington
49 0.558 38 19 38 19 San Francisco
50 0.557 33 20 33 20 Missouri State
51 0.556 34 14 37 14 Oral Roberts
52 0.555 35 18 37 18 Kent State
53 0.555 39 20 39 20 Louisiana-Lafayette
54 0.554 33 26 33 26 East Carolina
55 0.554 39 17 39 17 Old Dominion
56 0.554 25 31 25 31 Southern California
57 0.552 26 30 26 30 Maryland
58 0.552 28 25 31 25 Texas Tech
59 0.551 32 23 32 23 San Diego
60 0.548 39 19 39 19 Michigan

Brian

[Turner]

Thanks Brian that sure is a lot to digest. How you do it I do not know. Does raginpagin pay you? They should.

[GoneGolfin]

The win over South Alabama was huge for the Cajuns. In my mind, it places the Cajuns ahead of the Jaguars in the eyes of the Selection Committee because ...

- The Cajuns evened the season series with South Alabama (with three of the four games at South Alabama and one a neutral site)
- The Cajuns finished 2 1/2 games ahead of South Alabama in the regular season standings
- The Cajuns finished ahead of South Alabama in the conference tournament
- The RPI gap will be closed some more after today
Brian

Some additional data to consider in evaluating Louisiana and South Alabama ...

Note that there are some teams on the respective schedules that are on the fence in the various pRPI brackets. As such, these W-L records within the RPI brackets could easily change in the next couple of days. Also note that the official RPI figures could be slightly different.

Current pRPI:
Louisiana #53, .555
South Alabama #38, .570

Head-to-Head:
Louisiana 2-2
South Alabama 2-2

Last 10 games played:
Louisiana 6-4
South Alabama 6-4

Last 20 games played:
Louisiana 13-7
South Alabama 16-4

Last 30 games played:
Louisiana 22-8
South Alabama 21-9

W-L vs. pRPI Top 25
Louisiana 2-1
South Alabama 2-6

W-L vs. pRPI Top 50
Louisiana 4-3
South Alabama 4-10

W-L vs. pRPI Top 100
Louisiana 14-13
South Alabama 16-16

W-L vs. pRPI TOP 150
Louisiana 22-19
South Alabama 25-19

W-L vs. pRPI < 150
Louisiana 17-1 (guess who the loss was against)
South Alabama 13-0

Overall Conference Record:
Louisiana 21-7 (19-5 regular season, 2nd place | 2-2 Conference Tournament)
South Alabama 17-9 (16-7 regular season, 3rd place | 1-2 Conference Tournament)

Conference Common Opponents:
Louisiana 19-5
South Alabama 15-7

Non-Conference Common Opponents: (Nicholls State, Southeastern Louisiana)
Louisiana 4-0
South Alabama 5-0

Notes:
1) South Alabama has played a tougher Top 50 schedule, which is already reflected in the RPI.

2) South Alabama had the cushy part of its conference schedule in the last twenty games, while Louisiana had the toughest part of its schedule during this stretch.

One thing for sure, we will know whether or not the new Selection Committee chair and Committee as a whole is a slave to the RPI (provided one of Louisiana and South Alabama makes the field and the other stays home).

Brian

[GoneGolfin]

Some positive results for the Cajuns today ...

Troy leads Middle Tennessee 4-0 in the top of the 3rd. Matt Scott is pitching on three days' rest.

Notre Dame is leading Louisville 3-0 in the top of the fourth with the winner earning the Big East automatic bid. This game is crucial for the Cajuns' at-large hopes.

Some good and some bad ...

Baylor likely assured itself of an at-large bid by breaking its five game losing streak and winning a Big XII Conference Tournament game today (1-2) with a 5-3 win over Texas Tech. The bright side is that Texas Tech will not leap the Cajuns in pRPI. But the Big XII may place seven teams in the NCAA Tournament instead of just five. At least six seems a sure bet.

Georgia rallied for four runs in the bottom of the ninth and defeated Vanderbilt 5-4 today. South Alabama (#38, .570) could leap Vanderbilt (#35, .571) in the pRPI. It will be close. We will see how much a loss to Georgia (#7, .612) will affect Vanderbilt's rating of .571.

Brian

[Clutch0364]

Brian you are the MAN!!! I wish I knew half of what you know about college baseball.

[GoneGolfin]

Brian you are the MAN!!! I wish I knew half of what you know about college baseball.

Mom, is that you again posting on the message boards again?

[GoneGolfin]

Some positive results for the Cajuns today ...

Troy leads Middle Tennessee 4-0 in the top of the 3rd. Matt Scott is pitching on three days' rest.

Notre Dame is leading Louisville 3-0 in the top of the fourth with the winner earning the Big East automatic bid. This game is crucial for the Cajuns' at-large hopes.

Some good and some bad ...

Baylor likely assured itself of an at-large bid by breaking its five game losing streak and winning a Big XII Conference Tournament game today (1-2) with a 5-3 win over Texas Tech. The bright side is that Texas Tech will not leap the Cajuns in pRPI. But the Big XII may place seven teams in the NCAA Tournament instead of just five. At least six seems a sure bet.

Georgia rallied for four runs in the bottom of the ninth and defeated Vanderbilt 5-4 today. South Alabama (#38, .570) could leap Vanderbilt (#35, .571) in the pRPI. It will be close. We will see how much a loss to Georgia (#7, .612) will affect Vanderbilt's rating of .571.

Brian

Notre Dame just defeated Louisiville 7-0 to win the Big East automatic bid. This was desperately needed by the Cajuns.

Meanwhile, Middle Tennessee is coming back on Troy scoring six unanswered runs. Troy leads 7-6 after six innings.

Brian

[campo118]

10-6 Troy wins... hopefully that will help the Cajuns....

[GoneGolfin]

Some additional data to consider in evaluating Louisiana and South Alabama ...

Note that there are some teams on the respective schedules that are on the fence in the various pRPI brackets. As such, these W-L records within the RPI brackets could easily change in the next couple of days. Also note that the official RPI figures could be slightly different.

Current pRPI:
Louisiana #53, .555
South Alabama #38, .570
Brian

Note that Louisiana is #51 and South Alabama #36 in the SEBaseball.com Adjusted RPI. I believe this to be slightly more accurate than that of Boyd Nation's pRPI. But both are good.

Brian

[GoneGolfin]

Notre Dame just defeated Louisiville 7-0 to win the Big East automatic bid. This was desperately needed by the Cajuns.

Meanwhile, Middle Tennessee is coming back on Troy scoring six unanswered runs. Troy leads 7-6 after six innings.

Brian

In the not so good category ...

Ball State defeated MAC regular season champion Kent State for the MAC automatic bid 7-4. Kent State defeated Miami-Ohio earlier in the day and was thus 1-1 today. Kent State's RPI will be tight w/respect to that of the Cajuns. They are also conference champions.

Liberty upset Winthrop in the Big South Tournament to win the automatic bid. Winthrop is a lock for an at-large bid. Regular season champion Birmingham-Southern is likely out of the tournament.

In the MVC, Conference champion Evansville defeated 2nd place Missouri State to force a second game for the MVC automatic bid. I think at this point, Cajun fans should root for Evansville. 3rd place Wichita State is also vying for a bid.

In the good category ...

WAC champion Fresno State is in the tournament finals undefeated and must be beaten twice tomorrow to wrest the automatic bid from the Bulldogs. At-large lock Hawaii is still in the field as well. Things are looking good for the Cajuns here.

Brian