NCAA RPI Bonuses (Baseball and Softball)

[GoneGolfin]

I was performing some research and a little reverse engineering and discovered some interesting things. It seems the RPI calculation community has been using incorrect bonuses/penalties for baseball (slightly off). Meanwhile, the bonuses/penalties for softball differ dramatically from baseball.

First, NCAA Baseball:
It was commonly thought that the bonus/penalty structure was the following ...

Bonus: (Wins in Non-Conference Road Games)
vs. Base RPI Top 25: .0024
vs. Base RPI Top 50 (26 -> 50): .0018
vs. Base RPI Top 75 (51 -> 75): .0012

Penalty: (Losses in Non-Conference Home Games)
vs. Base RPI Bottom 25 (276 -> 300): .0024
vs. Base RPI Bottom 50 (251 -> 275): .0018
vs. Base RPI Bottom 75 (226 -> 250): .0012

The bonus/penalty structure is actually ...
Bonus: (Wins in Non-Conference Road Games)
vs. Base RPI Top 25: .0022
vs. Base RPI Top 50 (26 -> 50): .00165
vs. Base RPI Top 75 (51 -> 75): .0011

Penalty: (Losses in Non-Conference Home Games)
vs. Base RPI Bottom 25 (276 -> 300): .0022
vs. Base RPI Bottom 50 (251 -> 275): .00165
vs. Base RPI Bottom 75 (226 -> 250): .0011

NCAA Softball:
I will provide the actual bonuses/penalties in a future post. But the key differences I wanted to point out with respect to NCAA Baseball are:

- Bonuses and Penalties are only awarded for the Top/Bottom 25 Base RPI and Top/Bottom Base RPI 50 tiers. There are no bonuses for wins vs. teams with a Base RPI of 51+ and no penalties for losses vs. teams with a Base RPI of 240- (using 289 Div. I teams from 2011).

- Bonuses and Penalties are awarded irrespective of whether the game is a non-conference matchup

- Bonuses and Penalties are awarded irrespective of whether the game is home, neutral, or away

Thus, the Softball RPI implementation (much more than baseball) very much awards the schools in the power conferences. It also awards the power conference teams that are able to schedule a high percentage of their games at home, as there is no distinction between home/road/neutral in the context of RPI bonuses/penalties.

This also means that the Cajuns will likely earn bonus points for their home doubleheader sweep of Georgia Tech last week ... and will also earn bonus points for victories over Arizona State and Michigan. Tulsa, Mississippi State, Kentucky, Troy, Houston, McNeese State, and Fresno State are also likely candidates.

As a comparison, at NCAA Selection time in 2011, Cajun softball had only (3) RPI bonus games (#3 Alabama, #14 Notre Dame, #35 Long Beach State) to their credit and had (1) penalty game (loss to #244 Base RPI Southern). At selection time, the Cajuns had an Adjusted RPI of 35 and a Base RPI of 33.

This season is going to be different.

BTW, the Cajuns' OWP at selection time last year? A catastrophic .4880. OOWP was .5184, which is why I have been saying an estimate of .5000 this year thus far is quite conservative As I have recounted many times, OWP killed the Cajuns last year ... unlike any other year.

Brian

[Turbine]

Thanks for stayng on top of the RPI metric.

"This season is going to be different."

[wcd35]

Are they planning on revising the structure in both sports next year? I know baseball but wasnt sure about softball. Any idea on the bonus/penalty structure in the future?

[GoneGolfin]

Are they planning on revising the structure in both sports next year? I know baseball but wasnt sure about softball. Any idea on the bonus/penalty structure in the future?

I have not heard whether or not softball will adapt any of the changes that are coming with baseball in 2013.

In baseball, there will be no bonus/penalty structure beginning in 2013.

Brian

[GoneGolfin]

It was commonly thought that the bonus/penalty structure was the following ...

Bonus: (Wins in Non-Conference Road Games)
vs. Base RPI Top 25: .0024
vs. Base RPI Top 50 (26 -> 50): .0018
vs. Base RPI Top 75 (51 -> 75): .0012

Penalty: (Losses in Non-Conference Home Games)
vs. Base RPI Bottom 25 (276 -> 300): .0024
vs. Base RPI Bottom 50 (251 -> 275): .0018
vs. Base RPI Bottom 75 (226 -> 250): .0012

I wanted to mention that the above NCAA Baseball RPI bonus/penalty structure was in place through the 2008 season, though the number of teams playing Division I baseball has changed a bit over the years (adjust penalties accordingly).

The bonus/penalty structure is actually ...
Bonus: (Wins in Non-Conference Road Games)
vs. Base RPI Top 25: .0022
vs. Base RPI Top 50 (26 -> 50): .00165
vs. Base RPI Top 75 (51 -> 75): .0011

Penalty: (Losses in Non-Conference Home Games)
vs. Base RPI Bottom 25 (276 -> 300): .0022
vs. Base RPI Bottom 50 (251 -> 275): .00165
vs. Base RPI Bottom 75 (226 -> 250): .0011

Starting with the 2009 season, the above NCAA Baseball RPI bonus/penalty structure has been in place, though the number of teams playing Division I baseball has changed a bit since 2009 (adjust penalties accordingly). Last season there were 300 Division I teams ... this season there are 297.

The NCAA Baseball RPI Bonus/Penalty structure will cease to exist in 2013.

Brian