UL vs Southeastern Louisiana

[basinbear]

we need some of dat magic water.....or Holy Water....

[GoneGolfin]

Sometime in February or early March you predicted we'd have 40 wins before May. Not sure I thought it would happen. 40 wins with a whole month a baseball left. Wow.

It came down to the wire. One more game in the month of April, weather permitting.

Brian

[GoneGolfin]

SO you saying we have a chance lol

Certainly. It is wide open. With the RPI so compacted, the Cajuns could conceivably finish Top 5 or outside the Top 20.

Brian

[raginsaints]

It came down to the wire. One more game in the month of April, weather permitting.

Brian

Not calling for any rain tomorrow.

[angeleast]

Certainly. It is wide open. With the RPI so compacted, the Cajuns could conceivably finish Top 5 or outside the Top 20.

Brian

crazy to think we can be in th pent house or odd house... did that school in BR win?

[GoneGolfin]

Brian this brings up an interesting point. Does the committee look at the actual RPI 4-digit number? Or just the RPI Ranking?

5-digits of precision beginning in 2009.

I have often wondered, but have not heard any evidence either way that the actual number (and differential) is considered/not considered. I can say that beginning in 2009, the RPI value itself was reported in the Nitty Gritty report. It was always in the slew of other related RPI reports. But of the (8) different RPI reports utilized at selection time, it (Nitty Gritty) and the detailed Team Sheets are the most scrutinized and the RPI number is now much easier to glean (and potentially compare to other teams) on the condensed Nitty Gritty report.

In other words, this could in fact be a year where a Top 8 Seed is rewarded to a team outside of the Top 10, merely because the actual 4-digit RPI number is so close in comparison across the Top 20.

It is not that teams outside of the Top 10 RPI do not get awarded national seeds ... they do. This happened in 2011 (#11 Rice, #12 Texas) and 2012 (#11 South Carolina). Last season saw a #9 RPI (Oregon) awarded a national seed and 2010 saw #10 Georgia Tech awarded the same.

It is that the teams earning national seeds with RPIs outside of the Top 8 come from the top conferences in recent years ... and nearly always since the 64-team format commenced ... and typically the very elite conferences where they win the title or finish second. The lowest Conference RPI rank to earn a national seed since 2007 has been #6 ... this was the Big West (CSF and UC-Irvine). This was the year UC-Irvine earned a national seed with an RPI ranking of #18. But I think a big reason they did ... was that Cal-State Fullerton finished four games behind UC-Irvine in the Big West ... but had the #1 RPI. Cal State-Fullerton was a lock for a national seed with the #1 RPI ranking. But how could they leave out UC-Irvine when they won the Big West going away and won the season series at Fullerton (2/3). They could not.

The thing that concerns me the most about the Cajuns and their chances at a national seed is the strength of their schedule (#125) and their conference (#11 Conference RPI). You could draw a parallel between Louisiana this season and San Diego in 2007 (#12 RPI ranking). San Diego came from the #10 RPI Conference and earned a national seed. However, they did have a Top 25 schedule. They were also 11-5 vs. the RPI Top 50. Coastal Carolina had a #6 RPI ranking that same year and was not awarded a national seed. They came from the #13 RPI Conference and had a Top 40 schedule.

It should be noted that the selection committee got egg on their face in 2007 after awarding San Diego a national seed ... they went 0-2 in their own regional.

Brian

[GoneGolfin]

crazy to think we can be in th pent house or odd house... did that school in BR win?

Yes ... but actually playing Alcorn State was not a smart scheduling move.

Brian

[DaddyCajun]

One game at a time, Win baby Win, get help with Wins and Losses where RPI is concerned, and have our Pitching and Hitting on fire with Jet Fuel at the end of the Season and thru the Post Season!

Hitting and parts of pitching is sputtering right now, hopefully this changes for the best!

[Bankruptcyman]

Brian seems to me the strength of schedule and RPI are different sides of the same coin. In the examples you cited, Cal-Irvine and San Diego had strong SOS and high RPI. Isn't it unusual that UL would have a top 12 RPI and such a low SOS? An example was made in another post that the NY Yankees could play a weaker schedule and win 85% of their games and still have a low RPI even though they were clearly the best team. It seems a lot of consideration should go to how well you have played.

[GoneGolfin]

Brian seems to me the strength of schedule and RPI are different sides of the same.

Yes, of course it is two sides of the same coin. If you recall recently, I have mentioned that while the selection committee is being redundant when citing a team's RPI *and* it's strength of schedule as the reason for a seeding/placement, they still think in these terms. So yes ... they are placing additional emphasis on SOS when they do this ... whether they realize it or not.

Brian

[CajunRed]

It just seems that they contradict each other.

[Turbine]

Win all your games and strength of schedule goes down.

Lose all your games and strength of schedule goes up.

The same events have the opposite effect on RPI.

That is my understanding.