A potential National Seed scenario that concerns me ...

[jllanclos]

Well played, well played.

I for one am not "overly" concerned about a national seed so long as we dont get screwed and are paired up against a top 3 seed for Supers.

i get playing at home for Supers, but whatever, it is what it is and 10th ranked RPI conference is a freaking joke.

So is the 8th. If Indiana gets a national seed over us, I will flip. If Ole Miss does, it's clear they wanted us out because we're mid-major. Vandy? Well, if they finish strong, I might not have an argument there.

[ulforlife]

and Purdue just beat Butler in 10 innings, which was epic.

I told you they were good! Butler has 42% more wins than Purdue and Purdue still beat them, and Indiana swept Purdue! Think about that...

[GoneGolfin]

I would love to see it happen, but I just don't. I think we will have to go on the road to get to Omaha. They will blame it on the SOS (maybe even our small facility) and fill in the teams they want. If we were #5 or 6 that would be a different story but if we finish even at #8, then I don't think they give it to us. I hope I'm wrong.

Hopefully we get paired with a 7-8 seed that we can handle up on

Facility will not be a factor. Either you have the facilities to host ... or you don't and should not submit a bid (regional or super-regional). National Seeds ... and #1 seeds ... are awarded entirely on merit (play on the field).

Brian

[ulforlife]

Facility will not be a factor. Either you have the facilities to host ... or you don't and should not submit a bid (regional or super-regional). National Seeds ... and #1 seeds ... are awarded entirely on merit (play on the field).

Brian

Very interesting... and good to know

[GoneGolfin]

You really think Indiana would be considered over Louisiana? That's pretty sickening that we're even having this conversation.

As it stands right now ... absolutely. Why would they not be considered? They are right in the thick of it ... especially with an RPI rank of #4. We need that RPI to drop. I thought it was strange that Baseball America thought that Indiana's RPI would drop them out of contention due to their remaining schedule (a couple of weeks back). But like most, they seemed to only be looking at the RPI ranking of the remaining teams ... and made assumptions.

Recall that Indiana was not awarded a national seed last year (but a #1 seed). They proved themselves by going into Tallahassee winning the super regional vs. Florida State ... winning their CWS opener over Louisville. This season ...

- #4 RPI ranking
- A respectable 5-5 vs. the RPI Top 25 ... with a 6th win vs. #26 Washington ... with a game vs. #14 Louisville looming. Only (3) of these games were home games.
- A respectable Road record of 14-8.
- #27 SOS
- #16 Non-Conference RPI
- 1st place Big Ten (#11 Conference RPI ranking ... they keep trading places with the Sun Belt)
- 13-2 over their Last 15 games

Brian

[GoneGolfin]

Very interesting... and good to know

Also ...you should separate the notion of national seed and host. You can obtain a national seed without bidding for a regional or super-regional. The same goes for a #1 seed.

Brian

[GoneGolfin]

I agree but it's hard to make sense when looking at a lot of the decisions made when it comes to this. If we had a bigger stadium we could eliminate one of the two things dogging us.

Irrelevant.

Brian

[jllanclos]

As it stands right now ... absolutely. Why would they not be considered? They are right in the thick of it ... especially with an RPI rank of #4. We need that RPI to drop. I thought it was strange that Baseball America thought that Indiana's RPI would drop them out of contention due to their remaining schedule (a couple of weeks back). But like most, they seemed to only be looking at the RPI ranking of the remaining teams ... and made assumptions.

Recall that Indiana was not awarded a national seed last year (but a #1 seed). They proved themselves by going into Tallahassee winning the super regional vs. Florida State ... winning their CWS opener over Louisville. This season ...

- #4 RPI ranking
- A respectable 5-5 vs. the RPI Top 25 ... with a 6th win vs. #26 Washington ... with a game vs. #14 Louisville looming. Only (3) of these games were home games.
- A respectable Road record of 14-8.
- #27 SOS
- #16 Non-Conference RPI
- 1st place Big Ten (#11 Conference RPI ranking ... they keep trading places with the Sun Belt)
- 13-2 over their Last 15 games

Brian

Does it look like their RPI will drop?

[GoneGolfin]

If your RPI is already calculated using the RPI of your opponents, including your conference opponents... why then does the conference RPI factor into the national seeding? You already have the doubling and tripling up of RPI components in the RPI equation... and then after the RPI aligns everyone, they take into consideration the "conference RPI" to realign further?

There is plenty of redundancy in the selection process ... with RPI being the significant measuring stick that it is. This is but one of the flaws in the process.

That said, I think that a top seeded team coming from a strong conference provides further validation to the committee that awarding that top seed is the right thing to do. If you can win or place high in the strongest conferences (especially ones that historically produce national champions), it is a natural progression to consider that team as one of the top teams in the country. Are there boundary cases where this is not true ... certainly. It is entirely possible (though unlikely) for a conference to have the #1 RPI without a single team in the RPI Top 10 ... or possibly even Top 20. But to use an old adage ... nobody is going to get fired for awarding a national seed to the winner of one of the top conferences in the country.

Brian

[GoneGolfin]

Does it look like their RPI will drop?

You know the answer to that.

I will say that their remaining schedule is a bit more RPI friendly than that of the Cajuns.

Brian

[Just1More]

Does it look like their RPI will drop?

I just deducted .005 for that stupid show "Breaking Amish". That should help.

[jllanclos]

I just deducted .005 for that stupid show "Breaking Amish". That should help.

Thanks!