How Saint Peter's series, RPI and losses cost the Cajuns

[Rebel02]

We played eastern Illinois and ULM twice in one season and managed to host a super and #1 in the country, we hosted playing sacred heart...not got in...hosted. Bab isn't an idiot, he is the same guy that put together schedules that had us in regionals the last 5 years and hosted twice...all of those schedules had Series with bad teams on them...none of them went winless but there were some really bad RPI teams...we even had to play ULM 6 times in a season a few of those years. We didn't get it done...our play kept us out, nothing else.

Back in 2014, Eastern Illinois and ULM were both teams that finished the season with over 20 wins. Historically (previous 5 seasons), you could count on Eastern Illinois having over 20 wins in a season, so scheduling them wasn't going to significantly hurt the RPI. When looking at St. Peter's history (previous 5 seasons), you could reasonably assume that they'd win around 10-12 games (2012 was their highest win total in the last 5 years and it was 20 wins). You can't throw ULM into your argument because we have no control of them being on the schedule. You can control a team like St. Peter's though.

For each of the last 4 seasons (regional teams), the worst OOC team on the schedule for RPI purposes was
2013- Central Michigan (finished 23-32). Sacred Heart that season was a great opponent for our RPI. Weak northern team that we swept but they do well in conference; finished their season 34-24.
2014- Texas Southern (17-26); Eastern Illinois (21-33)
2015- Jackson State (23-25)
2016- Sacred Heart (30-28); swept them again

Playing Sacred Heart is exactly what we need to do. We swept them each year and they helped our SOS each season. We knew they'd end up with a record around .500 because that's historically what they do once conference play starts. St. Peter's, on the other hand, is not on the same field as Sacred Heart, Jackson State, Eastern Illinois, etc. Their history shows that they would not have been a good RPI team this year or for any other year.

What got us a national seed in 2014 was 53 wins after winning the conference tournament. The SOS that season was ranked 141 at selection time.

[Turbine]

We played eastern Illinois and ULM twice in one season and managed to host a super and #1 in the country, we hosted playing sacred heart...not got in...hosted. Bab isn't an idiot, he is the same guy that put together schedules that had us in regionals the last 5 years and hosted twice...all of those schedules had Series with bad teams on them...none of them went winless but there were some really bad RPI teams...we even had to play ULM 6 times in a season a few of those years. We didn't get it done...our play kept us out, nothing else.

UL plays ULM 6 times all the time. That can't be controlled, control what you can.

If Lotief can schedule the #1 OOC RPI schedule in the country, nothing is preventing baseball from doing a little better.

[CajunAmos]

UL plays ULM 6 times all the time. That can't be controlled, control what you can.

If Lotief can schedule the #1 OOC RPI schedule in the country, nothing is preventing baseball from doing a little better.

Except for that whole "they have to agree to play you as well" thing. I remember many years of never getting top 50 teams to come to Lafayette in softball when baseball would regularly host good teams. Softball got all their SOS from playing on the road. That said I agree in this year that one weekend series costs us a top 40 overall RPI and a top 5 OOC RPI.

[Hark Mudspeth]

UL plays ULM 6 times all the time. That can't be controlled, control what you can.

If Lotief can schedule the #1 OOC RPI schedule in the country, nothing is preventing baseball from doing a little better.

Actually that's exactly my point...control what you can...we didn't. Playing st Peter's was not an automatic post season ban even with them going winless. We were right where we needed to be and we went get swept then lost a home series. If we win a couple more games and got in the tourny then nothing would be different about St. Peter's...changing L's to W's would be the difference...something to consider when trying to EARN an at large bid.

[Hark Mudspeth]

Back in 2014, Eastern Illinois and ULM were both teams that finished the season with over 20 wins. Historically (previous 5 seasons), you could count on Eastern Illinois having over 20 wins in a season, so scheduling them wasn't going to significantly hurt the RPI. When looking at St. Peter's history (previous 5 seasons), you could reasonably assume that they'd win around 10-12 games (2012 was their highest win total in the last 5 years and it was 20 wins). You can't throw ULM into your argument because we have no control of them being on the schedule. You can control a team like St. Peter's though.

For each of the last 4 seasons (regional teams), the worst OOC team on the schedule for RPI purposes was
2013- Central Michigan (finished 23-32). Sacred Heart that season was a great opponent for our RPI. Weak northern team that we swept but they do well in conference; finished their season 34-24.
2014- Texas Southern (17-26); Eastern Illinois (21-33)
2015- Jackson State (23-25)
2016- Sacred Heart (30-28); swept them again

Playing Sacred Heart is exactly what we need to do. We swept them each year and they helped our SOS each season. We knew they'd end up with a record around .500 because that's historically what they do once conference play starts. St. Peter's, on the other hand, is not on the same field as Sacred Heart, Jackson State, Eastern Illinois, etc. Their history shows that they would not have been a good RPI team this year or for any other year.

What got us a national seed in 2014 was 53 wins after winning the conference tournament. The SOS that season was ranked 141 at selection time.

Was sacred heart available? Are people literally just going to ignore that St. Peter's was the only D1 option at the time we scheduled them? It was a bad decision but lets not pretend our coaches picked them over everyone else. I'm sure next time they will choose to give our players a weekend off instead of playing St. Peter's.

[Rebel02]

Was sacred heart available? Are people literally just going to ignore that St. Peter's was the only D1 option at the time we scheduled them? It was a bad decision but lets not pretend our coaches picked them over everyone else. I'm sure next time they will choose to give our players a weekend off instead of playing St. Peter's.

No one is disputing that St. Peter's was the only D1 option available. What you can't seem to grasp is that they weren't the only option available. As GoneGolfin has pointed out, playing a non-D1 program would have been better than playing St. Peter's, even if they had averaged their 10-12 win average of the past 5 seasons.

[Dad04]

Back in 2014, Eastern Illinois and ULM were both teams that finished the season with over 20 wins. Historically (previous 5 seasons), you could count on Eastern Illinois having over 20 wins in a season, so scheduling them wasn't going to significantly hurt the RPI. When looking at St. Peter's history (previous 5 seasons), you could reasonably assume that they'd win around 10-12 games (2012 was their highest win total in the last 5 years and it was 20 wins). You can't throw ULM into your argument because we have no control of them being on the schedule. You can control a team like St. Peter's though.

For each of the last 4 seasons (regional teams), the worst OOC team on the schedule for RPI purposes was
2013- Central Michigan (finished 23-32). Sacred Heart that season was a great opponent for our RPI. Weak northern team that we swept but they do well in conference; finished their season 34-24.
2014- Texas Southern (17-26); Eastern Illinois (21-33)
2015- Jackson State (23-25)
2016- Sacred Heart (30-28); swept them again

Playing Sacred Heart is exactly what we need to do. We swept them each year and they helped our SOS each season. We knew they'd end up with a record around .500 because that's historically what they do once conference play starts. St. Peter's, on the other hand, is not on the same field as Sacred Heart, Jackson State, Eastern Illinois, etc. Their history shows that they would not have been a good RPI team this year or for any other year.

What got us a national seed in 2014 was 53 wins after winning the conference tournament. The SOS that season was ranked 141 at selection time.

Schedule stronger northern programs in the first month. Teams like Central Connecticut, UCONN, Fairfield, Binghamton, Rhode Island, St. Johns, Xavier. They come down get spanked, go home get top 150 rpis and everybody wins.

[Dad04]

No one is disputing that St. Peter's was the only D1 option available. What you can't seem to grasp is that they weren't the only option available. As GoneGolfin has pointed out, playing a non-D1 program would have been better than playing St. Peter's, even if they had averaged their 10-12 win average of the past 5 seasons.

Critics of playing D2 or D3 ask, how can we get a bid with 32 wins? Well, 35 wins and a molested rpi didn't work out.

[Hark Mudspeth]

No one is disputing that St. Peter's was the only D1 option available. What you can't seem to grasp is that they weren't the only option available. As GoneGolfin has pointed out, playing a non-D1 program would have been better than playing St. Peter's, even if they had averaged their 10-12 win average of the past 5 seasons.

And on any given year you are left out, Especially around the bubble you can go back in hind sight and pick better teams to schedule that would have got you in. Or you can go back through the 22 non wins and concentrate on all the boneheaded ___ you did in those games that kept you out...things the players actually had control of. Never once said scheduling them wasn't dumb of the coaches and should and will learn from it...just don't agree with blaming them as why we got "left out" I don't see us as an at large regional team who got left out by a horribly scheduled series...we were an average baseball team who didn't earn an invite.

[Rebel02]

Critics of playing D2 or D3 ask, how can we get a bid with 32 wins? Well, 35 wins and a molested rpi didn't work out.

32 wins and a top 40 RPI ranking would have been better than 35 wins and a ranking around 58 at selection time. Also record versus top 50 was definitely in our favor compared to teams already in the 30-40 RPI ranking range. Looking at last four teams in, we'd have been right on the bubble with Auburn, Michigan, UCLA, and Texas A&M.

We'll never know because of the peacock that was St. Peter's in 2017.