Softball Games of Interest, Week of 3/24- 3-31

[GoneGolfin]

Your research and insight is always on point. RPI watching in March makes little sense though. Hundreds of games to be played that will impact RPI…most notably UL’s.

This is not correct. We are at the point of the season (and have been for a couple of weeks) where there is sufficient connectivity ... meaning the RPI has achieved stability (in measuring what it measures) and is useful to gauge both where a team is ... as well as prospects for moving up/down/hold given the remaining schedule.

Brian

[GoneGolfin]

This has been discussed before, but is worth repeating. Our actual RPI is a 4 digit decimal calculated by the following formula:

[Our winning Percentage/4] + [Our Opponents' winning Percentage/2] + [Our Opponents Opponents winning Percentage/4]

There are adjustments made to Our Opponents records to remove the influence of their games against us before that calculation is made. Because the exact nature of these adjustments is essentially an NCAA secret, RPI from any other source is an estimate.

You are referring to two different things.

1) The "adjustments made to our opponents records" you mention is simply the method by which each teams' OWP is calculated. When an OWP is calculated for a given team, the team's results against each opponent is removed from that opponents' OWP contribution. For example, Wright State contributes an OWP of .5714 (weighted by three games) to the Cajuns' OWP. This is because a record of 12-9 (.5714) is used, not 13-11 (.5417).

However, note that your own winning percentage contributes to your OOWP calculation. This is why winning is not 25% of the formula, but slightly more. That is, your opponent's OWP includes your WP, which is used to calculate your OOWP.

2) The secret adjustments are not really secrets. They are adjustments (bonuses/penalties) for non-conference road games vs. certain RPI ranked competition. They have adjusted these constants over time some ... but they are easy to reverse engineer from the data.

Brian

[CajunSID]

This is not correct. We are at the point of the season (and have been for a couple of weeks) where there is sufficient connectivity ... meaning the RPI has achieved stability (in measuring what it measures) and is useful to gauge both where a team is ... as well as prospects for moving up/down/hold given the remaining schedule.

Brian

We’ll just have to agree to disagree. But I get your point. My main point is UL needs to win, win often and, most importantly, keep getting better. And things will take care of itself.

[CajunSID]

Very true; but, just as some people are statistics geeks, I am an RPI geek. I can't help myself. Besides, it is fun to see how non-conference scheduling impacts the perceived quality of teams, most particularly those teams in the AAC, Sun Belt, Mountain West and CUSA, which are generally the only conferences outside the money group [SEC, B12, P12, B10 and ACC] that routinely get two or more teams in the NCAA Tournament.

Lol!! I hear ya. Love the enthusiasm. Geaux Cajuns!

[Turbine]

I didn't do this every year, and this was baseball, but 2002-03 taught me how much fun it can be to track the RPI all season long.

On today's date in 2003, Louisiana was 205 and climbed to 49 by seasons end.

It was so much fun to watch the game outside the game.

[VObserver]

You are referring to two different things.

1) The "adjustments made to our opponents records" you mention is simply the method by which each teams' OWP is calculated. When an OWP is calculated for a given team, the team's results against each opponent is removed from that opponents' OWP contribution. For example, Wright State contributes an OWP of .5714 (weighted by three games) to the Cajuns' OWP. This is because a record of 12-9 (.5714) is used, not 13-11 (.5417).

However, note that your own winning percentage contributes to your OOWP calculation. This is why winning is not 25% of the formula, but slightly more. That is, your opponent's OWP includes your WP, which is used to calculate your OOWP.

2) The secret adjustments are not really secrets. They are adjustments (bonuses/penalties) for non-conference road games vs. certain RPI ranked competition. They have adjusted these constants over time some ... but they are easy to reverse engineer from the data.

Brian

Easy for you, GG, no so much for us mere mortals in math and computers.

[VObserver]

Last night's games:

Cal vs Weber State Cal 10 Weber St 2
Miami vs Pitt Miami 10 Pitt 6
JMU vs UVa UVa 12 JMU 3

[VObserver]

Series This Weekend

OU vs Ks
Cal vs Utah
LSU vs aTm
MSU vs FL
Texas vs Ok St
Baylor vs ISU
Stanford vs Az
Miami vs Buffalo
New Mexico vs Nevada
Colorado St vs SDSU
Nicholls vs Lamar
McNeese vs Northwestern St
ULM vs Marshall
Coastal Carolina vs GaSo
JMU vs GaSt
LTU vs Liberty We want a split
Tx St vs USA We want a split