Latest Belt Rpis (12/31)

MeanGreen61 · December 31, 2010

http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_sbelt_Men.html

Censored by Laurie · December 31, 2010

Ugg...once Troy loses 1 or 2 games we'll have 5 schools +300 in RPI. Again...ugg. UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG.

CMJ · December 31, 2010

Looks like we'll be the 26th rated league this year. That is amazingly bad for the Belt - even last year we were WELL above that.

Edited December 31, 2010 by CMJ

ColoradoEagle · December 31, 2010

The new scheduling requirements go into effect for 2011-2012, right? Will that move us into a top 15 spot, and how quickly? How quickly do you think we could pass SoCon and possibly the MVC?

TheTastyGreek · December 31, 2010

The new scheduling requirements go into effect for 2011-2012, right? Will that move us into a top 15 spot, and how quickly? How quickly do you think we could pass SoCon and possibly the MVC?

I don't see a league with program budget issues and a misguided overemphasis on football passing up the Missouri Valley conference.

The 150 rule isn't going to magically generate revenue or raise the level of give-a-damn at some of the programs that kill our RPI... It will just minimize the damage that they can do. Passing the MVC means passing a conference where everyone treats basketball as the main priority, and everyone takes it seriously. Not likely to happen.

ColoradoEagle · December 31, 2010

The 150 rule isn't going to magically generate revenue or raise the level of give-a-damn at some of the programs that kill our RPI... It will just minimize the damage that they can do. Passing the MVC means passing a conference where everyone treats basketball as the main priority, and everyone takes it seriously. Not likely to happen.

Ok, so I get that schools like ULM and Troy are holding us back as a conference. What can we realistically expect from the top half of the conference once this rule goes into effect or shortly after? Two bids? Possibly a team ranked at one point or another during the season? More representation at any of the tournaments?

stebo · December 31, 2010

The new scheduling requirements go into effect for 2011-2012, right? Will that move us into a top 15 spot, and how quickly? How quickly do you think we could pass SoCon and possibly the MVC?

I always have trouble with understanding these RPI rankings but isn't NT pretty low? I read on the Belt board that we will have to drastically change our scheduling philosophy. I guess that we have scheduled some serious pansies over the last few years

CMJ · December 31, 2010

I always have trouble with understanding these RPI rankings but isn't NT pretty low? I read on the Belt board that we will have to drastically change our scheduling philosophy. I guess that we have scheduled some serious pansies over the last few years

We're #84 at the moment, which is pretty decent. We count as a quality win for both Kansas and SHSU. The deal is, so much of your RPI is based on how strong your league is -- once we all start playing each other, it is gonna be hard not to drop. That's why the hope is...once the SBC scheduling rules go into effect -- nobody will have the downright terrible RPI's that some of our league mates have at the moment.

TheTastyGreek · December 31, 2010

Ok, so I get that schools like ULM and Troy are holding us back as a conference. What can we realistically expect from the top half of the conference once this rule goes into effect or shortly after? Two bids? Possibly a team ranked at one point or another during the season? More representation at any of the tournaments?

It should be business as usual for the top 4 or 5 teams in the Belt. 150 or better RPI teams are exempt, so other than no sub-D1 games, not much will change in approach or results. Losing D-2 tuneup games may cost us a win every 2 or 3 years because of having to take a road game or playing a D-1 schedule filler that happens to have a hot night, but otherwise, nothing changes.

Since nothing the conference can do will get those bottom teams to win more, the rule will make them hurt everyone else less. The 23 win UALR team from 2008-09 would have probably gotten a postseason bid to the NIT. They finished the year with an RPI of 91, and under the 150 rule they probably would have been in the mid 70's.

What it could mean in a year like this would be having some hope for an at-large depending on how the season played out. If (and I'm just talking very hypothetically here) we go something like 14-2 or 15-1 in conference, we'd end the regular season 25-4 or 26-3. Even under that very successful set of circumstances, we'd still need to win the tournament to get in. But if the bottom of the league weren't SO terrible this year, we could conceivably lose in the finals, finish 27-5 or 28-4, and potentially have as good a shot at the at-large as South Alabama did back in 2008.

As it is now... It's possible (in imagination land, not actually predicting this) that we could win out through conference play, finish the regular season 27-2, and lose in the finals to whatever the second best RPI team in the league wound up being (FAU? UALR? WKU?). If that happened, we'd end the year 29-3 with losses to at least two NCAA teams (Kansas and whoever won the SBC tournament) and possibly a 3rd if SHSU wins the Southland. And we'd probably be one of those sad teams they show looking dejected after the last bracket is announced in the NCAA selection show, without our name getting called. All because the 0-1-2 win OOC teams at the bottom of the league killed the conference RPI so badly.

I wouldn't expect the SBC to turn into annual contenders for at-large bids. But the rule would ensure that an exceptional team could slip up in the tournament and still have a viable shot at an NCAA trip, or a strong 2nd place team wouldn't have to worry about missing out on postseason play entirely because of losing the tournament and not having an NIT auto-bid.

Short answer... The 150 rule probably means the conference can get an at-large bid every 3-5 years consistently instead of every 10 years if we're lucky.

ntmeangreen11 · January 1, 2011

Given how poor the rest of the sun belt has performed, it is absolutely crucial that we do Sour best to finish strong,if we want to have a good seed in the tourney. I think at 26-2 with wins over LSU and Texas, I think it is most certainly possible too win out, teo, I am fully confident that we could do it, however, it would not shock me to see us drop atleast 2 conference games, maybe as many as four.

Knox has had a few good games, hopefully his confidence will build and we'll have a somewhat decent compliment to George. GMG! Can't wait for tonight!