Upcoming Opponent Butler is the #1 RPI Team #1 SOS Team

[tornado]

Yup, Butler is presently #1 in both RPI and Strength of Schedule.

http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_230_Men.html

it'd be nice to beat them when they come in to Peoria

[Bravesfan]

Yup, Butler is presently #1 in both RPI and Strength of Schedule.

http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_230_Men.html

it'd be nice to beat them when they come in to Peoria

Yeah, we can say we beat North Carolina! Wait a minute, okay it's "only" Butler, but they will be better than most expect them to be. This would be a great win for us if we can get it.

[MacabreMob]

Yup, Butler is presently #1 in both RPI and Strength of Schedule.

http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_230_Men.html

it'd be nice to beat them when they come in to Peoria

T - it really IS kinda crazy to look at the RPI and SOS this early in the season.

Most crack-pipes will tell you it doesn't matter til late February.

Bottom line - it doesn't matter until Selection Sunday. (Gee - don't I sound like a journalistic genius?)

No really, IMO... with more games allowed on the schedule, with games starting earlier in the season, more in-season tournies allowed... I think Mid-January is a good time to START looking at RPI and SOS.

[pfunk880]

RPI is useless now and is only borderline useful (read: selectively applied) when Selection Sunday comes around.

[tornado]

I would have to disagree.........

what you are saying is kinda like saying that a team's record isn't important right now...

in some sense it isn't because you could run the table and end with a pretty good record even if you are 2-5 right now.

But if you mean losing now has NO impact, then that's silly as well all know one bad loss right now might be the sole factor that causes your team to lose out on a bid (NCAA or NIT) 3 months from now.

So your wins and losses are all important and with that comes the assessments of RPI and SOS.
Every message board in America has discussions about the RPI, but for some weird reason this is the only one with folks who blow the whistle in every thread saying "the RPI does not matter and we are silly to be discussing it".

[cpacmel]

Every message board in America has discussions about the RPI, but for some weird reason this is the only one with folks who blow the whistle in every thread saying "the RPI does not matter and we are silly to be discussing it".

Hmmm, a good # of SIU guys think it's silly too:

http://www.salukitalk.net/st/viewtopic.php?t=24165&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Time for a stupid thread. Haven't had one since the election.

SIU is ranked #9 on Real Time RPI. Stength of schedule is 203.

Stand by. Subject to change wildly.

Yep, RPI indices like realtimerpi.com need a large sample space before they become valid predictors.

I have no idea why anyone is even remotely paying attention to the RPI this early in the season. After everyone plays some games, then it can be fun to check out. Right now the RPI means jacks squat.

Don't look at the RPI until conference season rolls around....

This is one of my favorites:

Some say it's laughable because of where the RPI's are this time of year, I say it's laughable to even check. It nearly pointless IMO.

WSU: http://www.shockernet.net/sn/viewtop...&highlight=rpi

And it's not even worth looking at the RPI til early January, at the earliest.

Ignore the RPI until January.

http://www.valleytalk.net/showthread.php?t=7474&highlight=RPI

Nicely done Evansville! You guys are tied for first in the current rpi rankings!

Means absolutely nothing though.

That's just a few I found. And I thought you didn't read other message boards?

[tornado]

wow...do you really think that's being fair??

First...the SIU thread you linked was from Nov. 14...long before teams had played any games...so of course the RPI was meaningless back then.
But it does go on and on for four pages, and the longer it goes on the more there is relevant talk of the RPI as a significant factor!!

In that exact same thread, if you go to the current comments, they are talking about the RPI as if it is an important tool in assessing teams.
In other words...the very link you gave ends up discrediting your point and disproving what you say!

http://www.salukitalk.net/st/viewtopic.php?p=590633#590633

Then the Shocker thread you linked to says this...
"by next week it (the RPI) should be close to accurate."
and it was posted LAST WEEK....so again, I guess I just don't see why you keep linking to other people who disagree with you!!

and of course lastly...the valleytalk link is the one I'd put the least credibility into, as most of the stuff on VT is pretty inane, but again it is from over a week ago when Evansville had played only two games!...and it still proves people are talking about the RPI....


Most of all you totally bolstered my single strongest argument of all...
that the RPI is being discussed on every message board, and we are the only ones with the outside RPI-police telling us not to discuss it!!

Every message board in America has discussions about the RPI..."

RPI update...
Bradley at 67 just two notches behind Kansas (65) and ahead of Baylor & Ohio State.
ISU is at 171 just one notch ahead of Cornell (172) and a couple notches ahead of 0-5 Arkansas-Pine Bluff, and behind winless Texas-San Antonio.
Is it any wonder the ISU fans don't want to hear talk of RPI.

[cpacmel]

Yes I think those links are fair. Who cares if they were started a few weeks ago. The talk of RPI here and it's importance were started a few weeks ago as well.

And this is an honest question for you: How come when you post a link, it's supposed to be taken as fact / gospel, but when I or others post one it's not a valid link / discredited?

You want to think the RPI is valid and useful this year, COOL. But don't go around saying that no other message board claims it to be quite the opposite. Good grief man, how many of the fine posters here have told you as much for the last few weeks?

And it doesn't surprise me that you don't like valleytalk.

I'll be glad to talk about RPI. When there is more data into it and it's more valid.

Right now: Evansville is #6 Arkansas State is #13 Northwestern is #20. You don't see a problem with this?

[tornado]

those links discredited themselves by going on and on and on and on about the RPI.

how come you can use a 4-5 page thread in which many posters are discussing the RPI and claim it proves nobody thinks the RPI is worth discussing??

How come you can't stand to let the Bradley fans discuss what suits them?
If we were were 343 in RPI, you can bet there'd be plenty of talk about it on the Redbird board....wanna bet??

[cpacmel]

How come you can't stand to let the Bradley fans discuss what suits them?

You can discuss anything you like. Just don't make false claims like no other message board discredits the RPI this early. Because some posters do.

Look at what your own posters have said about the RPI over the last couple of weeks here.

Would you like me to quote them for you?

T - it really IS kinda crazy to look at the RPI and SOS this early in the season.
I think Mid-January is a good time to START looking at RPI and SOS.

This fact shows how worthless these numbers are this early in the season. SIU's SOS is so low because UCLA's current RPI is 138, UMass is 326, and W. Kentucky is 257. All of those teams will have much better RPIs before the season is over, and SIU's SOS will look a lot better.

In the "good old days" the RPI wasn't even calculated until every team had played around 10 games or so. It's completely bogus at this point in the season and shouldn't even be looked at.

As much as I don't care for the RPI this early in the season, one thing is very clear......

isu's schedule is absolutely terrible!
.

Isn't it a bit early for this

RPI is irrelevant until well into the season. In a few weeks, Pomeroy Ratings should be somewhat indicitive of team quality, but I'd suggest ignoring RPI at least until conference season.

I could keep going....

And I am not trying to start a fight with you or anyone else here. Just debating the merit of it all. Personally the Sagarin seems the way to go early on.

[ER3]

The RPI is useless at this point in the season.

Evansville is #6
Illinois is #7
George Mason is #9
Arkansas State is #11
Northwestern is #20


and North Carolina is #21


Stop using it in November and December to draw conclusions about how good or bad a team is...
Any ranking system that has UNC ranked behind anyone...let alone Evansville, Arkansas State, and Northwestern is laughable and is not worth placing any value in...
Once teams start getting into their conference schedules, the numbers will start to normalize and then you can start to look at where teams are...until then, just leave it alone.

[tornado]

I honor your right to believe it is useless, any chance of you guys honoring someone's differing opinion?
If it is so useless, why is it being discussed with numerous multipage threads on every message board as you, yourselves have shown, and websites a completely dedicated to it, as for the most parts, the teams that have scheduled well and won are at the top and the teams who have not are at the bottom.

Sure you can cite some anomalies like UNC at #15 or Evansville at #6 but the vast majority of teams are right now, kinda where they deserve to be.
Like it or not, the RPI isn't too much different than the newspaper showing the major league baseball standings in April or May.
Everyone knows that's not likely how they'll look in September, but that's the way the standings are NOW and people DO care and do look at them and discuss them.


Maybe we should BAN all discussion of a teams wins, losses or win-loss record, and ban all discussion of players averages and shooting percentages...
after all none of this is the way it's going to be in 3 months, and there are some real anomalies this early in the season!

[BUFAN]

Drake, Ball St., Northwestern, and Evansville = #1 SOS. What a joke.

[bugregshu]

I know RPI doesn't matter much right now, but it's still fun to see Bradley at 47 with a SOS of 67. UIC, Richmond, ETSU, Florida, and UMKC are all top 100 RPI as of right now.

[Braves4Life]

Personally the Sagarin seems the way to go early on.

YES! Exactly......http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagar...terstitialskip