Here is an article that reports that the Mountain West Conference is trying to copy the Missouri Valley's secret for "cracking the code" regarding RPI and getting multiple teams into the NCAA tournament. They report that the top 4 or 5 teams in the MWC have upgraded their schedule to accomplish this.
However, upon checking the actual schedules of these MWC teams, it appears that just the opposite is true. The writer lists a couple of good games that each of the MWC teams have scheduled, but they fail to mention all the high RPI cupcakes on their schedules.
Air Force may have a game at home against Wake Forest, but their games they've scheduled with high RPI schools like the following will keep them from achieving the results that the Valley teams did--
Arkansas Pine Bluff
Radford
Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne
Texas Pan American
Div 3 Colorado College!
Norfolk State and
Northern Colorado
BYU plays a game at UCLA and on a neutral court against Michigan State, but then schedules the following cupcakes that won't help their RPI much--
Idaho State
Portland Univ.
Boise State
Weber State
San Jose State
Lamar
Div 2 weakling Western Oregon
Liberty Univ.
Oral Roberts
UNLV will play Minnesota and Arizona, a couple nice games, but then scheduled --
Eastern Washington
UCSB
Div 2 Washburn
Texas A&M Corpus Christi
Norfolk State
South Florida
Utah has no real marquis low RPI games, but will play--
Rice
Weber State
Southern Utah
Utah State
Cal Poly
UCF
Albany
And New Mexico touts their schedule as one of their best in years, but they play a list of bottom dwellers--
Div 2 Abilene Christian
Sacramento State
North Carolina A&T
Longwood
Charleston Southern
Alcorn State
And San Diego State, who won their conference last year, will play--
Div 2- Seattle Pacific
Another Div 2- UC San Diego
UC Riverside
UCSB
USD
Western Michigan
Campbell
Loyola Marymount
Lafayette
St. Marys
I don't see more than 1 or 2 teams entering their conference season in the top 100 in RPI again this year.
However, upon checking the actual schedules of these MWC teams, it appears that just the opposite is true. The writer lists a couple of good games that each of the MWC teams have scheduled, but they fail to mention all the high RPI cupcakes on their schedules.
Air Force may have a game at home against Wake Forest, but their games they've scheduled with high RPI schools like the following will keep them from achieving the results that the Valley teams did--
Arkansas Pine Bluff
Radford
Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne
Texas Pan American
Div 3 Colorado College!
Norfolk State and
Northern Colorado
BYU plays a game at UCLA and on a neutral court against Michigan State, but then schedules the following cupcakes that won't help their RPI much--
Idaho State
Portland Univ.
Boise State
Weber State
San Jose State
Lamar
Div 2 weakling Western Oregon
Liberty Univ.
Oral Roberts
UNLV will play Minnesota and Arizona, a couple nice games, but then scheduled --
Eastern Washington
UCSB
Div 2 Washburn
Texas A&M Corpus Christi
Norfolk State
South Florida
Utah has no real marquis low RPI games, but will play--
Rice
Weber State
Southern Utah
Utah State
Cal Poly
UCF
Albany
And New Mexico touts their schedule as one of their best in years, but they play a list of bottom dwellers--
Div 2 Abilene Christian
Sacramento State
North Carolina A&T
Longwood
Charleston Southern
Alcorn State
And San Diego State, who won their conference last year, will play--
Div 2- Seattle Pacific
Another Div 2- UC San Diego
UC Riverside
UCSB
USD
Western Michigan
Campbell
Loyola Marymount
Lafayette
St. Marys
I don't see more than 1 or 2 teams entering their conference season in the top 100 in RPI again this year.
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