Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Inside the RPI of Non-BCS Conferences in College Basketball

The following data, extracted from www.kenpom.com, includes RPI ratings, aggregate records and strength of schedule for non-BCS conferences through games ending on Tuesday, November 20. Please note that this information does not capture results against non-Division I teams.

Conference

RPI

Record

SOS

Mountain West

5

26-4

28

West Coast

7

11-16

1

Patriot League

8

19-14

11

Colonial

9

18-18

2

Missouri Valley

10

16-10

14

Horizon League

11

16-13

15

Mid-American

12

17-20

3

Big Sky

14

13-17

4

Atlantic 10

15

35-19

22

Big West

16

15-13

18

Southland

17

12-18

8

Western Athletic

18

12-17

5

Conference USA

19

21-15

23

Metro Atlantic

20

15-20

20

Sun Belt

21

12-20

12

Ivy League

22

11-20

13

Southern

23

10-21

10

Mid Eastern

24

8-29

9

America East

25

13-22

25

Ohio Valley

26

6-24

17

Southwestern

27

4-27

19

Atlantic Sun

28

14-34

27

Northeast

29

12-28

30

Big South

30

9-16

31

Summit League

31

9-22

29


ANALYSIS

Though we are only a few weeks into the young season, not much moving and shaking gets done among the non-BCS conferences once conference play goes full stream in early January.

Despite the cream puff schedules across the board, the Mountain West has surprised many with their early start to the season. A whopping two-thirds of the conference remains undefeated and five schools are in the RPI Top 100. On the flipside, only one – UNLV – has a strength of schedule (12th) that’s worthy of the top 100.

Remaining out west, St. Mary’s scored a big victory for the West Coast defeating Bryce Taylor-less Oregon, as they elevated the conference profile to include teams located outside of Spokane, Washington. Surprisingly, Gonzaga is undefeated yet only has the 4th highest RPI rating (70th) among WCC teams. Translation: Don’t schedule UC Riverside unless you are willing to accept a precipitous decline in your tournament profile.

Traveling more than 3,000 miles east [and not even coming close to the amount of steps Joakim Noah took at Florida], Colonial Athletic Association Commissioner Tom Yeager - in a private moment, of course - wishes he could trim the conference by three teams: William & Mary and relative newcomers Georgia State and Delaware. Combined, these teams are 0-8 and are all situated in the bottom 41 of 340 D-1 teams. To put things in perspective, seven CAA teams find themselves in the RPI Top 100 (six are in the SOS Top 100) and Old Dominion and Northeastern are knocking at the door.

Moving all the way down to the Conference RPI caboose, the Summit League probably regrets changing its name from the Mid-Continent Conference. Sure, the Summit League sounds cooler and the Mid-Continent Conference is a rather nebulous name. It appears bleak across the board as North Dakota State (151st), who is not eligible to participate in the conference tournament until next year, is the only Summit League team rated in the RPI Top 200.

Top 5 Winning Percentages (number in parentheses indicates overall ranking)
Mountain West .867 (1)
Atlantic 10 .648 (8)
Missouri Valley .615 (9)
Conference USA .583 (10)
Patriot League .576 (11)

Top 5 Strengths of Schedule (number in parentheses indicates overall ranking)
West Coast .5613 (1)
Colonial .5473 (2)
Mid American .5444 (3)
Big Sky .5378 (4)
Western Athletic .5327 (5)

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