RPI is derived primary from conference affiliation.
Xavier played 19 of 33 games last season against A-10 teams.
Marquette played 19 of 32 games last season against Big East teams.
Most of RPI = total OOC win pct by your conference. When you switch teams around into different conferences, the numbers will change.
What makes the BE7 "better than us" is that they win more OOC games. (Of course, watch both the BE7 and A10 both schedule harder going to an easier conference, and Xavier, Saint Louis and Butler schedule easier going to a harder conference).
In a vaccuum, this is true. In reality, not quite perfect logic. It's true that this would help the CONFERENCE as a whole have gaudy, inflated RPI numbers, but upon analyzing each TEAM you could make an argument that there's no 'there' there. While Syracuse goes 13-2 each OOC and never leaves upstate NY, except maybe to play a 'neutral' game at MSG or in Albany, they usually do post at least a few impressive victories in the OOC to hang their hat upon. The reason teams in the A10 schedule tougher games is to have possible calling cards on their resumes. Your point that if everyone simply went 12-3 OOC, then many conference games would be calling cards doesn't hold up. Case in point so far this year? The University of Richmond. Best start in two decades, a disgruntled fan base and a SOS of 300+. Granted teams like ODU and Wake Forest shouldn't be as bad as they are, but that's how it fell. If UR goes 12-3 OOC (losing at Kansas, winning against Mason, Davidson and Air Force) does that make them good? It just makes it not a bad loss, not a great win. It's an awfully thin line to walk. UR could, in theory still make the NCAA tourney, but would need to beat teams that have actual quality wins to do so.
Simply put, what's good for the conference is not what's best for a team with NCAA aspirations.
I could go point-by-point, but I don't want to write a novel on this (again). It sounds like you are with me on the math, just not with what the selection committee would do with teams resumes:
Iowa St, Cincinnati, Saint Louis, Colo St, Notre Dame, Cal and USF (none); New Mexico (beat #31 SLU), West Virginia (#48 K-State), NC St (#50 Texas), Texas (Temple). That's 11 teams who went 4-20 OOC against Top 50 RPI teams. And two of those wins were against each other. All 11 made the NCAA Tournament, 10 via at-large.
Secondly, we're not talking about a whole-scale reduction of OOC SOS across the board that would eliminate all our conferences marquee wins. We're talking about (OOC SOS)
PLAY ONE LESS TOUGH GAME VS BCS TEAMS
81 DUQ 8-5 - (they have to play Pitt, so dump at Arizona)
103 RICH 9-6 - (Illinois/Rutgers was a tournament, so dump at UCLA)
191 BONA 7-5 - (their schedule was perfect for their team last year with Nicholson. Just beat Ark State.)
232 CHAR 8-5 - (Miami and Memphis. Pick one).
EGADS, FIX THAT:
48 GWU 5-9 (0-7 vs Top 120 RPI teams, 5-2 vs 120+)
196 URI 3-12 (0-7 vs Top 150 RPI teams, 10 games vs top 10 conferences; 3-5 vs 150+).
Everyone else did their job.
so what marquee games are we losing off our OOC schedule? Those six teams combined went 0-16 in their marquee game attempts (or 3-16 if you want to count Wake Forest and BC).