if you understand the mathematics of the rpi, you know that it is pretty much scattershot until about the end of december. up until everyone has played about ten games, the individual opponents actually have a bigger impact on the rpi than the individual team in question. for example, at this point in the season, iowa has a bigger say in louisville's rpi than louisville does and vice versa. after ten games this will no longer be the case, which is why (i'm guessing) most media outlets do not begin to discuss the rpi until at least then. true, the opponent's w/l record makes up 50% of the rpi, but it is generally 20+ teams that make up that 50% as opposed to just one team that makes up the 25% that is the team's w/l record.
it is beginning to sort of, somewhat take shape, but there are still things that are out of wack about it. boston college is currently ranked #1, and that is because clemson, ucla, holy cross and boston university all have one loss or less. kent state is #10 and although they have a good team they probably won't stay that high once conference play starts. tcu is #11 despite being 5-3, but as i said earlier, that's because their opponents have been successful. eventually that record will catch up to them and drag them down. tamucc is #20. that will DEFINITELY go down once they start playing the likes of longwood, northern colorado, ipfw and texas southern. in fact they could wind up having eight games or so against teams that aren't going to win ten games all year. temple checks in at 30, but again that's because of their opponents. at 3-5, they wouldn't even be eligible for an at large bid if the tournament were to start today because they have a losing record.
for teams that probably appear to be rated too low (at least when compared to the polls), uconn is 32, pitt is 42, ucla is 45 (before playing pepperdine they were much lower than that), kentucky is 52, louisville is 56, syracuse is 60 (which should surprise no one with their schedule), mississippi state is 66, florida is 70, oklahoma is 117 and charlotte is 125. none of those teams need to be alarmed about anything. if i remember correctly texas was in the 90s all the way into january and wound up ending the season in the teens. what's more important than the actual rpi at this time of year is the potential rpi, and charlotte and oklahoma still have the same potential to finish #1 in the end as boston college does now.
so, when looking at current resumes for bracketology, it is wise to not put too much stock into the rpi at this point. if you're looking for some diamonds in the rough, be sure and check out this link if you haven't already
http://www.basketballboards.net/foru...500&forumid=94
at least up until this point, we really have had a lot of successful teams from the non bcs conferences. i personally hate the term mid major but i'll go ahead and use it anyway. there are a lot of mid majors who are making claims that they can be ncaa at large teams. i don't remember a season where there were quite this many at this point in the season.
you'll probably start to see some brackets around here in another couple of weeks. i generally like to wait until most everyone has played at least ten games (for reasons i mentioned earlier). again, when you do brackets that early you have to realize that things will change very drastically between january and march, but they are still interesting to look at and serve as a good checkpoint to see where teams CURRENTLY stand.
rpi-ology
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