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Post by mikegarrison on Nov 22, 2016 21:02:06 GMT -5
Bottom line for Texas fans: you have to show that you can play against -- and beat -- other seed-quality teams in order to deserve a seed. If you are Hawaii, you already know that you need to do this in the OoC season. If you are Texas, you are learning that.
But there is absolutely NOTHING that makes it more impressive (or less impressive) to beat those teams in OoC play compared to conference play. No difference. If you are a B1G school and you are going to play Nebraska and Minnesota and PSU and Wisconsin and the rest of the B1G elites, it's just not terribly important to focus on your OoC SOS. You have plenty of opportunity to show off for the committee already.
But if you only have one or zero conference foes that can give you the appropriate resume, then yes, you do have to make sure you get a strong OoC SOS.
Let's put it in concrete terms: According to pablo, Texas's best OoC win was against Oregon. But UCLA has two wins against Oregon. Washington has a win against Oregon. Stanford will be playing Oregon on Wed, so we'll find out. Why would a win against Oregon be more impressive for Texas just because it came OoC?
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trojansc
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Post by trojansc on Nov 23, 2016 2:37:49 GMT -5
Sadly, MG, in the eyes of the committee in terms of RPI, the Big 12 is #2 in Conference RPI rankings. While the Big 12 is much improved, hard to argue they are stronger than the PAC.
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Post by southie on Nov 23, 2016 8:15:00 GMT -5
Bottom line for Texas fans: you have to show that you can play against -- and beat -- other seed-quality teams in order to deserve a seed. If you are Hawaii, you already know that you need to do this in the OoC season. If you are Texas, you are learning that. But there is absolutely NOTHING that makes it more impressive (or less impressive) to beat those teams in OoC play compared to conference play. No difference. If you are a B1G school and you are going to play Nebraska and Minnesota and PSU and Wisconsin and the rest of the B1G elites, it's just not terribly important to focus on your OoC SOS. You have plenty of opportunity to show off for the committee already. But if you only have one or zero conference foes that can give you the appropriate resume, then yes, you do have to make sure you get a strong OoC SOS. Let's put it in concrete terms: According to pablo, Texas's best OoC win was against Oregon. But UCLA has two wins against Oregon. Washington has a win against Oregon. Stanford will be playing Oregon on Wed, so we'll find out. Why would a win against Oregon be more impressive for Texas just because it came OoC?I may be missing your point. Of course Texas knows that you have to schedule tough and win those matchups; we've been doing it for years. This year we don't have that marquee non-conference win, but it's not for a lack of quality opponents. Texas and Hawaii can't really be compared because the strength of our conference doesn't hurt us. Texas had a great non-conference schedule. No one is denying that wins over Nebraska or Wisconsin would probably have sealed a Top 4 seed for us. But, those two non-conference opponents are light years ahead of any opponents Washington or UCLA scheduled, except for maybe San Diego. Even in losing, those matches are probably the main reasons for Texas' strong SOS and RPI. Texas' best win overall comes against Kansas, and vice versa. Up to this point, Washington's best overall win comes against who? Oregon? UCLA has two wins over Stanford. |
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Post by mikegarrison on Nov 23, 2016 8:22:10 GMT -5
I may be missing your point. Yes, you are. You continue to only focus on OoC schedules. A team's resume is their WHOLE season, not just their first 10 matches or so. Washington's best wins to date are Hawaii, Oregon (who they went 1-1 with), Utah (twice), USC, and Arizona (twice). By pablo, Hawaii was actually the best of those wins. But all of those teams are top-30-ish teams. If Washington has any chance of being a top-4 seed they will also have to beat UCLA and WSU this week, of course. Texas also has a good record with a lot of wins over top-30-ish teams. My point was not to say Texas had a weak record, because it doesn't. My point was to say that strength of schedule is for the whole schedule, not just the first 1/3 of it. |
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Post by southie on Nov 23, 2016 9:11:41 GMT -5
I may be missing your point. Yes, you are. You continue to only focus on OoC schedules. A team's resume is their WHOLE season, not just their first 10 matches or so. Washington's best wins to date are Hawaii, Oregon (who they went 1-1 with), Utah (twice), USC, and Arizona (twice). By pablo, Hawaii was actually the best of those wins. But all of those teams are top-30-ish teams. If Washington has any chance of being a top-4 seed they will also have to beat UCLA and WSU this week, of course. Texas also has a good record with a lot of wins over top-30-ish teams. My point was not to say Texas had a weak record, because it doesn't. My point was to say that strength of schedule is for the whole schedule, not just the first 1/3 of it. And, Texas' SOS (entire schedule) is #2 in the country. |
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bluepenquin
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Post by bluepenquin on Nov 23, 2016 9:11:49 GMT -5
Not really related to the discussion above - but something I noticed this year is the nature of the Big 12 schedule (nothing to do with RPI). They play 16 matches in 10 weeks compared to 20 for the Big Ten and Pac 12. I think this is a considerable advantage to the Big 12 teams, particularly the better teams. 4 times a year a team plays only 1 match in a week. When considering the grind - this has to be mentally and physically a much better schedule. I also think it is better preparation for the NCAA tournament and greatly helps bridge the gap the top two conferences have from the better competition during the season.
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Post by c4ndlelight on Nov 23, 2016 11:46:11 GMT -5
Michigan and San Diego have been considered locks to host, but are likely to see themselves on the outside looking in (assuming UM goes 0-2 this week). Utah is licking its chops right now.
There's a lot of crappy profiles in the at-large pool. - UNLV and Cincy have good RPIs without much behind them. The CSU, Georgia Tech, Temple clump right around the RPI cutline is very weak (which can do nothing but help UNLV and Cincy, to be honest).
Illinois at this point looks safe as long as they beat Rutgers. So many terrible SOS near the bubble.
Colorado has to be kicking themselves for dropping the ball against Cal, OSU and PDX St. They'd be a lock if they didn't drop those.
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Post by mikegarrison on Nov 23, 2016 11:50:39 GMT -5
Colorado has to be kicking themselves for dropping the ball against Cal, OSU and PDX St. They'd be a lock if they didn't drop those. There are a lot of teams that would have much better resumes if they got to reverse their three worst losses. |
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Post by FOBRA on Nov 23, 2016 11:51:06 GMT -5
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Post by c4ndlelight on Nov 23, 2016 11:51:49 GMT -5
Colorado has to be kicking themselves for dropping the ball against Cal, OSU and PDX St. They'd be a lock if they didn't drop those. There are a lot of teams that would have much better resumes if they got to reverse their three worst losses. Yes, but there are not a lot of teams that are that good with losses that bad. |
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Post by FOBRA on Nov 23, 2016 11:58:44 GMT -5
There are a lot of teams that would have much better resumes if they got to reverse their three worst losses. Yes, but there are not a lot of teams that are that good with losses that bad. Not sure it matters that much with Gabbi Simpson out. |
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Post by bigfan on Nov 23, 2016 12:15:13 GMT -5
If USD gets shut out no teams in Southern Cal will host a first round. NO USC, UCLA, Pepperdine, LBSU, USD, San Diego St, Cal State Fullerton. |
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Post by n00b on Nov 23, 2016 12:17:27 GMT -5
Not really related to the discussion above - but something I noticed this year is the nature of the Big 12 schedule (nothing to do with RPI). They play 16 matches in 10 weeks compared to 20 for the Big Ten and Pac 12. I think this is a considerable advantage to the Big 12 teams, particularly the better teams. 4 times a year a team plays only 1 match in a week. When considering the grind - this has to be mentally and physically a much better schedule. I also think it is better preparation for the NCAA tournament and greatly helps bridge the gap the top two conferences have from the better competition during the season. Conferences are free to schedule however they want. If it's advantageous to only play 16 conference matches, the Big Ten and Pac-12 are certainly allowed to switch to that. |
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Post by n00b on Nov 23, 2016 12:18:48 GMT -5
If USD gets shut out no teams in Southern Cal will host a first round. NO USC, UCLA, Pepperdine, LBSU, USD, San Diego St, Cal State Fullerton. UCLA will definitely host the first and second rounds. |
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Post by bigfan on Nov 23, 2016 12:23:22 GMT -5
If USD gets shut out no teams in Southern Cal will host a first round. NO USC, UCLA, Pepperdine, LBSU, USD, San Diego St, Cal State Fullerton. UCLA will definitely host the first and second rounds. I hope somebody in the Southern Califiornia area does so I go see them play. |
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