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[QUOTE="SUMBA, post: 1973738, member: 913"]
At some point we may have to choose between playing tradition rivals in "recruiting" games and better teams. Looking at the SOS projection our 42nd is significantly below the rest of the ACC, which are all in single digits. Playing cupcakes cost us in the mid 00's when we were left out of the dance despite having arguably better records than some tourney teams.

Uconn and Georgetown are forecast at 129 and 123, respectively. St. John's is the best of the bunch at a 95 projection. Too bad we don't play Villanova, which would likely help our RPI win or lose. To paraphrase Adrian Cronauer: This is not gonna look good on our resume! I understand the recruiting and nostalgic values of these games but unless our former BE brethren improve from these projected levels we may have to rethink scheduling them.

While I agree with jncuse that the RPI is not the be-all-end-all to the committee, it is an extremely important measure. The number of top 50 wins is determined by-guess what? I also think that the RPI functions as the first cut for the committee. However, it is not enough to get a team into the tourney by itself. The year that Missouri State finished with an RPI that would normally ensure NCAA inclusion, they were something like 1-8 vs the top 50. The committee that year correctly discerned that the high RPI was something of a numerical fluke. Whether or not the RPI was "gamed" (as the Missouri Valley Conference was accused of doing at the time) was rendered irrelevant.

Thanks to jncuse for these informative posts. I follow the RPI much more closely than I do the rankings but I don't have the time for such detailed work. I am glad that someone does!
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