Mid-Con RPI

[89rabbit]

Last season RPI ratings for the Mid-Con's mens basketball teams.  I got the ratings from midmajority.com

131 - Oral Roberts
158 - IUPUI
182 - Valpo
223 - NDSU
227 - Chicago State
264 - UMKC
276 - SDSU
285 - Oakland
291 - IPFW
303 - Southern Utah
317 - Western Illinois
325 - Centenary

When you take out Valpo and Chicago State we would finish in the top half, not bad considering how decimated our team was by the end of the season. We will be able to compete is this league.

Go State!

[Jacks99]

Re: Mid-Con RPI

Good stuff, that's very encouraging. Will all the new conference games the record would look much better. I'm sure Jackrabbit Nation expects to be competing for the title soon!

[valpotx]

Re: Mid-Con RPI

Like a similar post I did on the NDSU forum, I seriously hope you do not expect to win the conference right from the start in basketball, or probably any sport.

This is not a knock on your programs, it is more of a realistic expectation to finish mid-table. Teams like ORU, IUPUI, UMKC, Oakland, and even SUU (WIU & Centenary are not too good, but can still shock a team) compete in every game during conference, regardless of how they do in non-conference.

Once the conference schedule gets going, all teams ramp it up knowing they are battling for favorable positions in the conference tournament. In the conference tournament itself, all bets are off. Case in point is when Chicago State made it to the championship game last year as the 6 seed, and when Oakland won the tournament as a 7 seed. In 2005, we lost to Chicago State in the first round after dominating the regular season/tournament for a full decade, and I think a record of 20-1 or something against them. The league is getting better as a whole, even though this last year was an off-year at a conference rpi of 28 or so out of 31 (typically between 22nd-26th best conference of 31 in men's).

I know you will be getting better before you enter the conference, but from the look of this last season, there is some major building needed to get to that championship you are talking about. Losses against UVSC, IPFW twice, SE MO St, Idaho State, Middle TN, etc are not games the top teams in our conference lose (these are sub-par D-1 programs traditionally). The wins against Denver, Northern Colorado, UT-Pan Am twice, are similar to beating Centenary or WIU, not very impressive for a conference contender. I know you will be scheduling better opponents as time goes on, but this is where your program is right now. To expect to go from that to conference winner in 2-3 years is hard to do.

Again, I am not trying to knock you guys, as I wish the conference & your school the best (hoping all 3 schools get in, so we don't feel bad about leaving conference high and dry like what happened in the mid-90's). But, I still want you to realize that to be at the top of the conference in basketball, these types of schools need to be beaten by double digits. I don't doubt that you will get there at some point down the road, but realistically, don't expect it before you have been in the league for 5 years (ORU seems to have a decade of dominance in Mid-Con starting).

[Haldersham]

Re: Mid-Con RPI

valpotx:

I dont take your comments as slam, but maybe more of a doze of reality. Our program has a long ways to go in terms of progress. We have played some big names for money but not for victories. I do think the Mid Con is probably is the only entry into a higher RPI. Our fans love a conference and if there is a hang over from D2, its the tough competitive NCC with men and women double hitters on Friday-Saturday home stands.

Its going to take a while to get things rolling so SDSU has its work cut out for them. Those who think a conference championship is possible right off the bat are very unrealistic and romantic dreamers. They have watched the movie "Hoosiers" one too many times.

[filbert]

Re: Mid-Con RPI

The expectations for basketball at SDSU always have been (and hopefully will always be) very high. But I don't think many of us in Jackrabbit Nation underestimate the difficulty we will encounter competing in any D-I autobid conference.

I think the important thing is that we will not be joining any conference expecting to be satisfied with middle-of-the-pack performance. That might, MIGHT be OK for a couple of years as we get oriented but the expectations of the SDSU fan base is that we will be competitive at minimum and working toward being a perennial title contender long-term if we get into the Mid-Con.

Our men's program has stumbled rather badly coming out of D-II and into D-I due to some unavoidable (and probably some avoidable) personnel issues, and probably some over-aggressive scheduling.

For myself, I will be disappointed to see anything less than a .500 year this year. Seeing how we won 1 D-I game in 2004-05, 8 in 2005-06, it's very aggressive to expect 14 or 15 wins this year, but that's the progress I want to see in our program.

[Jacks99]

Re: Mid-Con RPI

By soon, I meant if SDSU starts in the Mid-con 07-08' that die hard fans would want to be battling for the title by 09-10' or sooner. No expecting to get it, but battling for it.

[tmh8286]

Re: Mid-Con RPI

The low RPI of the Mid-Con is an ongoing source of frustration for the higher ranked members. RPI rankings remained fairly constant last season - three teams in the 100's, three in the 200's, three in the 300's (pathetic). Given the way that RPI is calculated, it is very difficult for a Mid-Con team to finish above 100. Your only hope for finishing the season with a respectable, but not good, RPI is to do well in the non-conference part of the season against highly ranked teams, because the low RPI of the bottom members of the league tend to drag down the RPI's of the higher teams during the conference season.

Last year ORU struggled a little bit early, but gained momentum later in the season, with the majority of our wins coming against Mid-con teams. Consequently we finished with a lower than desired RPI of 130.

The other thing the low RPI's do is cause a low ranking of the conference overall. Last season the Mid-Con finished 28 out of 32 (counting independents as a "conference&quot. That is the reason there has been so much gnashing of teeth amongst conference members regarding the loss of Valpo. Not only are they the most visible and recognizable member of the league, they are one of those coveted "100" level teams. That's also why you see people on the ORU board and elsewhere talking about wanting to "upgrade" the conference - look for members that will help raise the overall RPI of the league.

I really think that the Dakota schools will fit in well in this scheme. They are programs that are just going DI (like Centenary was), but seem to have the interest and desire (and by the sounds of it, the money) to do what it takes to develop strong DI programs (unlike Centenary). It is my feeling, and hope, that it won't take long for SDSU to be challenging for the championship every year. As ORUTerry likes to say, a rising tide lifts all boats.