MAC East RPI

[Dave in Green]

It's been discussed before on this forum that RPI ranks the MAC as only the 16th strongest of 33 D1 conferences. What would happen if we separated the MAC East and West into separate conferences with their own average RPI?Maybe Zips fans should start saying we belong to the 10th strongest conference in the country (MAC East) and not the 16th-rated MAC.Big 12 .................... 54 Big East ................. 57 ACC ....................... 58 SEC ....................... 79 Big Ten .................. 98 A-10 .................... 106 Pac 10 ................. 106 Missouri Valley ..... 110 Mountain West .... 113MAC East ............. 116WAC .................... 136 C-USA .................. 144 CAA ...................... 155 West Coast .......... 163 Horizon ................ 163 MAAC ................... 166 MAC ..................... 170SoCon .................. 194 Big Sky ................. 202 Big West .............. 205 Ohio Valley ........... 207 Sun Belt ............... 213Ivy League ........... 214 Summit League ..... 219 America East ......... 220 MAC West ............ 224Atlantic Sun ........... 229 Southland ............. 234 Big South .............. 241 Patriot .................. 251 NEC ...................... 259 MEAC .................... 272 SWAC ................... 288 Independents ....... 297 Great West ........... 322

[Dr Z]

Wouldn't you have to break out each conference to show a true result? You could basically do that with any conference showing the higher one with a higher RPI number? What does it prove?

[Dave in Green]

I thought that you had given up on trying to convince me to admit that everything I post here is worthless.

[Dave in Green]

OK, now that I have a little more free time, I'll go back to being the straight man and try to resolve this issue of questioning the significance of any numbers that I post.Basketball has always been my favorite sport because my father was an accomplished player and coach who taught me as a child to see basketball from a different perspective than most casual fans.I've recently had more free time to research stats, something that's always been of interest to me. Many more stats are available today than in the past. So you have to work a little harder to come up with a stat that's not already available.There have been a number of comments on this forum about what a drag the West is on the overall MAC conference strength. But there was no readily available statistic quantifying that. I just took the time to do the math that showed the relative RPI of the MAC East and West compared with the MAC overall, and included all other conference RPI averages as a relative measuring stick.Since most conferences are not broken out into separate divisions like the MAC, there was no way to break every conference up the same way. In any case, that would have taken a lot of time, and was not really pertinent to the question of how the MAC East and West compare.You ask what this proves? Numbers by themselves are always open to interpretation, so different people will walk away with different thoughts about what this proves, if anything.I'm certainly not trying to prove anything to anyone. I'm just sharing the results of my work with all Zips fans hoping that some will have some appreciation for it. I know from past experience that some will not give a rat's tail about the numbers and some will want to debate how meaningful they are.I'm not interested in having that debate because I'm not trying to sell anything. I don't use sports forums to prove that I'm the Great Prognosticator. I use sports forums to gather data from other thoughtful posters to expand my own knowledge base, and to share data I may find or generate that others may not have considered or seen.I'm always happy to take the time to try to answer any serious questions about my statistical methods. But I'm not interested in debating how relevant the numbers are. That's for everyone to decide for themselves.

[zipboy]

There has been talk in the past about how to make the league stronger, punishing members for not holding their own. I like the idea that if your RPI is above 200, you don't get to share in tournament revenue. I knew that there was a disrepancy between the 2 divsions but did not expect it to be this large.

[skip-zip]

There has been talk in the past about how to make the league stronger, punishing members for not holding their own. I like the idea that if your RPI is above 200, you don't get to share in tournament revenue. I knew that there was a disrepancy between the 2 divsions but did not expect it to be this large.

The sad thing is, I'm guessing it was worse last year. I actually was a little more encouraged by the way many of the West teams performed, as opposed to last season. But, there's still a lot to be done to get to the point where they are not a burden on the conference's standing.

[Dave in Green]

The MAC was worse overall last year with a final conference RPI average that ranked as 21st strongest conference compared to the current rank of 16th.Both the East and West had lower average RPIs last year than this. As you can see by the following final individual RPIs for all MAC teams last season, the West was truly awful, and really dragged down the overall MAC RPI average.85 ........ Miami 101 ...... Buffalo 103 ...... Akron 145 ...... Can't157 ...... Bowling Green 187 ...... Ohio 262 ...... Ball State 299 ...... Central Michigan 302 ...... Western Michigan 318 ...... Toledo 320 ...... Eastern Michigan 330 ...... Northern IllinoisThe average MAC West RPI last year was 305, which would have ranked dead last among all conferences if broken out separately.The average MAC East RPI last year was 130, which while lower than this year's current 116 average, would have ranked the East a little higher last year than this -- 9th compared with 10th this season.

[WinZip]

There has been talk in the past about how to make the league stronger, punishing members for not holding their own. I like the idea that if your RPI is above 200, you don't get to share in tournament revenue. I knew that there was a disrepancy between the 2 divsions but did not expect it to be this large.

I understand that we need to have higher standards, but wouldn't that just further the divide between the best and worst schools. I think it'd be better if the conference pushed for higher quality opponents, trying to get more fans interested at the same time. If a team can't measure up they shouldn't be in the conference.