RPI
Realistically, both of the next 2 are equally huge. In the committee’s eyes, we play a 4-game series against OM every year. Their RPI gives them more margin for error than ours does, so we really need to take both of these. OM can realistically still get in at 13-17….there’s not a chance in hell that’s in play for us. Need to prove on the field that we’re definitively better than them in case it comes down to the two of us for one bid. 2-2 doesn’t really do that.
team | RPI | vs. top-50 | vs. 201+ |
Tennessee | 1 | 13-2 | 9-0 |
Georgia | 2 | 12-7 | 6-0 |
Vanderbilt | 7 | 7-8 | 5-0 |
Florida | 12 | 13-14 | 3-0 |
Auburn | 15 | 8-4 | 6-0 |
LSU | 22 | 8-11 | 8-0 |
Texas A&M | 24 | 11-8 | 5-0 |
Arkansas | 27 | 6-5 | 7-0 |
Missouri | 36 | 1-11 | 6-0 |
Alabama | 42 | 4-10 | 7-2 |
Ole Miss | 61 | 2-8 | 7-0 |
South Carolina | 63 | 7-13 | 6-1 |
Mississippi State | 75 | 8-13 | 11-1 |
Kentucky | 76 | 6-11 | 9-1 |
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The problem with our RPI is the number of games vs. 201+ teams, almost all wins. We have played the most in that category in the SEC. We've played plenty of top-50 teams. Only Florida has played more games vs. top-50 teams. Only 4 teams have more wins vs. top-50 teams, all of which are in the top-25 themselves.
RPI rankings of 7 SEC teams with 8+ wins vs. top-50: 1, 2, 12, 15, 22, 24,
75.
RPI is a bad metric that punishes you for beating bad teams, but we probably could have scheduled better. We've only played 5 non-conference games vs. teams in the 51-200 range. If some of our 201+ opponents were traded for 51-100 opponents*, our RPI would be a lot better.
Glaring example: Missouri has 1 win vs. a top-50 team, but we've played twice as many games vs. 201+ teams. They are 39 spots ahead of us at the moment.
*ETA
51-100 teams not on our schedule this year:
-UL Lafayette
-Middle Tennessee
-South Alabama
-Belmont
-Tennessee Tech
-East Tennessee State
-Troy
A handful of games vs. some of those teams could have really helped us.