SB drops to #10; Weekend Series with NW Critical: Emily Needs Support
The SB Team dropped one slot in the USA Today and ESPN Polls this week after losing 2 of 3 in LIncoln. Nebraska came in at #16 in both polls.
However the key poll is the RPI in which we are #12 and Nebraska is #6. In recent years, the NCAA Tournament Seeding has mirrored the RPI. The top 16 Seeded Teams typically receive the Regional Host Site.
There is some exceptions due to geography. Most of the top 16 teams are concentrated in the PAC10. So due to geography it is possible for a top 16 team to be a "host team" but not at their home field. This did not occur last year as every host team was assigned to their home field, but anything can happen.
As it stands right now, we would host the Regional and if we win, we would travel for the Super Regional. Many things can happen this weekend but a trip to Alabama, LSU, Kentucky or Tennessee is not out of the question. Missouri and Louisville seem unlikely Super Regional Hosts. My vote would be Tennessee then I could be in the front row!
The Big Ten will likely send Wisky, Minny, Nebraska, and possibly Northwestern to the Tourney this year.
Now for the Emily update: She is out of the hospital and resting at the hotel. The Doctors thought it would do her some good to get out of the Hospital for a few days to get a change of scenery. Please visit www.mlesupportteam.com to offer any support you can. Brooke Ward did some updates to the website last night so check it out.
in this process and baseball as well is that a team like Michigan plays its first 30 or more game ON THE ROAD while Western and Southern teams play HOME games..It seems like the RPI doesnt account for this otherwise Michigan would have a much higher RPI not to mention the fact that in the Non-con portion UM plays ALOT of top ranked teams and has wins over many of them.. Softball and baseball need to address this...otherwise it will always be a Western-Southern dominated sport...
Michigan still has a chance to climb to #8 in the RPI if they can win out..a few teams above them drop thus hosting a Super Regional..The sport needs to have Midwest-East teams hosting
Isn't that a product of the climate, though? Don't get me wrong, it sucks that softball and baseball play the first long portion of their schedules away from home but, short of having indoor fields, are there any solutions?
This would be a nice segue into a rant about how the SEC would never come up here in November, but, another time... another time.
a tournament, but I'm guessing getting the same strength of schedule M has would be more or less impossible to achieve, and the ticket sales wouldn't be great either.
Some of the southern/western tournaments have to be a recruiting advantage to get girls from those reigons, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear that 15-16 year old girls actually like the idea of being on the road if they're in Clearwater or Los Angeles before actually dealing with it a few years later.
Baseball did address the RPI situation this past season
The formula used in NCAA baseball is the same as that used in basketball except for the adjustment of home and road records. Starting in 2013, college baseball "RPI formula will value each road victory as 1.3 instead of 1.0. Each home win will be valued at 0.7 instead of 1.0. Conversely, each home loss will count 1.3 against a team’s RPI and each road loss will count 0.7 against a team’s RPI. Neutral-site games will retain the same value of 1.0, but the committee is studying how to determine if a game should be considered a neutral-site contest. The adjustment is based on data showing that home teams win about 62 percent of the time in Division I baseball."[2] The change was made because of the discrepancy in the number of home games teams play. Some schools are able to play 35-40 of their 56 allowable games at home, while other teams, due to factors such as weather, may play only 20 home games.
This adjustment replaces the current system of bonuses or penalties that teams receive. Bonus points are awarded for beating top-75 non-conference opponents on the road and penalty points are given for losing to bottom-75 non-conference opponents at home. Bonuses and penalties are on a sliding scale, separated into groups of 25, with the top bonus for a road win against a top-25 team and the worst penalty for a home loss to a bottom-25 opponent.[2]
Softball still behind as far as I know