Michigan Softball Ranked #1 in first and now second 2016 RPI

Submitted by Blue Durham on

Title pretty much says it all, Michigan at 24-3 is ranked #1 ahead of #2 Florida at 33-1.   

Rankings released yesterday, and yeah, this includes the loss to Northwestern on Friday.  Strange as Florida just swept at LSU and swept home against Tennessee the week before.

Requisite link:  http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/softball/d1/ncaa-womens-softball-rpi

The USA Today/NFCA coaches poll, due out today, and the ESPN poll, due out tomorrow, have had Florida solidly at #1 with Michigan #2.  This will probably remain the case in the 2 polls this week.

EDIT:  Edited title for accuracy, this is apparently the 2nd RPI.  Also, coaches poll out, and as expected, Florida is first with 800 points (this seems to be all of the first place votes, but am not sure), followed by #2 Michigan with 746 points.

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Kevin13

March 29th, 2016 at 9:26 AM ^

That someone would rank Michigan ahead of Flordia right now. No doubt UM should be in the top 5, but not sure how you rank them above Florida who killed us in a head to head match up.

I guess what really matters is who is #1 at the end of the season.

Joined: 01/26/2016

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Blue Durham

March 29th, 2016 at 9:35 AM ^

Yeah, I posted this as much for the novelty of the team being ranked 1st as to show how screwy RPI can be in the various sports. Michigan has 2 more losses AND lost to Florida 8-0, so yeah, hard to understand how Michigan is ranked above Florida. They don't give points, but I would have to guess that it is by a very slim margin, and that if both teams continue to win, with Florida in the more difficult SEC, they will eventually move ahead of Michigan. Thought it was also relevant as we just had an in-depth discussion of RPI and how it hurt Michigan in their selection to the men's basketball tournament versus other, better ratings not used by the selection committee.

Joined: 06/30/2008

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maizenblue92

March 29th, 2016 at 9:38 AM ^

This seems to just be a product of all the road games Michigan and other B1G teams have to play to start the season. Road wins (which Michigan has tons of) count more than home wins, its odd now, but will level off as Michigan plays more home games.

Joined: 01/01/2009

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Blue Durham

March 29th, 2016 at 9:54 AM ^

Florida has played 7 away games (6-1 record), and Michigan only 4 (4-0 record). At neutral sites, their records are 13-0 and 16-2, respectively. The most significant difference is their relative home records, 14-0 for Florida versus 4-1 for Michigan. Eyeballing the relative strength of schedule seems to be about even at this point, maybe with Michigan's being a little more difficult. The only other thing I can think of is Michigan seems to have crushed and run-ruled opposing teams (some that are even ranked) a lot more, but I don't know if that is factored into the RPI.

Joined: 06/30/2008

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snowcrash

March 29th, 2016 at 11:48 AM ^

M's crude run differential of about +6 a game is actually slightly better than Florida's, but there's a huge difference between allowing 3 runs a game as M does and 1 run a game like Florida does. Our offense is just a shade better than theirs, but their pitching is elite while ours is average. Elite pitching usually gets you a lot further in the tournament than average pitching does.

Joined: 07/22/2008

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tlo2485

March 29th, 2016 at 11:52 AM ^

I'm worried that Betsa doesn't have it as the ace when we need her against the elite teams. Last year she repeatedly lost that role to Wagner after demolishing lower ranked teams. Problem is we don't have Wagner this year, and we REALLY need Betsa. Much like hockey this year, it will be a huge disappointment to waste the offensive talent on this team.

Joined: 08/06/2010

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Squeezebox

March 29th, 2016 at 6:13 PM ^

Betsa seems to choke vs top competiton.  She gives up more walks and hit batters than actual hits.  Our season is probably riding on her shoulders.  Driesenga seems to be a bit better, but she has her ups and downs, also.  

Maybe we can get the med school to fit them with adrenaline pumps for the post season.

Joined: 04/25/2014

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tlo2485

March 29th, 2016 at 10:16 AM ^

This is week 2, Michigan was #1 last week, too. Michigan's SOS is what is holding them up. Over conference season Florida will no doubt rise and Michigan will probably finish in the 3-5 range in line to host a super regional. Michigan has played a ton of highly ranked teams and barely any bottom dwellers so far.

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Blue Durham

March 29th, 2016 at 10:53 AM ^

said it was the first one, but then I couldn't find any verification or any that preceded it. I took another look at the 2 relative schedules and Florida has played more teams in the top ___ (pretty much fill in the blank, top 10, top 25, etc) mostly due to them completing 3-game sets against Auburn, LSU and Tennessee the last 3 weeks. But like Michigan in basketball, I suspect they are being dragged down by the bottom-feeders on their schedule. By my count Florida played 8 games against teams outside the top 100: South Dakota (#234 in RPI, out of a total of 295 teams) twice, Florida A&M (#220), Omaha (#157), Winthrop (#140), Elon (#136) and FIU (#103) twice. Michigan on the other hand has played 3: Western Michigan (#190), Eastern Michigan (#159), and Dayton (#132).

Joined: 06/30/2008

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tlo2485

March 29th, 2016 at 11:13 AM ^

here's a copy of the initial rpi. I was only really considering the non conference schedule when I said Michigan's was much tougher... Florida is probably much closer to passing us now with Auburn and more highly ranked SEC schools to come... 1 Michigan Big Ten 21-2-0 4-0-0 16-2-0 1-0-0 0-0-0 2 Florida Southeastern 30-1-0 3-1-0 13-0-0 14-0-0 0-0-0 3 Oregon Pac-12 22-4-0 5-2-0 17-2-0 0-0-0 0-0-0 4 Washington Pac-12 19-5-0 2-0-0 13-3-0 4-2-0 0-0-0 5 Louisiana Sun Belt 22-2-0 5-1-0 5-0-0 12-1-0 0-0-0 6 Texas A&M Southeastern 27-3-0 2-1-0 8-0-0 17-2-0 0-0-0 7 Kentucky Southeastern 25-4-0 10-0-0 12-3-0 3-1-0 0-0-0 8 James Madison Colonial 22-2-0 4-0-0 15-2-0 3-0-0 0-0-0 9 Alabama Southeastern 26-5-0 5-3-0 11-1-0 10-1-0 0-0-0 10 Missouri Southeastern 20-4-0 5-1-0 13-3-0 2-0-0 0-0-0 11 LSU Southeastern 25-5-0 2-2-0 4-1-0 19-2-0 0-0-0 12 Oklahoma Big 12 21-6-0 2-1-0 12-4-0 7-1-0 0-0-0 13 Florida St. Atlantic Coast 23-3-0 5-0-0 6-1-0 12-2-0 0-0-0 14 Baylor Big 12 23-6-0 3-0-0 11-2-0 9-4-0 0-0-0 15 Auburn Southeastern 26-4-0 4-1-0 4-1-0 18-2-0 0-0-0 16 Arizona Pac-12 20-9-0 3-3-0 7-3-0 10-3-0 0-0-0 17 UCLA Pac-12 18-8-0 3-1-0 11-5-0 4-2-0 0-0-0 18 South Fla. AAC 24-9-0 0-0-0 6-3-0 18-6-0 0-0-0 19 Minnesota Big Ten 19-9-0 5-4-0 14-5-0 0-0-0 0-0-0 20 Fresno St. Mountain West 18-8-1 0-0-0 12-7-1 6-1-0 0-0-0 21 Tennessee Southeastern 21-8-0 1-5-0 11-3-0 9-0-0 0-0-0 22 Nebraska Big Ten 18-9-0 3-2-0 12-6-0 3-1-0 0-0-0 23 South Carolina Southeastern 22-6-0 2-1-0 5-1-0 15-4-0 0-0-0 24 Georgia Southeastern 25-4-0 2-2-0 13-1-0 10-1-0 0-0-0 25 Notre Dame Atlantic Coast 22-3-0 6-0-0 15-3-0 1-0-0 0-0-0

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