 |
| The Washington Huskies have risen to #3 -photo by Shutter Geeks Photography |
Washington—fresh off
its big 3-2 win against Stanford—rose
once again in both the Volleyball
Magazine media poll and the NCAA RPI
rankings. The RPI is a numerical formula used to determine which 64 teams (out
of 328) will be selected to this year’s tournament, and which 16 of those teams
will receive the top seeds. Washington is #3 in the VBM poll, and #6 in RPI.
The highest-ranked teams with the lowest RPIs are Minnesota, San Diego and North Carolina;
the unranked teams with the highest RPIs include Creighton, Oklahoma, Marquette, Utah and Arkansas. The
RPI places high emphasis on the win/loss records of opponents and the opponents
of opponents, which explains (but doesn’t necessarily justify) why so two teams
in the Big East (Creighton and Marquette) can be among the top 16 this week. It’s
also nuts that 18-3 Minnesota has an RPI of 20, just five places ahead of 8-10 Illinois.
But if the RPI produces strange results, it’s not too much
weirder than the AVCA coaches’ poll
keeping Ohio State in its top 25.
The Buckeyes have lost four in a row and six of their last seven. C’mon,
coaches, really?
VOLLEYBALL MAGAZINE MEDIA POLL FOR WEEK OF OCTOBER 22
Volleyball Mag.
|
RPI
|
School
(First Place Votes)
|
AVCA
Coaches
Poll
|
Volleyblog Seattle
|
|
This
Week
|
Last
Week
|
||||
1
|
2
|
1
|
Texas (7)
|
1
|
3
|
2
|
4
|
2
|
Penn State
|
2
|
2
|
3
|
6
|
6
|
Washington
(2)
|
3
|
1
|
4
|
1
|
4
|
Southern
Cal (1)
|
4
|
4
|
5
|
10
|
12
|
Minnesota
|
7
|
5
|
6
|
3
|
3
|
Florida
|
5
|
9
|
7
|
7
|
8
|
Stanford
|
6
|
6
|
8
|
9
|
9
|
Hawai’i
|
8
|
12
|
9
|
18
|
7
|
Missouri
|
11
|
7
|
10
|
11
|
20
|
San Diego
|
9
|
16
|
11
|
5
|
14
|
Michigan
State
|
10
|
13
|
12
|
8
|
13
|
Nebraska
|
13
|
14
|
13
|
12
|
21
|
Colorado
St
|
12
|
10
|
14
|
13
|
24
|
North
Carolina
|
14
|
8
|
15
|
16
|
11
|
Wisconsin
|
16
|
15
|
16
|
15
|
18
|
Kentucky
|
15
|
17
|
17
|
14
|
27
|
Michigan
|
17
|
NR
|
18
|
20
|
26
|
BYU
|
19
|
11
|
19
|
19
|
32
|
Florida
State
|
18
|
18
|
20
|
NR
|
17
|
Arizona
|
25
|
NR
|
NR
|
17
|
33
|
Ohio State
|
24
|
NR
|
NR
|
NR
|
64
|
Cent.
Arkansas
|
NR
|
20
|
NR
|
NR
|
28
|
Oregon
|
20
|
NR
|
NR
|
NR
|
35
|
Purdue
|
21
|
NR
|
NR
|
NR
|
10
|
Kansas
|
22
|
NR
|
NR
|
NR
|
19
|
Duke
|
23
|
19
|
NR
|
NR
|
5
|
Creighton
|
NR
|
NR
|
NR
|
15
|
Oklahoma
|
NR
|
NR
|
|
NR
|
16
|
Marquette
|
NR
|
NR
|
|
NR
|
22
|
Utah
|
NR
|
NR
|
|
NR
|
23
|
Arkansas
|
NR
|
NR
|
|
NR
|
25
|
Illinois
|
NR
|
NR
|
|
NR
|
29
|
California
|
NR
|
NR
|
|
NR
|
30
|
Georgia
|
NR
|
NR
|
|
Others
receiving Volleyball Magazine votes: Oregon, Ohio State, Purdue,
Duke, Central Arkansas, Kansas
Volleyblog
Seattle is one of ten national voters in the weekly Volleyball Magazine
Division 1 Women’s Volleyball Poll.
-photo by Shutter
Geeks Photography
Photos courtesy Shutter
Geeks Photography
>The RPI is a numerical formula used to determine which 64 teams (out of 328) will be selected to this year’s tournament,
ReplyDeleteI hope they use RPI as only one factor in choosing teams for the tournament and that it is not the only determinant, because that is not what it is meant to do.
It has been used for the NCAA basketball tournament for more that 30 years and is meant to heavily factor in the strength of the opponents you play, but it is not the only factor.
RPI = 1/4 x winning-percentage
+ 1/2 x opponents-winning-percentage
+ 1/4 x opponents'-opponents-winning-percentage
With the RPI calculation, a team's own winning percentage contributes to only 1/4 of the value, equal to the winning percentage of the opponents' opponents.