Still in According to the BPI Rankings

[TrueGopherFballfan#1]

There was already a thread on this but I just wanted to note the Gophers are actually moving up in this ranking board, surprisingly. They are now 37 and projected as a 10th seed in the NCAA Tournament with an at-large bid. This ranking system is obviously flawed but it is very funny to see. This is what ESPN says about the BPI rankings.
The information below reflects what the NCAA Tournament field would look like if the teams were ordered strictly based on current BPI ranking, but it also takes into account eligibility, conference record, conference tournament results and automatic bids. If current BPI and automatic bid rules were used to select the field, this shows which teams would get in and which teams would get left out (and in what order), as well as where projected tournament teams would be seeded. I honestly do not know what formula they use to figure this out but I don't know how the Gophers get this high if they consider conference record and all that. 37 is probably where the Gophers SHOULD be in RPI rankings if they had a start to conference play that was predicted upon them.

 

[#1nHkyCfbBsbDncSolarDebat]

Both the Sagarin(#45) and Ken-Pom(#47) Rating Systems have the Gophers rated well enough to be considered in, or darn close to it. One road win vs either Iowa or Indiana along with home wins vs Purdue and NW should move us up in both of those rating systems as well as the BPI, obviously. Those wins and even just playing Iowa and Indiana should move us up in the RPI ratings as well. Playing Wisconsin twice, regardless whether we win or lose should move us up in all of these ratings as well, so throw in a win at home over Wisconsin OR a road win over MSU on top of a win at home vs PSU and a first round Big Ten Tourney win and we could be considered "In" in every metric, possibly including the RPI rankings.

Toughest thing will be "perception" issues as doing what I've said above won't be easy and would only get us to an 8-10 record in the B1G, in what most consider a down year for the conf. Combine that with the RPI and it will be tough for the committee to feel we have earned a spot in the Big Dance.

We really only have one signature win out of conference, Georgia, although as things are right now, we also don't have any "bad" losses. So we could need to finish 9-9 in conf play or get another big win in the B1G Conf Tourney, either in the 2nd round or the Semis.

 

[mcal24]

I feel like the committee would put more weight on record and good wins rather than rpi or bpi. If we don't get 8 wins I would doubt we are in the conversation even with a top 50 bpi

 

[#1nHkyCfbBsbDncSolarDebat]

Well, I think I agree.

8 wins means 5-3 to finish out along with a minimum of 2 or 3 signature wins(according to current RPI ratings) to go along with our Georgia win. WKU & Illinois could possibly end up as signature wins, they are approx #70 & #60 in the RPI, but its probably doubtful both could move up that far. Not sure who WKU has left to play that could help their RPI improve that much? If they win out, which would include a road game vs Old Dominion, that might do it? We don't play Illinois again, so we should cheer for Illinois vs basically everyone from here out.

Beating NW and PSU at home are REQUIREMENTS. We can't afford another bad loss or the RPI ratings hit we'd take.

Meaning we'd need 3 Ws in these 6 games, vs PU, @Ia, @IU, @MSU, vs UW & @UW.

Losing to PU and Iowa will help move or keep those teams in the Top 50 of the RPI, making losing to them acceptable losses. Beating them could keep them out or knock them out of the Top 50, but they'd still be Top 100 wins and both would help our RPI rating.

Even losing to Minny, IU & MSU should remain in the Top 50 of the RPI as they are both Top 40 right now. And UW is a lock to remain Top 50 no matter what, even if we swept them and they lost a few others as well. So losing to any of those 3 will help our rpi and be acceptable losses, but beating them will be HUGE wins.


If we only go 4-4, hence 7-11 in conf, we'd need to get 2 signature wins(or 1 Signature win and 3 quality Top 100 wins) in the BTT to make up for it, which wouldn't require us to win the BTT, but would require us to get to the semis at a minimum and might require a trip to the Championship game depending on who gets seeded on our side of the bracket, etc.. If we finish out 6-12 in conf, or worse, we'd basically have to win the Conf Tourney to get in. .