D1 Chat:
Can you handicap the Big 12 hosting scenarios for us? Tech all of the sudden looks like a host, but the RPI isn’t there. Texas has a much better RPI, but only 11-10 in the league. If Texas finishes 14-10 and only 2 games back of league champ TCU or TTU, can they snatch a host bid from one of those schools? Or can they just add a third Big 12 host?
Yeah the Big 12 hosting picture is pretty fascinating. Both of the teams at the top of the standings, TCU and Texas Tech, are mid-30s in the RPI, which is normally not where you want to be as a host candidate, of course. But it feels like a scenario where the committee will make an exception for the Big 12 champion, we've seen that sort of thing before. OK State is still in good RPI shape at No. 12 and solid enough in the standings, so they're a host. I think I agree with your thinking that if Texas sweeps that last series to get to 14-10, it could move into hosting position too. But a lot could be decided at the conference tourney. Fun race to watch. Even Oklahoma is still in the mix.
Example of importance of RPI:
Texas Tech and Arkansas have been in the Top 20 for the entire season and have really good series wins, but the RPI is not as high as you would think. Maryland is at 11 in the RPI, higher than both of those teams. What would the pecking order be for those three teams when it comes to regional hosting?
This is such a fascinating question, because it really is a test of how much weight the committee is going to put on the RPI this year. Last year, we expected the committee would use the RPI less, because all the weird COVID-related scheduling stuff really made it have less meaning -- but when the dust settled it was still almost straight RPI all the way through that bracket. So if that's the case again, you'd have to think Maryland will be ahead of Arkansas and Tech. The fact that Maryland has managed to build a No. 11 RPI as a team in the Big Ten is very loud, and the Terps are also atop their league. That's just a really good body of work.