Softball RPI

[VolnJC]

Do they just seed the 16 and then try to put the other teams in geographically and to avoid rematches or do they seed 1-64? as it looks right now if UT and Bama stay the same and both win their regionals it would be the #4 vs #13 in Tuscalooser

 

[2Alum4EverVol]

If TN sweeps Auburn (difficult but doable), sweeps Ole Miss (not easy but quite possible), finishes as the league's regular season runner-up, and then makes a run to the SECT championship game (difficult but doable), how can the selection committee not award TN one of the top 8 national seeds on Selection Sunday? I would in a heartbeat. It'll be extremely difficult for the committee to deny an SEC regular season runner-up & tournament runner-up an opportunity to host a super regional. The RPI will take care of itself by then, hopefully. Tennessee controls its own destiny, and there's almost no margin for error now if it wants to receive one of the coveted top 8 national seeds. It's time to bring it!

 

[Vols4life]

There is also a human element to the regional guys don't forget....that's how we got an 8 seed last year

 

[tonybologna]

They stayed the same?? Wow. JMU, ULL, and Washington all lost games, did they stay the same?

I agree. I can't believe they stayed the same at #13. Already having won the first 2 games against the now #7 in RPI Auburn & not move up one spot is crazy. If we win tonight & end up sweeping them then that's going to be a bunch of bull.

We should be in the top 10 in RPI even if we only win 2 out of 3 against Auburn. We are not only beating them we are crushing them. This team deserves a top 10 ranking in RPI period.

 

[tnburban]

Do they just seed the 16 and then try to put the other teams in geographically and to avoid rematches or do they seed 1-64? as it looks right now if UT and Bama stay the same and both win their regionals it would be the #4 vs #13 in Tuscalooser

Yes and no. 17-32 will have to travel. 33-48 will compromise. 49-64 will first factor in geography.

 

[WVU05UT09]

If TN sweeps Auburn (difficult but doable), sweeps Ole Miss (not easy but quite possible), finishes as the league's regular season runner-up, and then makes a run to the SECT championship game (difficult but doable), how can the selection committee not award TN one of the top 8 national seeds on Selection Sunday? I would in a heartbeat. It'll be extremely difficult for the committee to deny an SEC regular season runner-up & tournament runner-up an opportunity to host a super regional. The RPI will take care of itself by then, hopefully. Tennessee controls its own destiny, and there's almost no margin for error now if it wants to receive one of the coveted top 8 national seeds. It's time to bring it!

Regular season conference standing finishes have less weight in many sports now due to the imbalanced nature of scheduling in the conference expansion era. Auburn got screwed in a sense last year when they finished runner up to Florida. Auburn had more rain outs and thus played fewer games than Florida but had the same number of losses resulting in Florida having a higher win % and thus taking the regular season crown.

I'd like to see some inventive scheduling where you potentially could have mini tournaments with three SEC teams on a given week at a location to ensure everyone plays at least one game against every conference opponent. As an example you could have Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama playing in Knoxville one weekend and each team will play the other teams twice. You could do three weekends of these "mini tournament" to ensure everyone gets to host one weekend. I'm sure many administrators and coaches would take issue with playing four games in a weekend and then potentially losing home games.

 

[Vols4life]

One thing hurting the Lady Vols is everyone above them has a WINNING record on the road...Lady Vols currently 5-8 on the road...getting a series win against and sweeping them would be huge

 

[LVJeff]

One thing hurting the Lady Vols is everyone above them has a WINNING record on the road...Lady Vols currently 5-8 on the road...getting a series win against and sweeping them would be huge

This is why the two losses at Missouri hurt so badly. TN gave away those two games. With those two losses as victories the road record is a more respectable 7 and 6. Spilled milk...

 

[Vols4life]

This is why the two losses at Missouri hurt so badly. TN gave away those two games. With those two losses as victories the road record is a more respectable 7 and 6. Spilled milk...

I meant to put Ole Miss in my last post....but yeah that Mizzou series hurt but I think the girls learned from it....a la going into Georgia and winning

 

[Sandvol]

Sorry, I tried to explain to everybody home wins don't add much to your RPI even against a number three team. You have to have those road wins. You still have to have home wins to keep from dropping but you need road wins to rise.

 

[Sandvol]

Those two road wins against Georgia helped us substantially. Two more road wins against Missouri would have helped substantially.

 

[Sandvol]

The SEC tournament will have us neutrally weighted so wins in the tournament against higher RPI teams will also help substantially. This will be our only chance to move up to a top 8 seed.

 

[2Alum4EverVol]

The SEC tournament will have us neutrally weighted so wins in the tournament against higher RPI teams will also help substantially. This will be our only chance to move up to a top 8 seed.

The schools that TN is competing against for a top 8 national seed will also be playing in their own tournament and have their win(s) weighted neutrally as well. No advantage gained there. But the real advantage that TN has is that TN is pretty much guaranteed to face a top-25 opponent in every round it plays, thus an opportunity to gain a bonus point. As in basketball, I'm pretty certain that the committee members will also factor in "last 10", and how a team performs down the stretch will leave a lasting impression which will burn into the committee's mind. TN is doing just fine in that regard so far at the right time of the year, and hopefully the OU debacle will be long forgotten when the Selection Sunday arrives.

I wonder how a host school's win/loss is counted towards the RPI; for example, MS State is hosting this year's SECT. Is MS State in Starkville considered playing on the home field or at a neutral site??

 

[2Alum4EverVol]

Regular season conference standing finishes have less weight in many sports now due to the imbalanced nature of scheduling in the conference expansion era. Auburn got screwed in a sense last year when they finished runner up to Florida. Auburn had more rain outs and thus played fewer games than Florida but had the same number of losses resulting in Florida having a higher win % and thus taking the regular season crown.

I'd like to see some inventive scheduling where you potentially could have mini tournaments with three SEC teams on a given week at a location to ensure everyone plays at least one game against every conference opponent. As an example you could have Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama playing in Knoxville one weekend and each team will play the other teams twice. You could do three weekends of these "mini tournament" to ensure everyone gets to host one weekend. I'm sure many administrators and coaches would take issue with playing four games in a weekend and then potentially losing home games.

Not gonna happen I'm afraid. Even with the format you suggested (2 more SEC schools added), it still is only 10 SEC schools on your schedule which leaves out other 2 SEC schools. Better but not complete yet. With Vandy Commodores contemplating to join the ranks of almighty SEC softball brethren in near future, the scheduling will become even more imbalanced & complex if anything.

 

[2Alum4EverVol]

Latest USA Today/NFCA Coaches poll (the one NCAA uses) is released today, and Tennessee has finally cracked the top 10. Very deservedly so. These rankings are a little different from computer-generated RPI, but people are taking notice of TN's good play as of late. It can only help towards securing a top 8 national seed:

#1 FL
#2 MI
#3 OR
#4 Bama
#5 FSU
#6 Auburn
#7 OU
#8 JMU
#9 ULL
#10 Tennessee
#11 WA
#12 KY
#13 LSU
#14 UCLA
#15 GA
#16 Mizzou
#17 A&M

 

[Sandvol]

Latest USA Today/NFCA Coaches poll (the one NCAA uses) is released today, and Tennessee has finally cracked the top 10. Very deservedly so. These rankings are a little different from computer-generated RPI, but people are taking notice of TN's good play as of late. It can only help towards securing a top 8 national seed:

#1 FL
#2 MI
#3 OR
#4 Bama
#5 FSU
#6 Auburn
#7 OU
#8 JMU
#9 ULL
#10 Tennessee
#11 WA
#12 KY
#13 LSU
#14 UCLA
#15 GA
#16 Mizzou
#17 A&M

If we could get a win against one of these high RPI teams on a neutral site in the tournament like a BAMA or a FL that would leap frog us up. I think FL and OU are the two hottest teams coming into the tournament. Oregon looks pretty tough too.

 

[Sandvol]

Eleven SEC teams could make the tournament. I'm predicting at least 5 SEC teams in the WCWS. A lot depends on seeding though. If we have a lot of SEC teams playing each other and we knock each other out maybe only 3 or 4.

 

[LVJeff]

Latest USA Today/NFCA Coaches poll (the one NCAA uses) is released today, and Tennessee has finally cracked the top 10. Very deservedly so. These rankings are a little different from computer-generated RPI, but people are taking notice of TN's good play as of late. It can only help towards securing a top 8 national seed:

#1 FL
#2 MI
#3 OR
#4 Bama
#5 FSU
#6 Auburn
#7 OU
#8 JMU
#9 ULL
#10 Tennessee
#11 WA
#12 KY
#13 LSU
#14 UCLA
#15 GA
#16 Mizzou
#17 A&M

Seems about right. FSU has a great record. They beat Auburn and their game against Florida was suspended in the 9th inning in a scoreless tie. They play a rematch tomorrow night. I will be watching that one. FSU is a potential opponent for TN.

 

[Sandvol]

Seems about right. FSU has a great record. They beat Auburn and their game against Florida was suspended in the 9th inning in a scoreless tie. They play a rematch tomorrow night. I will be watching that one. FSU is a potential opponent for TN.

FSU was trying to get Caylan Arnold so I'm excited to see what she can do.

 

[2Alum4EverVol]

Eleven SEC teams could make the tournament. I'm predicting at least 5 SEC teams in the WCWS. A lot depends on seeding though. If we have a lot of SEC teams playing each other and we knock each other out maybe only 3 or 4.

Agreed.

The 12th SEC team MS St is currently on the outside looking in (their sub-.500 overall win/loss record is hurting their resume), but they do have a high enough RPI (#34) & SOS (#3) as of now to have a legitimate shot at receiving an at-large bid heading into the final week of regular season play. I won't count them out just yet. Still a lot of games left to play. But if they do get swept by Kentucky and loses in the first round of SECT, their bubble will burst for sure.

 

[2Alum4EverVol]

Latest RPI rankings released today:

#1 FL
#2 MI
#3 Bama
#4 OU
#5 JMU
#6 WA
#7 FSU
#8 Auburn
#9 OR
#10 Mizzou
#11 Tennessee
#12 ULL
#13 Baylor
#14 UCLA
#15 LSU
#16 KY
#17 A&M
#18 Fresno St
#19 GA
#20 So FL
#21 AZ
#22 MN
#23 FL Atlantic
#24 So Ca
#25 OR St
#27 Ole Miss
#38 Ms St
#63 AR

TN moved up 2 spots to #11.

For complete list, go to College DI Softball Rankings - NCAA Women's Softball RPI | NCAA.com

 

[Volfan2012]

Win the tourney might get us a Super Regional. Otherwise were on the road if we win the regional.

 

[LVJeff]

Beat Mizzou in the tournament and maybe we move ahead of them. But OR and WASH don't have a conference tournament so they probably won't drop. FSU might could drop from 7 to 9 and Auburn could drop a spot if they lose early in the tournament, but it looks like a very slim chance of getting in the top 8 even with a couple of tournament wins.

 

[2Alum4EverVol]

Missed opportunities, Jeff. TN had some great opportunities to put itself in a little better position heading into the postseason but it is what it is at this point. I believe TN will have to win out to earn the right to host a super regional, but hey put on a great showing in the SECT, play great against (presumably) Florida in the championship game, you never know. Eye test and "last 10" could very well tip the scales in our favor.

 

[VolnJC]

Beat Mizzou in the tournament and maybe we move ahead of them. But OR and WASH don't have a conference tournament so they probably won't drop. FSU might could drop from 7 to 9 and Auburn could drop a spot if they lose early in the tournament, but it looks like a very slim chance of getting in the top 8 even with a couple of tournament wins.

How often does a top 8 seed lose in the regionals?