[Cracked Sidewalks] 3 RPI Top 25 wins = Top 10 NCAA seed

[CrackedSidewalksSays]

3 RPI Top 25 wins = Top 10 NCAA seed

Written by: jpudner@concentricgrasstops.com (bamamarquettefan1)

Note: A couple of times a season I send an email to a couple of hundred people either in the media or athletic departments.  Below is the text of the one I sent last night.  Nice to see that everyone this week had us as a 10-seed or higher, and Forecast RPI updated today by moving MU (now No. 7-seed) and Tennessee (now #6) the two teams that moved up. Scan down below this post for a few great pieces on the Syracuse win by others.

11 teams have 3 RPI Top 25 wins
All 11 project as 10-seeds or better in TSN, ESPN & Forecast RPI

In the three bracket projections that have come out this week, one thing is clear.  If your team has beaten three RPI Top 25 teams, you are at least a 10-seed.

The following are the 11 teams who have beaten at least three teams in the RPI Top 25, the list of the teams they have beaten, and their projected seed based on the Sporting News and ESPN, which both were updated this week, and Forecast RPI, which is updated every day.

Connecticut - defeated Kentucky, Texas, Nova, Tennessee (Projected Seed: Sporting News #2, ESPN #2, Forecast RPI  #1)

Marquette - defeated Notre Dame, West Virginia, Syracuse (Projected Seed: #10, #10, #8 - up to #7 today)

Michigan State - defeated Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin (Projected Seed: #6, #6, #8)

Minnesota - defeated UNC, WVU, Purdue (Projected Seed: #5, #6, #7)

Notre Dame - defeated Wisconsin, Georgetown, UConn, Syracuse (Projected Seed: #4, #4, #2)

Ohio State - defeated Florida, Minnesota, Purdue (Projected Seed: #1, #1, #1)

Pittsburgh - defeated Texas, UConn, Georgetown, Syracuse (Projected Seed: #1, #1, #1)

St. John's - defeated West Virginia, Georgetown, Notre Dame (Projected Seed: #9, #10, #9)

Tennessee - defeated Nova, Pitt, Vandy (Projected Seed: #8, #9, #7 - up to #6 seed today)

Texas - defeated UNC, Texas A&M, Kansas (Projected Seed: #3, #2, #2)

West Virginia - defeated Vandy, Georgetown, Purdue (Projected Seed: #5, #5, #3)

Since the Sporting News and ESPN brackets came out this week, all of the teams have won at least one more game except for Michigan State (lost to Michigan), Pitt (lost to Notre Dame, playing Rutgers as this is sent) and St. John's (lost to Georgetown).

The RPI Top 25 was pulled at 2 p.m. today from Real-time RPI.

A few of the top teams have simply not had a chance to play many RPI Top 25 teams.  For example, ranked teams Duke, BYU, Purdue, San Diego State, St. Mary's and Utah State have not beaten an RPI top 25 yet, with Utah State yet to beat a Top 100 team.

By tomorrow, Georgetown could leap frog several teams to claim four Top 25 RPI victories to become the 12th team on this list.  The Hoyas win over Villanova is their only RPI Top 25 win right now, but three of their victims (Missouri, St. John's and ODU) are the #26, #27 and #28, so could easily all slide into the Top 25 this weekend.

http://www.crackedsidewalks.com/2011/01/3-rpi-top-25-wins-top-10-ncaa-seed.html

[bilsu]

Up to five of those teams might not even make the tournament.

[Marquette65]

 Went to the end of the post  did not see the other pieces on the SYC win that were referred to.  Could you please direct

[bamamarquettefan]

Up to five of those teams might not even make the tournament.

Very unlikely.  Even stretching, there are only 60 teams right now that could compete with those 11 for an at large bid.  I'll list them alphabetically so that you can respond with anyone else you believe I've missed.  But for five of the 11 with three high quality wins already to miss, they would have to have a true collapse that drops them behind almost all of these teams, even the 17 I note as "bubble," who have very shaky credentials and – with the exception of Penn State – very few chances for quality wins down the stretch.  Certainly one or two of the 11 could collapse and miss, but five would be very unlikely.

Arizona,  Baylor, Belmont (bubble), Boston College, Brigham Young, Bucknell (bubble), Butler (bubble), Cincinnati, Colorado St. (bubble), Connecticut, Duke, Duquesne (bubble), Florida, Florida St, George Mason (bubble), Georgetown, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kansas St., Kentucky, Louisville, Marquette, Memphis (bubble), Michigan St., Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska (bubble), Nevada Las Vegas (bubble), North Carolina, Notre Dame, Oakland (bubble), Ohio St., Oklahoma St., Old Dominion (bubble), Penn St. (bubble), Pittsburgh, Purdue, San Diego St., St. John's, St. Mary's, Syracuse, Temple, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas El Paso (bubble), UCLA, UNLV, Utah St. (bubble), Vanderbilt, VCU (bubble), Villanova, Virginia Tech (bubble), Washington, Washington St. (bubble), West Virginia, Wichita St., Wisconsin and Xavier.

There are so few non-BCS schools with a chance at an at-large bid when even schools like Utah State don't have a single top 100 win, and with SJU drubbing Duke today staying in the top 10 or 11 of the Big East would put us in incredible shape.  Remember, we had an RPI of 50 last year and were a 6-seed, and now we are up to 58.

It's almost hard to find enough teams to fill the new expanded bracket this year there is such a gap between these teams and the other 285, unless you find someone I missed.  And I do mean that seriously, please do point out if I've missed someone else who would have any chance of getting picked ahead of us right now.