John Whelan wrote:
 
> So, in fact, if RPI had played and *tied*
> Q, their RPI would have gone up.  And indeed, a win over Q (even if it
> were not in the last 16 games) would have been enough to put them in
> the tournament in place of Ohio State.
>
 
Do I correctly see a viable strategy for pursuing Dick Tuthill's goal to
maximize MAAC's credibility through interconference scheduling
without penalizing the established non-MAAC teams that elect that
"charitable" act?  That strategy would be to have top MAAC teams
schedule nonconference games to the max while letting established
teams shy away from the lower half of the MAAC.
 
Non-MAAC teams avoid the risk of eroding their PWRs with
statistically damaging wins.  In fact, such scheduling isn't even
charitable, it becomes self-serving and synergistic so long as the
non-MAAC coach correctly guesses that Fairfield will be  the
MAAC champion that year..  At the same time, the greater
interconference intercourse achieved by MAAC's upper teams
helps to legitimatize the PWRs of the whole conference, not that
the lower conference teams would be NCAA tournament
candidates anyway.
 
Bob
 
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