Seeing how important the RPI calculation has become to deciding who
should make the NC$$ tournament (and in filling my mailbox the last few
days), does anyone know if there is any scientific basis for the way
that the multipliers for three factors (record, opponents' record, and
opponents' opponents' record) were chosen?  I realize that these
multipliers were changed this year, but I am curious as to why they
were chosen.  Although I can easily see that some combination of these
factors are an indication of the relative strength of teams, I don't
recall having ever seen any reason for why the multipliers were chosen
as they are.  I also wonder why further terms as opponents' opponents'
opponents' record were not also somehow included although the terms
will have a tendency to approach 1/2.
 
 
There was a comment earlier about the games this weekend being
concurrent with Passover.  I guess this doesn't affect me, because
living in Washington I would not get a chance to watch the games
anyway.  What I wonder about is if Harvard goalie Aaron Israel is
Jewish (the name sure sounds Jewish) and if he is likely to have to
miss Saturday's game.  (No, this is not being spoken by an RPI fan
looking past UNH, :-) and Tripp Tracy will prove just as tough to
beat.)
 
Interesting bit of trivia, of no practical importance.  This is the 7th
time that RPI has been to the NC$$ tournament and the 4th time in a
year ending in a 4 -- '54, '64, '84, and '94, missing only '74.  The
others were '53, '61, and '85.
 
Ralph Baer  RPI '68, '70, '74
They didn't make it in '74 because I was still there.  :-(