All this talk of possible seedings in the NCAA tourney begs me to make a
point about using the rankings only part way through a season.  Two teams
in the top ten are both suffering in these early comparisons because of
their conference schedules.  CC has played Wisconsin 4 times already and
has not yet played DU, which means their ranking will get better when the
season is over.  Vermont has only played 2 of 8 games against the other
top 4 in the ECAC (home win over Colgate and tie with Cornell), thus they
still have home and away with SLU and Clarkson.  There are probably other
examples of this, but these are two I know off the top of my head.
  This is why the NCAA uses the RPI only at the end of the season, when
the season is complete and everyone has played both strong and weak
teams.  Don't be concerned about possible seedings based on only partial
data.  If UVM keeps winning, their RPI by the end of the year will be
right up there with the other teams.  And as we have seen before, don't
forget the post season tournements.  They will have an effect on the
final 12.
 
William Sangrey
Cornell '87&'94
Let's Go RED!!!
 
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