Today feels like an extremely important game

[She Mate Me]

If we're going to get this ship turned, it feels like we've got to win this series.

 

[57stratdawg]

It is a big game. More pressure on OM though. It’s a big game for Bianco.

 

[patdog]

Big game for both teams. It’s hard to see the loser of this series making a regional.

 

[msugrad2003]

It is a big game. More pressure on OM though. It’s a big game for Bianco.

Isn’t he scheduled to be the manager for Team USA this summer? That would be a kick in the berries, to lose your job just prior to taking on that role

 

[Go Budaw]

Big game for both teams. It’s hard to see the loser of this series making a regional.

Realistically, both of the next 2 are equally huge. In the committee’s eyes, we play a 4-game series against OM every year. Their RPI gives them more margin for error than ours does, so we really need to take both of these. OM can realistically still get in at 13-17….there’s not a chance in hell that’s in play for us. Need to prove on the field that we’re definitively better than them in case it comes down to the two of us for one bid. 2-2 doesn’t really do that.

 

[Quincy A. Wagstaff]

RPI

Realistically, both of the next 2 are equally huge. In the committee’s eyes, we play a 4-game series against OM every year. Their RPI gives them more margin for error than ours does, so we really need to take both of these. OM can realistically still get in at 13-17….there’s not a chance in hell that’s in play for us. Need to prove on the field that we’re definitively better than them in case it comes down to the two of us for one bid. 2-2 doesn’t really do that.

team	RPI	vs. top-50	vs. 201+
Tennessee	1	13-2	9-0
Georgia	2	12-7	6-0
Vanderbilt	7	7-8	5-0
Florida	12	13-14	3-0
Auburn	15	8-4	6-0
LSU	22	8-11	8-0
Texas A&M	24	11-8	5-0
Arkansas	27	6-5	7-0
Missouri	36	1-11	6-0
Alabama	42	4-10	7-2
Ole Miss	61	2-8	7-0
South Carolina	63	7-13	6-1
Mississippi State	75	8-13	11-1
Kentucky	76	6-11	9-1

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The problem with our RPI is the number of games vs. 201+ teams, almost all wins. We have played the most in that category in the SEC. We've played plenty of top-50 teams. Only Florida has played more games vs. top-50 teams. Only 4 teams have more wins vs. top-50 teams, all of which are in the top-25 themselves.

RPI rankings of 7 SEC teams with 8+ wins vs. top-50: 1, 2, 12, 15, 22, 24, 75.

RPI is a bad metric that punishes you for beating bad teams, but we probably could have scheduled better. We've only played 5 non-conference games vs. teams in the 51-200 range. If some of our 201+ opponents were traded for 51-100 opponents*, our RPI would be a lot better.

Glaring example: Missouri has 1 win vs. a top-50 team, but we've played twice as many games vs. 201+ teams. They are 39 spots ahead of us at the moment.


*ETA
51-100 teams not on our schedule this year:
-UL Lafayette
-Middle Tennessee
-South Alabama
-Belmont
-Tennessee Tech
-East Tennessee State
-Troy

A handful of games vs. some of those teams could have really helped us.

 

[cowbell88]

25 mph wind from SW too. I’m guessing that will be blowing out. Might be more of a dinger show than it has been.

 

[She Mate Me]

Realistically, both of the next 2 are equally huge. In the committee’s eyes, we play a 4-game series against OM every year. Their RPI gives them more margin for error than ours does, so we really need to take both of these. OM can realistically still get in at 13-17….there’s not a chance in hell that’s in play for us. Need to prove on the field that we’re definitively better than them in case it comes down to the two of us for one bid. 2-2 doesn’t really do that.

They're not equally huge. Today is more important because it's on their field.