A&M still at 4, Rice sits at 47 in today's Warren Nolan RPI going into our game today, April 7.

Kentucky has improved to 25 after our sweep. You know A&M is good when we can beat you twice at home and you improve in the RPI.

A&M up to 2.

Updated April 8

1 Dallas Baptist
2 Texas A&M
3 Miami (FL)
4 Florida State
5 UCLA
6 TCU
7 Oklahoma State
8 Vanderbilt
9 Florida
10 Missouri State
11 Florida Atlantic
12 Georgia Tech
13 Louisville
14 UC Santa Barbara
15 Nebraska
16 USC

Is SoS static or does it fluctuate?

I just don't understand. We play in the toughest league, our OOC opponents are pretty stout (dbu, rice, uh, neb), what am I missing?

We are 13-2 against top 50 opp. That's incredible! Gig 'em!

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Is SoS static or does it fluctuate?

I just don't understand. We play in the toughest league, our OOC opponents are pretty stout (dbu, rice, uh, neb), what am I missing?

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While the SEC may be the toughest league overall, it is so because there aren't hardly any terrible teams not so much because there are a lot of really good teams. Plus, we don't play two of the really good ones. There is just a whole lot of mediocrity in the SEC this year.

The SEC mid-week struggles the last few weeks doesn't help either. We are pulling up the league OOC winning percentage by a lot all by ourselves.

But where are these 90 teams who are playing the vandys and Miamis every week? Sure that's hyperbole, but come on our opponents have turned out to be pretty damn good teams and the idea that our schedule is middle of the pack is laughable.

Dartmouth at 195 and Penn State at 246 are still killing us.

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But where are these 90 teams who are playing the vandys and Miamis every week? Sure that's hyperbole, but come on our opponents have turned out to be pretty damn good teams and the idea that our schedule is middle of the pack is laughable.

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Its mathematical, it is what it is.

For comparison's sake, Miami has played:

3 games at #9 Florida

1 game at #11 Florida Atlantic
1 game vs #11 Florida Atlantic

3 games at #12 Louisville

3 games at #20 North Carolina


Texas A&M has played:

1 game vs #1 Dallas Baptist

1 game neutral #17 Nebraska

2 games at #24 Kentucky


There's a noticeable difference when looking at top 25 opponents. Further, we have played 2 more games against 201+ teams and 2 more games against 101-200 teams.

The Aggies are 4th in April 13th's official NCAA RPI.

http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/baseball/d1/rpi


Can I just take a minute to ***** and whine a bit about our non-conference scheduling?

To be more specific, our scheduling is fine, we'll have played a hard schedule, etc..., etc..

But we have at least 5 more wins and 4 fewer losses than the 3 teams above us in the RPI. Teams 5-8 in the RPI all have 8 to 12 losses.

That all comes down to strength of schedule. TCU is currently 6th, Oklahoma State is 12th, Oklahoma is 62, Texas Tech is 73, and lo-and-behold UT-Austin is 88.

We schedule exactly 1 former Big 12 opponent, Baylor, and that was scheduled for us by the folks in Houston. Meanwhile, we took it upon ourselves to schedule a double header with 238 UT-Pan American, 244 Incarnate Word, a home and home with 174 Sam Houston State, 300 Prairie View A&M...providing A&M with a unique tour of some of the worst teams our region. I hope you're all ready for 204 Abilene Christian.

I realize scheduling is a complicated process, but can we get over whatever butthurt remains with our old conference rivals and work on the non-conference schedule? Maybe it was just badluck, but having started 33-3, we've managed to schedule ourselves into risking a national seed if we lose a series or a game or two to the wrong people.

I'm sure some of its mutual butthurt...but there are so many good teams in this area and we're hardly playing them.

Sorry. Whine over.

We picked the wrong schools from the North for 3 - 3 game series, total of 9 games. There was plenty of good Big 10 teams we could have played at Olsen in February that would have dramatically lifted our SOS.

Forget the Tuesday sceduling. We take what we can get with SHSU, UTA, Incarnate Word, etc. we could have done a little better on the non-conference weekends, I'll give you that...but our hands are pretty tied on the mid-week games.

Yeah, we bombed on the weekend series.

Either way...even on Tuesday...TCU has traveled to Loyola Marymount (to be fair, they were on the west coast the previous weekend) and Abilene Christian (home and home). They played Rice at home, a home and home with UT-Arlington, and have schedule Big 12 teams to fill the midweek schedule (such as Oklahoma).

I realize we might have to go to Fort Worth, but I'm curious if either school floated the idea of playing each other instead of Abilene Christian or in TCU's case, UT-Arlington 3 times on different Tuesdays.

Maybe we should go to Austin instead of both clubs playing maybe the worst team in D-1 baseball Prairie View A&M?

Big 12 teams are pretty desperate to help their SoS...what kind of effort are we making to use that and help ourselves out?

Sam and Texas state are usually stronger than they are this year.

We usually play UH midweek but didn't this year. Same with TCU.

We're going to be ok though. Our SOS has continued to trend in the right direction as we've progressed through conference play.

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Big 12 teams are pretty desperate to help their SoS...what kind of effort are we making to use that and help ourselves out?

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...and way to say that is Big12 teams are desperate to help out their SoS, so why the hell should we help our competition for recruites build a better post-season profile?

Instead of playing Holy Cross, Dartmouth and Penn State we could schedule an actual team in the Top100 for a 3 game set. Sounds like we're making a return trip to Malibu next year to play Pepperdine. Generally a decent team and being a road trip it's a 1.3 RPI bump for any game you win.

There's a fine line between helping our SoS a little by playing B12 teams and helping their SoS A LOT by letting them play us.

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There's a fine line between helping our SoS a little by playing B12 teams and helping their SoS A LOT by letting them play us.

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The Wisdom of Luke.

I didn't want to start a new thread so I'm going to ask this here:

Does anyone know where I could find the intro videos they play before the game? Both of them. I can't find them on YouTube and don't know if they've even been released

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There's a fine line between helping our SoS a little by playing B12 teams and helping their SoS A LOT by letting them play us.

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There is a fine line between #4 and #9, too.

I'd rather help ourselves out against the entirety of the field at the expense of helping out one particular opponent.

Unless we're going to insulate ourselves against everyone, at least everyone in the region, that might challenge for a national seed or regional, we're going to be helping someone. I don't think insulating ourselves from every good team in the region is a recipe for success.

I have to apologize I got on my soapbox before I saw the thread about playing the Longhorns. I think that's a great step in the right direction.

The basic point is that I've become frustrated with our non-conference scheduling. It was bad last year, it's improved but still bad this year.

If you look at everyone else that's currently in the running for a national seed...apart from TCU, we're not even in the same ballpark SoS wise.

A&M is 74, TCU is 63...no one else in the top 14 has a SoS below 39.

Our SoS will continue to improve as the season progresses. We won't get into the top 20 of the SoS, but it will get better.

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The basic point is that I've become frustrated with our non-conference scheduling. It was bad last year, it's improved but still bad this year.

If you look at everyone else that's currently in the running for a national seed...apart from TCU, we're not even in the same ballpark SoS wise.

A&M is 74, TCU is 63...no one else in the top 14 has a SoS below 39.

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If seeding is based on rpi, Idc about sos. Sure playing better teams helps our rpi, but to what extent? The good thing about being high rpi is that next year bubble programs will want to schedule us win or lose.

Deep down I think the complaints about sos are just nitpicking. We are unanimously #1 and we have top 4 rpi, boohoo we have a pedestrian schedule. We are making the best of it with out .900+ win%. And guess what, out opponents are making the best of it too. Maybe it's dumb luck but it doesn't matter because we are taking care of business.

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The basic point is that I've become frustrated with our non-conference scheduling. It was bad last year, it's improved but still bad this year.

If you look at everyone else that's currently in the running for a national seed...apart from TCU, we're not even in the same ballpark SoS wise.

A&M is 74, TCU is 63...no one else in the top 14 has a SoS below 39.

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If seeding is based on rpi, Idc about sos. Sure playing better teams helps our rpi, but to what extent? The good thing about being high rpi is that next year bubble programs will want to schedule us win or lose.

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3/4ths of the RPI formula is a measure of the strength of our schedule.

50% takes into account the W-L of our opponent's, and 25% takes into account the W-L of our opponent's opponent's.

http://www.boydsworld.com/sa/texas_a_m.html

Teams marked in green will help our RPI, even if we lose. Teams marked in red will damage our RPI, even if we win. Strength of schedule is hugely important.

LSU is a better illustration of the importance of strength of schedule than A&M is. They have the second highest winning percentage in the country. Their RPI is 15 because their SoS is 88th.

Illinois is an even better illustration of the importance of strength of schedule. They have the third best winning percentage in the country. Their RPI is 29, as their SoS is 158.

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Deep down I think the complaints about sos are just nitpicking. We are unanimously #1 and we have top 4 rpi, boohoo we have a pedestrian schedule. We are making the best of it with out .900+ win%. And guess what, out opponents are making the best of it too. Maybe it's dumb luck but it doesn't matter because we are taking care of business.

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Its not just about this year. Its about those years when we don't start 33-3 and need a better SoS to give us the same sort of RPI.

I don't want to depend on "dumb luck".

Yes, I'm nitpicking, but not for that reason.

The NCAA's official RPI has:

Texas A&M at 4th
Arkansas at 84th

Going into tonight's series opener. (April 17)


1 Dallas Baptist
2 Miami (FL)
3 UCLA
4 Texas A&M
5 Missouri State
6 Florida
7 Florida State
8 Louisville
9 Bradley
10 TCU

This weekend's series

1 Dallas Baptist v 176 Indiana State

2 Miami (FL) at 47 Virginia

3 UCLA vs 64 California (UCLA lost 0-2 last night)

4 Texas A&M v 84 Arkansas

5 Missouri State v 288 Tennessee-Martin

6 Florida at 88 Mississippi State

7 Florida State vs 154 Pittsburgh

8 Louisville vs 90 Wake Forest

9 Bradley vs 194 Wichita State

10 TCU vs 179 Santa Clara

It will be interesting to see how the Top 10's rpi's are affected this weekend by the crappiness of their opponents (half are well out of the Top100) regardless of the outcome of their games.

Everything is updated.

On possible regional opponents...

1 DBU and 10 TCU look like they're in decent shape to host, or at least receive a 1 seed in a regional somewhere.

15 LSU won't be sent here.

18 Oklahoma State and 30 Oral Roberts seem more likely from a geographic standpoint to be sent to DFW, or to Missouri State (anyone know what Miss. State's hosting capabilities are?)

That leaves Houston at 35 as the closest possible 2 seed, with 45 Rice, 50 Tulane, and 51 New Mexico looming at 3 seed options.

The upshot of this is we'd like to see Houston win some games and come up to College Station as a soft 2 seed.

A&M
Houston
Rice
4 seed

That'd be a nice regional.

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Everything is updated.

On possible regional opponents...

1 DBU and 10 TCU look like they're in decent shape to host, or at least receive a 1 seed in a regional somewhere.

15 LSU won't be sent here.

18 Oklahoma State and 30 Oral Roberts seem more likely from a geographic standpoint to be sent to DFW, or to Missouri State (anyone know what Miss. State's hosting capabilities are?)

That leaves Houston at 35 as the closest possible 2 seed, with 45 Rice, 50 Tulane, and 51 New Mexico looming at 3 seed options.

The upshot of this is we'd like to see Houston win some games and come up to College Station as a soft 2 seed.

A&M
Houston
Rice
4 seed

That'd be a nice regional.

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No thanks on Rice.

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It will be interesting to see how the Top 10's rpi's are affected this weekend by the crappiness of their opponents (half are well out of the Top100) regardless of the outcome of their games.

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Yeah. Its a bunch of teams trying to get some sweeps.

It'll be interesting. I am not sure Dallas Baptist can hold on to #1 much longer. They play 1 with TCU and 2 with Oklahoma State, but everyone else is at 144 or lower in the RPI.

Missouri State and Bradley are going to start sliding.

They play each other in the final regular season series. That might be for a chance at a national seed, or, if they drop some games, just a chance to be a 1 seed in a regional.

Florida has a ridiculously hard schedule left with 42 Kentucky, 22 South Florida, 19 Vanderbilt, and 16 Auburn all remaining.

Miami, Florida State, and Louisville also all have rather tough schedules remaining.

A&M has to play clean baseball otherwise we'll probably get passed up by at least Florida and maybe Florida State.

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No thanks on Rice.

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They're 9-9 over the past month, including that loss to us and a split with Houston in midweek games.

I'm not afraid of Rice.

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No thanks on Rice.

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They're 9-9 over the past month, including that loss to us and a split with Houston in midweek games.

I'm not afraid of Rice.

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I'm not either, but we have seen Rice in regionals or supers somnething like 5x in the last 10 appearances. (just going off the top of my head)

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No thanks on Rice.

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They're 9-9 over the past month, including that loss to us and a split with Houston in midweek games.

I'm not afraid of Rice.

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We won so comfortably

if the Ags are the #1, #2, or #3 overall national seed...

I would expect Rice or Houston as the #2 seed; and then the #3 seed as a mid-major / Big 10-type team. Clubs like Oral Roberts, Ohio State, etc..,

I'd be disappointed if a power conference school was sent as the #3 if A&M is a high national seed

so with the Ags suffering their first losing weekend...the RPI and SoS numbers with regard to national seed selection take on much more significance for A&M. Especially if the Ags don't win the LSU series

A&M is 5th in Warren Nolan and Boyd's World this Monday morning after losing to Arkansas.

The NCAA hasn't updated their official RPI yet, but I'll update everything once they do.

Another bad weekend or two and things get really interesting for the Aggies.