[Old School Hound]

My buddy, Hound05 , mentioned in the other RPI thread how important scheduling is when it comes to a team's playoff positioning and potential playoff success. If playoff positioning is a team's priority, then how you schedule is VITALLY important . There are thee factors that are weighted in to a team's RPI rating: 

1) Your team's winning percentage(value-based on class) - weighted 35%
2) Your opponents' winning percentage - weighted 35%
3) Your opponents' opponents winning percentage - weighted 30%

So, if RPI is a main consideration in your scheduling, then you want to try to schedule opponents that you think you can win against BUT opponents that will win a lot of games and will, themselves, schedule some strong opponents. It can be a tricky balance. Schedule a  lot of mediocre to poor teams and your WP will be high but your OWP will suffer.  In Boyle County's case, their WP is good, their OWP is good, but they have a poor OOWP(Opponents' opponents winning percentage), which drags down their rating. If the Reb's OOWP was anywhere near that of Corbin or Lex Cath, they would be #1 in RPI, even with their loss to Catholic.

Let's look at how much value each of Corbin' opponent added to their total RPI through the first even games.  

Anyone want to take a guess which two Corbin opponents resulted in the largest share of RPI points for the Hounds?  How about the two opponents which added the least to Corbin's RPI total ?

Now that you have your guesses, let see what the mathematics says.  

CORBIN'S OPPONENT     CORBIN'S  (WP) RPI PTS     (OWP) RPI PTS           OOWP RPI PTS    Tot RPI CONTRIBUTION      ( % )

Pikeville                             0.03289408                       0.05401850               0.032457988           0.11937044         15.39 %

Whitley Co.                        0.05750870                       0.00724500               0.03355929             0.09831299         12.68  % 

Franklin County                  0.05000000                       0.02391450               0.03038057             0.10429507          13.45  %

Pulaski County                    0.05750870                       0.04639300               0.01972457             0.12362627         15.94  %
              
Somerset                           0.03781700                        0.03008350               0.02961943            0.09751993          12.57  %
   
Simon Kenton                     0.06613650                        0.03224600               0.02770029            0.12608279          16.26  %

Knox Central                       0.05000000                        0.03349900               0.02291614            0.10641514          13.72  %


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So, if you said  Simon Kenton and Pulaski County gave the biggest boots to Corbin's RPI, you would be correct.  Somerset and Whitley County added the least points to the Hounds' RPI.  If you think these differences are small and inconsequential, you would be very wrong. The current difference between the RPI's of Corbin and Lex Cath  is a meager  0.00488.   So, even a  0.01 contribution to a RPI would be huge.   I would like to have see the Hounds add a 5A team like Highlands, who the Hound would have beaten this season but a team that would have been a boost for the RPI versus Campbell County, who will not add near a much value. Also, a team like  North Laurel would give the RPI more benefit than would Somerset or Whitley.  Of course,  you cannot always schedule everyone you would like to but if RPI is a big consideration when scheduling, then schedule up in class against pretty good teams who schedule good opponents.

Comments??