[Hound05]

I would to know how Ohio does their “computer ratings” they go by. I’m sure it’s a form of RPI. I’m still not sure why some don’t like our RPI? Could it be a little better? Yes. But it’s the start to an avenue they can broaden. The past few years the title game has been the top 2 or 3 teams playing. What else could you ask for.

The system discourages teams from playing tough schedules and actually penalizes them for doing so. No offense, but Corbin's schedule has been pretty weak, yet they are rewarded with the top 4A seed. Johnson Central's schedule has been even weaker but they have always had a tough time scheduling strong competition for non-district play. The strongest teams within a reasonable drive for JC are located in Ohio and West Virginia. They were playing a couple of teams from Charleston, Capital and South Charleston, but those teams have been way down the past few seasons. The big schools in Huntington play a similar style as JC, so JC has sought out stronger passing teams to better prepare for the playoffs.

RPI considerations should not drive scheduling, IMO, but look at the schedules that Madison Central and George Rogers Clark have played. Neither team is very good this season, but they have pretty good records because they have avoided playing good 5A and 6A teams during the regular season. Teams in Kentucky that are weaker than the strong teams in southern Ohio but accumulate a lot of wins against weak opponents are sometimes referred to as "Harbin cows" because Buckeye teams can rack up Harbin points by playing them. (Harbin being the name of the Ohio equivalent of the RPI.)

It is probably going to be rare for Johnson Central to get a third round home playoff win because of their out of state games. Trinity is a much better example. They have the most quality wins of any Kentucky team by far and will be on the road in the second round. I am sure that Trinity will not be watering down their schedule to earn a better RPI and I hope that JC will not either. Hopefully, JC will be able to put together a stronger schedule next season because they will return a lot of talent.

The RPI system sucks.

I disagree with both of those statements. I don’t think Corbin’s schedule is weak. Or even JCs really. And RPI doesn’t reward weak scheduling. I’m not saying you in particularly, but I believe the reason people believe both is because of the assumptions they already have. They don’t look at the numbers, and they view teams with tinted glasses on, or assume becaise of their name and past they are either good or bad. But computers and number’s don’t have emotions and are objective. 

Corbin’s schedule is actually pretty good despite what some think. And again, I believe they think that because they don’t believe how good SK was, who finished 2nd in 6A RPI, pikeville who finished first because they are 1A, and Pulaski who is a very solid team. Franklin county had a 3 point loss to a Scott county team. All of those teams outside FC are in CalPreps top 25 regardless of class. Corbin finished 3rd in SoS in 4A according to them behind boyle and catholic. Before district Corbin actually had a big lead in SoS over them, but they had the advantage of a good district unlike Corbin and JC. But even then we still finished 2 points behind them in SoS. For perspective, Corbin’s was 7 points higher than JC. We still finished above in SOS regardless of class, higher than the likes of FD, CAL, Southwestern, Pikeville, Beechwood, and several more teams with good schedules. And again for perspective, since some don’t like the RPI numbers. Trinity finished with a 37.7 SoS compared to our 8.1, JC 1.1, Boyle 10.1. So again how is Corbin’s schedule weak? Objectively? 


Now as RPI goes, the truth to it is obvious at least to Corbin fans, and others who look at it objectively. It doesn’t reward weak scheduling. Actually quiet the opposite. Corbin finished 10-0 last year and finished 3rd in RPI behind boyle and Lex cath who had a good schedule. The schedule was weak for the most part. Probably not as weak as most think. But still weak. This year a pretty good schedule and we are first. And it was close! 1A raceland had a pretty weak schedule outside of one game. They finished behind Pikeville who had another loss more than them. Mayfield was 10-0 and finished 3rd. Metcalfe was 10-0 finished 6 in 2A, both with pretty weak schedules. Other 10-0 teams…. Mason, bardstown union, all behind CAL who was first. 4A had warren East that was 10-0
and finished behind boyle and Lex. Southwestern in 5A is 10-0 and still finished behind Scott co who had 1 loss. All of those teams had pretty weak schedules and great records and still weren’t the top team. Some of them not even 3rd or 4th place with zero losses. Even in your example, Madison central and GRC, they finished with 3 losses. Even with that GRC didn’t even make it in the top 10. Central finished 11th. And both were behind a 4 loss Trinity, 3 loss SK, Bryan station with 3, Male with 4. GRC finished behind a 5 loss team and central was barely ahead of them in RPI. Why? Because I doesn’t reward weak schedules. A 5 loss team ahead of of 7-3? And honestly, are there teams behind them that could beat them? Maybe, but not many. Again if people will look at it without their tinted shades on, it’s there, in black and white. But most want to assume that they know better than the numbers and a another sites algorithm, not saying you. Someone who is great at math can probably explain it better, but if you schedule a bunch of nobody’s with 2 or 3 wins and you win all of them, your WP will be pretty high, but the OWP which is weighted the same would be very low,
thus almost canceling each other. Even if you play weak teams with good records, your OOWP is gonna be garbage and is weighted just below at .30, so it would almost cancel it it out. RPI balances everything pretty evenly. It isn’t perfect, but it’s better than what most think because they can’t get their assumptions to the sides despite the numbers, Polls, other metrics of measurement of teams. And again it doesn’t reward weak scheduling. Now if someone can show actual proof that it does, I might change my mind if correct. But just because ole Johnny don’t believe that another team is good isn’t gonna cut it when you have objective proof. 

Now I will agree about the oit of state teams. But I’m not smart enough to come up with a solution to that, thats realistic. And that’s where your Trinity example comes into play. Yea they have strong wins, but it’s out of state. That’s not RPI’s fault, and even then, they still finished above teams with more wins including the two you named. Which again, shows RPI doesn’t reward them, Trinity still finished higher.