Welcome back, sports fans, as we continue our deep dive into college basketball. Monday, we posted the women’s Top 363 with their conference comparison the next day. Yesterday, we posted the men’s Top 365 and are looking at their conferences today.
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Before we move forward, there was a question yesterday from good friend and long-time reader, Carl L., who asked what RPI stood for. He is also a fan of how the GCR works in general. While I do not get specific about some of the calculations (due to my lack of ability to explain them simply more than anything else), RPI, or Rating Percentage Index, is not as complex. RPI is used by the basketball committees to help determine the NCAA, NIT, and other tournaments fields as well as seeding. The GCR version is close to the official version used by the NCAA. The calculation is really simple: (X+2Y+Z)/4. Z is the easiest to calculate and easy to find – a given team’s winning percentage. In our example, our fictitious team is 14-6 or .700. Y, which gets double weight, is relatively easy to find and calculate if you are patient – a given team’s opponents combined winning percentage. In our example, assuming that all teams have played 20 games and some opponents are more difficult than others, the 20 opponents of our fictitious team are 220-180 or .550. Z is a more difficult number to put together, although possible to do manually if you have a ton of time and good quality pencils – a given team’s opponents’ opponents combined winning percentage. In our example, each of the 20 opponents have played 20 teams so we have 400 entries each of which have played 20 games. Let’s say those teams are a combined 4176-3824 or .522. Applying the formula, we get (.700+(2*.550)+.522) or 2.322 divided by 4 or .581 (rounding to the 3rd decimal place). Coincidentally, Miami FL has an RPI of .581 in yesterday’s rankings which puts them at 54th overall.
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One additional part of the GCR RPI calculation is all of those games against non-Division I teams. Some calculations ignore those games completely, some include them, but the GCR has its own way of dealing with them. We want them to be included (and lower the RPI for those that play them), but we don’t think they are worth tracking hundreds additional teams (and the teams they play). We handle that by taking the average winning percentage of the Division I teams and diminishing that number by a constant – the same for all teams. For example, if the DI teams were .500 (they aren’t because of these games) and the factor was .1, we would count every non-D1 team as having a winning percentage of .050. We would use the same value as the opp’s winning pct as well. If that sounds like a harsh value, the winning percentage against those teams is above .950 this season, so we are actually being generous.
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A little data to help understand the table below a little better. The over record for all men’s teams is 3375-2825 for a .544 winning pct. which includes 858 conference games. The average team is 9.2-7.7. Miami OH (18-0/100) of the MAC is the wins leader. Five teams are just one behind at 17. Two teams are tied for most losses, Coppin St (3-17/362) of the MEAC and MS Valley (1-17/365) of the SWAC. Along with MIAO, Arizona, Vanderbilt, and Nebraska were undefeated through Tuesday’s games (note: Vanderbilt lost to Texas on Wednesday). The combined record for the 31 teams that have their respective conference’s best ranking is 399-124 (.763). Likewise, the combined record for the 31 teams that are their respective conference’s worst is 135-397 (.254). The lowest ranked team that is the best in their conference is Howard (10-6/246) of the MEAC while the highest ranked team lowest in the conference is the SEC’s Texas (10-6/103). The SEC also has the lowest ranking differential between best and worst team at 97 places between Vanderbilt and Texas. The West Coast Conference has the biggest disparity with a whopping 308 places between St Mary’s 21st ranking and Pepperdine’s 329th. The average conference has a difference of 254 places between best and worse.
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The table below ranks the conferences by average Score (Michigan is #1 so has a Score of 100 and all others are adjusted to that – MS Valley in last has a Score of 3.57). The RPI does not always align but is very useful. For individual teams, a discrepancy between GCR Rank and RPI is an indicator of where we expect that team to rise (or fall). If RPI is higher, we expect the team to rise in the ranking. And now we are proud to present the first ranking 2025-26 men’s conference comparison from the Big 12 to the MEAC.
| Rank | Conference | Record | Avg Score | AVG RPI | Best Team | Worst Team |
| 1 | B12 | 193-67 | 74.49 | 0.619 | Arizona (16-0/4) | Utah (8-8/124) |
| 2 | Big Ten | 207-89 | 70.36 | 0.604 | Michigan (14-1/1) | Maryland (7-10/200) |
| 3 | ACC | 212-91 | 70.26 | 0.607 | Duke (15-1/9) | Boston College (7-10/198) |
| 4 | SEC | 185-77 | 69.61 | 0.599 | Vanderbilt (16-0/6) | Texas (10-6/103) |
| 5 | Big East | 121-68 | 65.24 | 0.593 | UCONN (17-1/3) | Marquette (6-12/235) |
| 6 | Mtn West | 117-79 | 53.19 | 0.539 | Utah St (14-1/34) | Air Force (3-14/339) |
| 7 | Atlantic 10 | 150-87 | 52.61 | 0.520 | St Louis (15-1/42) | Loyola Chicago (5-13/323) |
| 8 | West Coast | 133-92 | 51.28 | 0.521 | St Marys (17-2/21) | Pepperdine (5-14/329) |
| 9 | Missouri Valley | 113-84 | 47.56 | 0.502 | Murray St (15-3/52) | Evansville (5-14/315) |
| 10 | American | 120-93 | 47.51 | 0.508 | Tulsa (13-3/78) | UTSA (4-12/325) |
| 11 | WAC | 71-50 | 45.84 | 0.478 | Utah Valley (14-4/86) | S Utah (4-13/343) |
| 12 | MAC | 129-96 | 44.33 | 0.478 | Akron (13-4/69) | Ball St (4-13/344) |
| 13 | Coastal | 125-99 | 43.81 | 0.475 | Hofstra (13-4/72) | Northeastern (5-11/298) |
| 14 | C-USA | 107-84 | 43.55 | 0.470 | Liberty (13-3/74) | Delaware (5-11/316) |
| 15 | Big West | 100-88 | 42.35 | 0.472 | UC San Diego (13-4/84) | Long Beach (6-11/299) |
| 16 | Ivy | 67-57 | 42.33 | 0.466 | Yale (12-3/70) | Brown (6-9/309) |
| 17 | Sun Belt | 124-123 | 40.10 | 0.464 | Arkansas St (12-5/75) | ULM (3-15/360) |
| 18 | Horizon | 98-101 | 39.14 | 0.456 | Oakland (9-9/137) | IU Indy (4-15/353) |
| 19 | MAAC | 106-113 | 38.28 | 0.457 | Quinnipiac (12-5/107) | Rider (1-14/364) |
| 20 | SoCon | 82-86 | 37.24 | 0.442 | Furman (12-5/116) | Citadel (4-13/348) |
| 21 | Southland | 97-108 | 36.97 | 0.448 | McNeese (14-3/65) | Houston Chr (5-12/328) |
| 22 | Big Sky | 79-84 | 36.22 | 0.437 | Portland St (9-5/162) | E Washington (3-13/347) |
| 23 | Big South | 83-83 | 36.19 | 0.436 | High Point (16-3/128) | Gardner Webb (2-16/363) |
| 24 | Summit | 80-87 | 35.65 | 0.435 | St Thomas (14-4/122) | Kansas City (4-14/350) |
| 25 | Atlantic Sun | 84-114 | 34.70 | 0.451 | Lipscomb (10-7/161) | North Florida (2-15/359) |
| 26 | Ohio Valley | 88-98 | 33.99 | 0.419 | UT Martin (13-4/151) | S Indiana (3-13/355) |
| 27 | Patriot | 80-87 | 31.95 | 0.420 | American (10-8/191) | Lafayette (4-13/345) |
| 28 | Northeast | 62-104 | 28.81 | 0.406 | Long Island (10-7/157) | Chicago St (2-15/361) |
| 29 | American East | 55-99 | 28.04 | 0.410 | Vermont (10-7/195) | Binghamton (4-14/356) |
| 30 | SWAC | 61-135 | 26.44 | 0.425 | Grambling (8-9/237) | MS Valley (1-17/365) |
| 31 | MEAC | 46-102 | 24.03 | 0.386 | Howard (10-8/246) | Coppin St (3-17/362) |
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That’s it for today. Tune in Sunday for our preview of the FBS Championship game featuring the Miami FL Hurricanes and the Indiana Hoosiers. Thank you for reading, sharing with others, asking question, and making comments. All of those things help us grow, JoJo and G.
