RPI no longer important, NCAA tournament makes example of CSU

The NCAA tournament selection committee sent a message Sunday: RPI is no longer relevant.

Debate has raged on for years about whether the Rating Percentage Index was an archaic metric for the selection committee to use, with critics pleading for KenPom, Sagarin and ESPN's BPI to be the new go-to.

A combination of those now are. Committee chair Scott Barnes, athletic director at Utah State, said Sunday the RPI will help pool which teams deserves to be in consideration together, but it's not a determining factor for who gets in.

Someone should have told CSU basketball coach Larry Eustachy that last offseason.

Eustachy put together a brilliant schedule for CSU, one designed to boost the Rams' RPI so that when selection Sunday arrived, he wouldn't be sweating.

Colorado State University was overconfident after losing in the semifinals of the Mountain West tournament Friday to San Diego State. It wasn't on the bubble, Eustachy said, it was squarely in the NCAA tournament. Two days later, he learned how far from the truth that statement was.

Sixty eight teams were announced as part of the tournament field and CSU wasn't on the list. It wasn't even the first team out.

That schedule CSU touted to open the season 14-0 was a farce; the committee didn't buy it.

It brilliantly manipulated the RPI in the Rams' favor. CSU played teams it knew would finish the season with a strong RPI, while also knowing the chance of a loss was almost nonexistent.

So the Rams happily beat Georgia State (RPI No. 53), UTEP (78) and UC-Santa Barbara (87) during nonconference competition—good, but safe, opponents. In Mountain West play, they beat San Diego State (26) and Boise State (40). The "regular season" ended and Friday and Eustachy was content with benching his best player, J.J. Avila, who, allegedly, was healthy enough to play in a 56-43 semifinal loss.

No team with an RPI in the top 30 had ever been left out of the 68-team NCAA tournament. He never dreamed CSU (29) would be the first. It was.

"We look at RPI really as an organizer in terms of top 50 and 100, but we spent a lot of time, more time than I remember, in comparing (RPI) in the swings to metrics such as the Sagarin, Ken Pom, BPI," Barnes said. "Those are used in the room as well and talked about quite extensively. We review those metrics each week, and that carried over to this week."

CSU's KenPom ranking is 68th. It's 57th in the Sagarin and BPI. The Rams never had a chance under those systems.

Davidson made the NCAA tournament as an at-large team with a worse RPI (33) and strength of schedule (113) and three more bad losses than CSU. Its KenPom ranked 33rd.

UCLA, a No. 12 seed in the NCAA tournament, had an RPI of 48. The Bruins' KenPom was 41 and BPI 44.

Boise State, who Barnes said kept CSU out of the field, will head to Dayton with a No. 11 seed and RPI of 40. Its KenPom is 39. The Broncos had bad losses at Fresno State, on a neutral floor against Loyola Chicago and at home to Utah State, but impressed the committee with a road win at San Diego State.

College basketball scheduling will never be the same. The selection committee made an example out of CSU and said, "don't bull---- us."

Eustachy didn't take questions from the media Sunday following his team's NCAA tournament snub; there wasn't an opportunity to ask him about how this changes the way he's scheduled for 24 years.

It has to. Eustachy is an RPI wizard, but the game just changed and the Rams are playing in the NIT because of it.

For insight and analysis on athletics around Northern Colorado and the Mountain West, follow sports columnist Matt L. Stephens at twitter.com/mattstephens and facebook.com/stephensreporting.

CSU vs. NCAA tournament teams