OUA basketball RPI-offs will now make Every Game Count!

Two out of three is not bad, as a shooting percentage or regarding changes to Ontario University Athletics' RPI-offs.

 The end of last season pointed up three issues with the format. The Ryerson Rams ended up with the No. 1 seed for the Wilson Cup men's playoffs since a loss to the Guelph Gryphons did not factor into the RPI. The Gryphons, at 9-10, did not make the playoffs since they were fourth in the OUA Central whilst Laurier (9-11), Laurentian (6-13) and Toronto (5-14) got inside the velvet rope. That was not right.

To its credit, OUA is rectifying that for 2016-17, as CANhoops related:

  • All games count in crunching the RPI;
  • The top 12 teams in RPI, regardless of division, make the playoffs. 
That is at it should be. Critics of RPI, of course, hold that the reliance on strength of schedule means it rewards teams more for losses to strong opponents than it does for winning.

It's a good idea to have it in OUA when the West division plays 20 games and everyone else plays 19. However, it can favour the teams that are in a division with one or two of the usual suspects (Carleton, Ottawa and the Rams). It can also affect an team from the West that has one-fifth of its schedule against expansion Algoma and rebuilding Waterloo.

A third tweak would have been to half-weight divisional games. Maybe next year, eh. Two changes is a good start.

The men's and women's schedules are online. Of note, Final 8 host Dalhousie will be in the GTA on the first weekend of October for some non-conf. action.
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