Comments on The CIS Blog: Men's basketball: Top 10 tracker: Carleton wins by...

Or yes. The article you quoted repeats the well kn...

2012-01-24T12:59:38.463-05:00

Or yes. The article you quoted repeats the well known fact that it's a poor comparison tool in the middle of the season.

Also, his claims of the higher variation of scores in the 25% portion are when one compares the very best to the very worst. Fine but we're not talking about the Carletons/SFXs/Saskatchewans/etc. to the RMCs; we're talking about the high end of the ranking where the variation in record are generally similar to that of the strength of schedule but worth only 25% of the score.

"The stat puts too much emphasis on the perfo...

2012-01-19T08:09:27.369-05:00

"The stat puts too much emphasis on the performance of opponents"

Or not:

"Even when one accounts for the fact the winning percentage is just 25% of the formula, it still turns out to have a bigger impact than SOS"

It shows how bad Queen's and RMC are. Good thi...

2012-01-19T00:14:03.384-05:00

It shows how bad Queen's and RMC are. Good thing Carleton isn't facing them this weekend.

Also, look at SRS, not just RPI because you're looking for something to be negative about. Carleton's is double that of anyone else!

Sorry Rob but, as a percentage of the total schedu...

2012-01-18T22:57:57.818-05:00

Sorry Rob but, as a percentage of the total schedule, that is still a very small number compared to the NCAA. Also, the variance in the number of non-conference games played between teams is quite large, too.

The stat puts too much emphasis on the performance of opponents and not enough on the teams themselves.

As much as I love numbers, if a stat is incomplete or places to much emphasis on things beyond the control of a team then the stat is not as meaningful. That's the reason the NCAA selection committee only uses it as a tie-breaker after looking at wins, ranking, margin of victory and record on the road vs. home.

Strength of schedule is important, as demonstrated by the fact that the top 10 isn't simply a rank of winning %, but not so much that it should dominate a ranking system's criteria.

Except for those 107 interconference games that ha...

2012-01-18T21:33:32.767-05:00

Except for those 107 interconference games that have been played so far this year.

The fact that Carleton is behind Alberta and St. F...

2012-01-18T20:57:09.248-05:00

The fact that Carleton is behind Alberta and St. FX in RPI demonstrates how worthless a statistic it is when the schedules offer relatively little meaningful play outside of league play compared to the NCAA.