[BostonCard]

If one's goal is to maximize RPI, the best way to do so is exactly how you suggest, paloalto.  Beat on the best teams in poor conferences; it will hurt the second level opponents of opponents score a little bit, but that counts for only 25%, and in any case tends to have a narrower band.

But I think gaming the RPI shouldn't be our goal.  I like that we played a tough non-conference season, as we are a young team, and that was the best way to get identify team weaknesses and get the team used to tough matches.  Losing to Texas hurts us in RPI more than beating the best team in a bad conference would, but in losing to Texas we can benchmark ourselves in a way that beating an automatic qualifier won't.  Since the team's goal is to go as far as possible in the NCAA tournament, and we have ambitions beyond just making it to the round of 16, ultimately we are going to have to play, and figure out how to beat, top-10 teams.  So, as they say, "bring it on".

BC

[BostonCard]

If one's goal is to maximize RPI, the best way to do so is exactly how you suggest, paloalto.  Beat on the best teams in poor conferences; it will hurt the second level opponents of opponents score a little bit, but that counts for only 25%, and in any case tends to have a narrower band.

But I think gaming the RPI shouldn't be our goal.  I like that we played a tough non-conference season, as we are a young team, and that was the best way to get identify team weaknesses and get the team used to tough matches.  Losing to Texas hurts us in RPI more than beating the best team in a bad conference would, but in losing to Texas we can benchmark ourselves in a way that beating an automatic qualifier won't.  Since the team's goal is to go as far as possible in the NCAA tournament, and we have ambitions beyond just making it to the round of 16, ultimately we are going to have to play, and figure out how to beat, top-10 teams.  So, as they say, "bring it on".

BC