Vandy ended up #1 in RPI over UCLA by 3/10000 of a point.
Here's the team's RPI's in the regional match-ups (1 and 2 seed.) for the national seeds
#2 Vanderbilt 1 vs 24 sum 25
#1 UCLA 2 vs 32 sum 34
#4 Georgia 3 vs 37 sum 40
#6 Miss State 4 vs 17 sum 21
#10 East Carolina 5 vs 18 sum 23
#5 Arkansas 6 vs. 30 sum 36
#9 Oklahoma St 7 vs 29 sum 36
#3 Ga Tech 8 vs 19 sum 27
#7 Louisville 9 vs. 36 sum 45 (the 3 seed has a better RPI here than does the 2 seed)
#8 Texas Tech 11 vs. 25 sum 36
Based on RPI the toughest regionals were given to
1. 4 Mississippi State (Miami)
2. 5 East Carolina (NC State)
3. 1 Vanderbilt (Indiana State)
4. 8 Ga Tech (Auburn)
Easiest goes to
#7 Louisville
#3 Georgia (Fla Atlantic)
then Arkansas, Oklahoma St, and UCLA
2 seeds are not ranked and are placed in a regional with geography as a factor in addition to RPI.
If you look at all 16 hosts, the easiest regionals were given to:
1. Ole Miss
2. LSU
3. Oregon St
Their 2 seeds are worse RPI than Top 8 seeded Vandy, Georgia Tech, Arkansas, Miss State, and Texas Tech (both Tech's 2 and 3 seed are higher than those 2 seeds)
Vandy's side of the bracket got the better RPIs by far than did the UCLA side
Vandy side total for 1/2 seeds = 226 (average of 14.1)
UCLA side total for 1/2 seeds = 324 (average of 20.3)
All-in-all, I think the Selection Committee did a good job with 1-16, but they did a poor job assigning #2 regional seeds and in some cases the #3 regional seeds.
RPI is not everything, but it's the only apples-to-apples comparison one can make when trying to analyze the teams placed in various regionals.
I'm not going to super analyze things but let's just look at just the Vandy Super Regional pod.
Vandy, overall #2 seed and #1 RPI, is given a regional 2 seed with RPI 24, Indiana State. They could easily have been replaced with Illinois State #26, Illinois #28, UConn #29, or Indiana #36. The easiest fix would have been to give us, #2 overall, the #36 seed and give Louisville, #7 overall, the #24 seed -- instead, those were reversed.
West Virginia RPI is 13. Their #2 seed Texas A&M is RPI 15. That's very unfair to West Virginia. A&M should have been sent to Oregon St but I suppose they thought it was unfair to send someone that far when they came close to being a regional host themselves. It was their tough luck that Oregon St ended up #16.
Toughest Super Regional as of now (will change once regionals end)
Vandy SR pod has RPI 1, 13, 15, 24 -- the toughest of all 8 pods (for the #2 overall seed)
UCLA SR pod has RPI 2, 20, 23, 32 -- much easier in all respects
Arkansas SR pod has RPI 6, 22, 28, 30 -- even easier
Georgia SR pod has RPI 3, 16, 33, 37 -- easiest of all pods (for the #4 overall seed)
Here's the team's RPI's in the regional match-ups (1 and 2 seed.) for the national seeds
#2 Vanderbilt 1 vs 24 sum 25
#1 UCLA 2 vs 32 sum 34
#4 Georgia 3 vs 37 sum 40
#6 Miss State 4 vs 17 sum 21
#10 East Carolina 5 vs 18 sum 23
#5 Arkansas 6 vs. 30 sum 36
#9 Oklahoma St 7 vs 29 sum 36
#3 Ga Tech 8 vs 19 sum 27
#7 Louisville 9 vs. 36 sum 45 (the 3 seed has a better RPI here than does the 2 seed)
#8 Texas Tech 11 vs. 25 sum 36
Based on RPI the toughest regionals were given to
1. 4 Mississippi State (Miami)
2. 5 East Carolina (NC State)
3. 1 Vanderbilt (Indiana State)
4. 8 Ga Tech (Auburn)
Easiest goes to
#7 Louisville
#3 Georgia (Fla Atlantic)
then Arkansas, Oklahoma St, and UCLA
2 seeds are not ranked and are placed in a regional with geography as a factor in addition to RPI.
If you look at all 16 hosts, the easiest regionals were given to:
1. Ole Miss
2. LSU
3. Oregon St
Their 2 seeds are worse RPI than Top 8 seeded Vandy, Georgia Tech, Arkansas, Miss State, and Texas Tech (both Tech's 2 and 3 seed are higher than those 2 seeds)
Vandy's side of the bracket got the better RPIs by far than did the UCLA side
Vandy side total for 1/2 seeds = 226 (average of 14.1)
UCLA side total for 1/2 seeds = 324 (average of 20.3)
All-in-all, I think the Selection Committee did a good job with 1-16, but they did a poor job assigning #2 regional seeds and in some cases the #3 regional seeds.
RPI is not everything, but it's the only apples-to-apples comparison one can make when trying to analyze the teams placed in various regionals.
I'm not going to super analyze things but let's just look at just the Vandy Super Regional pod.
Vandy, overall #2 seed and #1 RPI, is given a regional 2 seed with RPI 24, Indiana State. They could easily have been replaced with Illinois State #26, Illinois #28, UConn #29, or Indiana #36. The easiest fix would have been to give us, #2 overall, the #36 seed and give Louisville, #7 overall, the #24 seed -- instead, those were reversed.
West Virginia RPI is 13. Their #2 seed Texas A&M is RPI 15. That's very unfair to West Virginia. A&M should have been sent to Oregon St but I suppose they thought it was unfair to send someone that far when they came close to being a regional host themselves. It was their tough luck that Oregon St ended up #16.
Toughest Super Regional as of now (will change once regionals end)
Vandy SR pod has RPI 1, 13, 15, 24 -- the toughest of all 8 pods (for the #2 overall seed)
UCLA SR pod has RPI 2, 20, 23, 32 -- much easier in all respects
Arkansas SR pod has RPI 6, 22, 28, 30 -- even easier
Georgia SR pod has RPI 3, 16, 33, 37 -- easiest of all pods (for the #4 overall seed)
