Was #43 in the RPI, #53 on the projection report, won 20 games at Morgan State in year two of my rebuild. Was confident I would make the NT, but looks like I was the 3rd team out. Any tips on how to avoid this in the future? Is there a secret to having a high projection report ranking relative to your RPI and Win/loss record?

for instance, I see Maryland made it into the NT as a 12 seed with an RPI in the 60’s and a 12-12 record.
7/20/2020 2:18 PM
if teams in your conference aren't good, you need to have a tough but winnable non-conference schedule. Or just make sure you win the conference tournament. Schedule smart non-conference opponents. In D1, if I was rebuilding, I would look for mid level teams in power 5 conference, or strong opponents in other lower conferences. Try to make sure you exit non-conference with 6+ wins against quality opponents so your SOS doesn't end up horrible because at that point wins don't mean much.
7/20/2020 2:35 PM
I agree my non conference could have been a lot stronger, but the MEAC is the 6th ranked conference by RPI, and my overall SOS was in the 80’s... not great but not awful. Can’t win the CT because Delaware State is the number 1 team in the country, a complete juggernaut, and has won the last 9 CTs.

7/20/2020 2:49 PM
in d3 naismith, my 20-8 hiram 66rpi-100sos made the nt over 18-11 wabash 68rpi-39sos..wabash beat us in the ct..wabash was in the next 4 out group..??
7/20/2020 4:06 PM
tdiddy's advice doesnt apply to your conference. I dont think he looked before posting.

Scheduling SIMs is fine but you HAVE to avoid these ..
at Mercer 5-22 301 284
7/20/2020 4:31 PM
I was a little surprised we snuck in when we couldn’t get past Montana this season, but in the long run, I think the optimal number of human controlled teams in a small to mid major D1 conference is closer to 6 than 12.
7/20/2020 6:47 PM
Jimmy, check out my schedule for Illinois this year. Or Bloomfield (which is D2). The best sims you can find on the road does the trick.

All of your sims I would consider pretty unschedulable, even on the road. You got lucky with Toledo and almost got a Top100 win from a poor team.
7/20/2020 7:14 PM
Yeah, the awful non-con schedule definitely mattered.

Maryland played about a thousand top-50 teams during the regular season, including an aggressive non-con. He didn't win many of those, but he won a few, and the sim selection committee seems to give credit just for even trying tough games.
7/20/2020 8:26 PM
Thanks for all the feedback.

I know my non-conference was terrible. I was coming off a 1 win season (changed offense to fastbreak offense and was trying to run fastbreak/press with 8 scholarship players) and was starting 5 freshman. I wasn't planning on winning many games and was just trying to not drag down the conference RPI. Things went better than I hoped and so here we are.

We aren't any good, and we probably don't deserve to be in the NT anyways. I'm just trying to understand why the SIM didn't seem to respect my decent RPI, and postseason projection ranking. I was actually trying to "game" the system by scheduling all the weak SIMs to road games. In the past, I always felt like winning a bunch of games gave you a sight edge over a .500 team with the same RPI. I guess I was incredibly wrong about that. Is it better to flirt with a .500 record then and try to schedule a super hard non-conference?

Next year I have a better team in place so I scheduled solid SIMs on the road instead of the cupcakes.
7/20/2020 9:26 PM
Part of the problem with your schedule is that you really had zero good wins. Specifically, you had zero wins against teams in the top 60 of the projection report and your only win over a team that made the tournament is 15 seed Toledo (RPI:102 PR:111). Your best win was at Furman (RPI:54 PR:61). The lack of quality wins is probably one of the reasons why you "under performed" your RPI.
7/20/2020 9:55 PM
Whoa. Is everyone missing this or am I just drunk.

#53 Morgan State didn't make the tourney but #59 Arkansas State DID.

What??? I've never seen this before. I thought it was always went in order.
7/20/2020 10:04 PM (edited)
Posted by Benis on 7/20/2020 10:04:00 PM (view original):
Whoa. Is everyone missing this or am I just drunk.

#53 Morgan State didn't make the tourney but #59 Arkansas State DID.

What??? I've never seen this before. I thought it was always went in order.
Arkansas State won their conference tourney.
7/20/2020 10:16 PM
Posted by shoe3 on 7/20/2020 10:16:00 PM (view original):
Posted by Benis on 7/20/2020 10:04:00 PM (view original):
Whoa. Is everyone missing this or am I just drunk.

#53 Morgan State didn't make the tourney but #59 Arkansas State DID.

What??? I've never seen this before. I thought it was always went in order.
Arkansas State won their conference tourney.
Take a lap, Benis.
7/20/2020 10:54 PM
Posted by kcsundevil on 7/20/2020 10:54:00 PM (view original):
Posted by shoe3 on 7/20/2020 10:16:00 PM (view original):
Posted by Benis on 7/20/2020 10:04:00 PM (view original):
Whoa. Is everyone missing this or am I just drunk.

#53 Morgan State didn't make the tourney but #59 Arkansas State DID.

What??? I've never seen this before. I thought it was always went in order.
Arkansas State won their conference tourney.
Take a lap, Benis.
I AM drunk!
7/20/2020 11:03 PM
Interesting. I did not realize the SIM considered things like “quality wins”.
7/20/2020 11:57 PM
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