NCAA panel hopes RPI system aids selections

INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA tournament selection committee has a new tool to choose the 34 at-large teams in this year's field.

Next month, for the first time, the committee will use a weighted RPI system that rewards teams more for road victories and penalizes them for home losses.

"We think it's a good way to compare, numerically, the teams that could be included in the tournament," committee chairman Bob Bowlsby said during a conference call Wednesday.

The formula was refined after studies showed home teams win about 2/3 of all Division I basketball games. So the committee asked for a new system.

Bowlsby cautioned that the RPI will only be used as a way to evaluate teams, not as the determining factor when choosing, seeding or placing teams at sites.

Instead, the committee will rely on its typical barometers such as won-loss records, strength of schedule, how teams fared in their final 10 games, injuries and other factors used in the past.

The biggest question is how the new RPI system will affect the decisionmaking process, something Bowlsby won't know until selection weekend.

"We wanted the RPI to appropriately reflect winning on the road," said Bowlsby, now in his second year as committee chairman. "I'm sure some committee members will be using, for comparison's sake, other computations like Sagarin or whatever."

Already there are some issues with the power rating systems. Some computer rankings have teams as much as 20 spots apart, which could create not only more debates among committee members but also more debate when the brackets are released March 13.

And some of the top mid-major programs might again be hurt by weak non-conference schedules because they cannot get home-and-home series with teams from the power conferences.

But even Bowlsby said his information this year has shown an increase of good teams going on the road to play mid-majors.

"I think that's a good thing," he said. "If you're a mid-major, I don't think it's essential to go out and play the top 10 teams and get your brains beat in. But you can control playing teams in the 50 positions above or below you. If a team has played no one above them in the RPI, that tells us something."

Bowlsby hopes the new RPI system also gives the committee a fairer way to evaluate all teams.

"We're not going to look at three schools and see that their RPI is 48, 49 and 52 and that's the way it's going to be," Bowlsby said. "But the committee felt the new system reflected the current circumstances and that's what we wanted to do. If that changes in the future, we may have to change it again."