One day, North Dakota State was 94th in the RPI.
Next day, North Dakota State was 72nd in the RPI.
That's an advancement of 22 spots, quite a leap for an independent, or anybody really. So you're probably wondering what the Bison did to jump so significantly. But don't worry, I'll tell you right now.
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| Billy Donovan shouldn't fret too much about Florida's low RPI ranking. (AP) |
This all happened last Saturday, when North Dakota State traveled to Iowa State. Put another way, this all happened while the Bison weren't playing.
Talk about your beneficial off-days!
"That's one of the prime examples of why you can't get too excited about the RPI right now," explained Jerry Palm, and he would know considering he runs CollegeRPI.com. "Right now, you could be 20 spots lower tomorrow than you were today, and you haven't done anything."
I tell this story to tell you this: Stop e-mailing.
I'm talking to you, Appalachian State fan. And you, Drexel fan. And you, Villanova fan.
Stop e-mailing and asking why your team isn't getting all kinds of national respect considering your team's RPI ranking is No. 6 (like Appalachian State) or No. 11 (like Drexel) or No. 15 (like Villanova). The answer, quite simply, is because your team's RPI ranking alone doesn't necessarily qualify it for all kinds of national respect because the RPI means little to nothing, at this point.
So do us all a favor and relax. Eventually, the RPI will be a good gauge of things, and I'll use it and talk about it as much as anybody. But for now you'd be wise to mostly ignore the numbers and just check back on ...
"Feb. 1," Palm said. "After Feb. 1, you're not going to see a whole lot of movement unless teams streak one way or another. But you can't really take November or December RPI numbers seriously. I mean, Florida is in the 50s."
Exactly. Florida is in the 50s.
