If you couldn’t tell by now, I am a traditionalist.
I am of cheap taste, I don’t like anything extravagant, and I certainly don’t like getting fancy when it comes to sports. I like keeping things black and white. I don’t like gray areas.
That said, we are coming toward the end of the regular season and have seen the Rhode Island Interscholastic League’s first season of its new rating percentage index system play out, and I am not a fan.
The RIIL introduced this RPI system this season in determining playoff seeding and the standings. Other entities including the NCAA, for example, use this procedure as well. It has been done before.
In simple terms, playoff seeding is determined by the quality of wins teams earn during the regular season rather than the traditional number of wins overall. The formula takes into account a team’s opponent’s division and its win percentage. If you beat a Division I team, that counts more than beating a Division II team. If you beat a good Division I team, that counts more than beating a bad Division I team.
Football, from what I understand, was the driving force behind the RIIL switching to this system. Rhode Islanders have been pretty annoyed, to put it kindly, in recent years when it comes to the league’s football alignments and this was the league’s response in trying to appease the viewers. Now, teams not named Bishop Hendricken and La Salle can have a chance at taking the top seeds depending on how they manage their schedules and which teams they beat.
To be frank, I know my coaches have not enjoyed the experience.
Before the fall started, it was up to the coaches and athletic directors to create their own schedules. That is why we have seen so many crossover games across all sports. DI teams facing DII squads, DIII teams facing DIV clubs. It’s been a big hodgepodge and I know it was a headache for those administrators trying to finalize their schedules in the weeks leading up to their deadlines.
Now, as the playoffs approach, I have had several coaches across different sports voice their displeasure in how things are going. The primary issue is teams not knowing where they’ll be seeded despite having only a few games left. The results can range widely and keeping up with every other team’s situation within their division is impossible. Well, close to impossible.
“We lead the division in wins, but are in second place with two games left. The team in third could leapfrog us, but so could the team in fifth. We really don’t know at this point.”
That is not an actual quote, but those are the types of comments I’ve been getting off the record pretty regularly the past week or two. What a headache for coaches, players, and grumpy media members like myself.
So, this is why I am always for a standard setup. Select a number of divisions, divvy out teams, and then go based on number of wins with tiebreakers if needed. Simple as that.
When it comes to football, I know it is frustrating, but I am for keeping the Hawks and Rams in a normal Division I and letting the chips fall as they may. In hindsight, having a DI Super Bowl and a separate State Championship actually was not all that bad, either.
Instead of using the RPI and getting cute, let’s just get back to basics. Sure, you’re never going to please everyone and there is no full-proof was of ensuring universal fairness for every single team in the state. It’s just not possible.
I have said this in the past a million times, but I believe that the RIIL should realign the divisions annually and base its decisions on class sizes and age, as well as winning percentages the previous year. Teams should have to report a projected number of seniors, juniors, sophomores, and freshmen in their respective programs and if you have a lot of upperclassmen, then you should be placed in a higher division. Yes, those projections may be hard to come up with weeks before opening day, but coaches generally have a pretty good idea. They can even report names of returning players if need be. That is a hectic formula as well, but if we are going to be ripping things apart, that is my suggestion.
Again, I am all for simple solutions. This RPI system, although not the worst idea I have seen or heard, is pretty messy. It almost defeats the purpose of divisions. It completely defeats the purpose in the regular season if we’re being honest.
We’ll see how the final couple weeks play out here. I am sure that I will receive feedback and will keep you in the loop.