SLU Soccer Rankings (week 9)

[kwyjibo]

It has been a busy week but here is your belated look at SLU's soccer rankings. They tied a very good Dayton team on the road (by coming back twice) and so the polls were generally positive (with the bizarre exception that the coaches dropped SLU 6 places for no reason). The RPI is another story and more on that below.

Official Adjusted RPI (Oct.26th)--24th (last week 17th)

NSCAA (coaches) Poll: 19th (last week 13th)

Soccer America: 16th (last week 16th)

College Soccer News: 17th (last week 18th)

Top Drawer: 19th (last week 19th)

Massey Computer: 22nd (23rd last week)
Unofficial RPI : 22nd(last week 17th)

Last week it looked like SLU might have a chance at getting into the top 16 and earning a seed in the NCAA tournament. A tie with a good Dayton team on the road may not help that chance a lot but it should not hurt and yet SLU dropped 7 places. What happened? In this case part of it (1-2 ranks) had to do with the SOS going down with losses of our past opponents but SLU lost 5 ranks because of the bonus/penalty adjustments. Basically they lost 5 places because Davidson lost to George Mason and their fall meant that SLU's bonus for tieing them went down. I think we last a small bit of bonus for Creighton losing to Georgetown at home.

Another thing that happened but went away (but could happen again) was that SLU had a big penalty a week ago because Memphis (a team they lost to on the road earlier in the year) lost at home to Cincy and their RPI dropped dramatically and thus SLU incurred a penalty for losing to them. SO, even before they Dayton game they had dropped 5 places in RPI. But, then Jekyl/Hyde Memphis beat a good South Florida team on the road and SLU had no penalty for having lost to them once again.

The bonus/penalty structure MAY change each year so the Men's RPI expert, Gaucho Dan, guesses at the bonus/penaltly structure somewhat in the Unofficial RPI. He believes there is no bonus for home wins or ties at all this year but the Women's RPI expert thinks those bonuses are in (they both could be right as well for their respective genders).

Anyway, forecasting the RPI will be perilous going forward. If Memphis backslides and loses to Temple, SLU is screwed with a penalty. Dayton, Davidson, and Creighton moving up could earn SLU more rewards. SLU is very safe tourney wise but they need wins to get a top 16 seed (and help from a few other teams).