Getting to Know the RPI

  RealTimeRPI.com has emerged as an amazing resource for college sports fans, for the RPI, or Ratings Percentage Index, has been a determining factor in NCAA Championship Tournament selection.
  The Web site -- updated every five minutes -- ranks, men-wise for example, all 341 NCAA Division I Basketball teams based on a formula that factors a team's winning percentage (25%), its opponents' winning percentage (50%) and its opponents' opponents winning percentage (25%). (Only games against other NCAA Division I teams are factored into the equation.)
  What makes the RPI so interesting to Duquesne University Men's Basketball fans right now is that Duquesne is currently ranked 53rd in the rating. When the NCAA begins to select at-large bids to its Division I Men's Basketball Championship, an RPI this high at the end of the Dukes' 2007-08 season -- barring a large number of automatic bids to the tournament from teams with a lower RPI ranking -- would matter-of-factly garner Duquesne serious consideration for tournament selection.
  While it is certainly too early in the season to conclude that the Dukes can keep up their stellar play of the first calendar year of the campaign, it is a tremendous blessing to Duquesne so far that its three losses have come to teams with a current combined record of 25-2. And perhaps more importantly, the Dukes' upcoming Atlantic Ten Conference schedule will feature games against fellow teams from currently the sixth-highest rated conference in the nation.

A look at Duquesne's 2007-08 teams with RPI rankings in seasons still underway:
--FROM REALTIMERPI.COM--
Men's Basketball: 53 of 341
Women's Basketball: 125 of 337
Football: 186 of 242 (actually higher than three NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision teams)

A look at Duquesne's 2007-08 teams with RPI rankings in seasons completed:
--FROM NCAA.ORG--
Women's Soccer (for some reason, only available through Nov. 4, 2007): 95 of 314
Men's Soccer (final): 151 of 202
Women's Volleyball (final): 211 of 324

(Image: RealTimeRPI.com Logo, Copyright RealTimeRPI.com)