RPI RATINGS DECRYPTED

There's no sport I love more than college basketball - Arcs, curves, ninety degree angles, inverse linear regression - goodness I love it! And this time of year is special to me because sports fans become reliant on us math guys to help you figure out whether or not your beloved Akron Hokies even have a chance to get into the Big Dance. They're the Hokies right? The clearest way to judge your team's chances this time of year is to take a look at the what's known as the "Won/Lost Record." The number on the left, known as "W", is the mathematical sign for Victories and should be significantly larger than the number on the right. How significant? Well, the number on the left needs to be 1.4 times larger than the right number divided by the percentage of teams in its conference that appear in the AP Top 25 standings. This Win-Loss-Conference-AP ratio is simply referred to as WLCAP. So for instance, the Akron Hokies are 10-11 which equates to a WLCAP of 7.6. Definitely not in the tournament! See? Even a first year quantum mechanics major can do this. Goodness this is fun. I'll see you next week.