The RPI is designed to not penalize conferences for in-conference games. Every in-conference game produces a neutral .500 value for a conference. As all conferences play about the same number of games, this value has about the same effect on every conference. Therefore, conference RPI is almost entirely determined by inter-conference games. Also, the RPI is generally flawed anyways because it cannot account for the talent gap between the top conferences and mid majors. A team (or conference) can build a respectable RPI by playing a bunch of teams like Stephen F. Austin, namely teams that produce great records, win their conference big, but get shelled in the NCAA tournament when they finally go up against top competition because the RPI gives a 50% weight to opponents winning percentage.

The reasoning behind this is simple: the coaching in the Big Ten is phenomenal, home court advantage is always a factor, and the athletes on every team are too great to consistently lose. The parity in this conference is ridiculous, and unless a few teams get incredibly lucky, the Big Ten will not have more than 4 teams ranked at a time this season.

Think about it. MSU will probably be ranked for the rest of the season, but that’s it. If any other ranked team loses just ONE game, they will not be ranked the next week. This applies to Purdue, Minnesota, us, and Illinois/Wisconsin/Ohio State if they move into the top 25.

Keeping that in mind, I think it’s crucial for our team to stay sharp the rest of the way. I have a bad feeling about the game at Illinois, but I’m also convinced that OSU is a fraud.

Illinois 77, Michigan 71
Michigan 80, Ohio State 67

For sure about no love for the B10. To me, IL looks like they’ll end up in the top 3 or 4 of the B10 (consider big wins at PU and away vs. Mo) and still no ranking!
Inflated Minn has benefited from an easy schedule. They’ll come back to earth at WI on Thurs!