Penn State fans should know firsthand how important scheduling is in college basketball. For a program like this one, which usually needs all the help it can get to make the NCAA Tournament, your schedule can make the difference between the NCAAs and the NIT. The NCAA tournament committee dwells on many criteria when selecting the brackets, but two of the more important figures are the Ratings Percentage Index and Strength Of Schedule. They're calculated as follows:
- SOS = (2/3 * Opponents' Winning %) + (1/3 * Opponents' Opponents' Winning %)
- RPI = (1/4 * Winning %) + (1/2 * OW%) + (1/4 * OOW%)
- Each team's winning % is weighted to where you won. Road wins/home losses are worth 1.4, road losses/home wins are worth 0.6, and neutral site wins/losses are worth 1.0.
One big reason why the 2010-2011 Lions were in the tournament was the fact they had played the 5th toughest schedule in the land, according to the SOS calculation. This number drew criticism from the dreadful CBS announcing duo of Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg during the Big Ten tournament. Their claim: "How did PSU play a schedule that tough when they didn't even play one RPI top50 opponent in their non-conference schedule?" Nantz and Kellogg then proceeded to criticize the system and basically called PSU's SOS a fluke. While they might have a point, it doesn't matter because the numbers are calculated and used by the NCAA as criteria for making the tournament.
