Florida made the NCAA Baseball Tournament Field of 64 on Monday, in part thanks to a No. 30 ranking on the post-conference tournament RPI update.
Florida is the only team ranked inside the top 30 with less than 30 wins, and Auburn and Ole Miss are the only others inside the top 50. If it isn’t apparent by the numbers, playing the SEC schedule gives teams a huge advantage when it comes to RPI rankings.
The KPI and RPI ranking systems reward strong schedules by establishing what boils down to “quality losses.” It’s the same argument football fans have been dealing with for a while, and they only have four spots to work with. In total, a record 11 of the 14 SEC teams made the NCAA Tournament.
“One of the key aspects for Florida was that strength of schedule,” selection committee chair Matt Hogue said on ESPN. “I think No. 1 in overall strength of schedule, No. 13 in non-conference strength of schedule. That was something that mattered a lot and weaved through a lot of the conversations.
“But we did spend a great deal of time considering Florida and their overall résumé, and again, I think you bring up a great issue and a great question — when you do have teams that may be from different places, different conferences, it’s difficult. That underscores why it’s important to try to play as rigorous a schedule as you can, particularly in the non-conference.”
In the end, Florida made the field comfortably thanks to that top-30 RPI ranking. The Gators avoided the Last Four In, which shocked many expert prognosticators.
The rest of the region
Looking at the rest of the Stillwater Regional teams, Oklahoma State is ranked the highest according to RPI at No. 11, followed by Nebraska at No. 28 and No. 103 Niagara.
Florida is technically the underdog against Nebraska on Friday, according to those rankings, but the Huskers have only played four Quadrant 1 games all season. Florida is battled tested despite a 13-18 record against Q1 opponents this year.
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