Thursday, May 19, 2016

Welcome to RPI and Bracketology for D1 Women's Soccer Blogspace

In connection with the RPI for Division I Women's Soccer website, this is a new blog site to make communication easier for those interested in chatting back and forth about the ins and outs of the RPI, other rating systems, and the work of the Division I Women's Soccer Committee in making at large selections and seeds for the Division I Women's Soccer Tournament.

This blog and the website are for fans, for college team coaching staffs, and for players and their parents.  The blog, in particular, is a place for asking questions, grumbling about the RPI and the Women's Soccer Committee's decisions, and expressing your thoughts about the RPI and "bracketology" for the DI Women's Soccer Tournament.

For those who have been there before, and for those who haven't yet, I’ve just completed an update of all the pages of the RPI for Division I Women’s Soccer website.  The website covers two basic subjects:  (1) the RPI and how it works and (2) the NCAA Tournament at large selection, seeding, and bracket formation process, including the relationship between scheduling, the RPI, and the NCAA Tournament.

All information at the website now is current through the 2015 season.  In addition, I’ve re-written parts of many of the pages and all of some of them, making them more clear and concise and eliminating excess material that wouldn’t interest most readers.  Among the pages I’ve re-written is the “RPI: Modified RPI?” page, on which I now have comparisons of a number of rating systems including the different RPI systems the Women’s Soccer Committee has used over the last nine years, several alternative rating systems I have developed, and three Elo-based systems.  And, on the “NCAA Tournament: Scheduling Towards the Tournament” page, I’ve included a new tool for determining the likely outcomes of a team’s future games.


The website now is a “finished” product, except for future annual data updates.  I hope you’ll visit it and also let others interested in Division I women’s soccer know about it and about this "Blogspace."

Here's to an exciting and interesting 2016 Division I Women's Soccer season!