Final B1G standings with RPI rankings with just a few games still in progress...

[ptrich]

Here's the link to the final B1G standings. IU is currently at a RPI of 27 and with less than 10 games in progress out west, I would be surprised if that moved any. With conferences preparing for their tournaments, there are just a handful of games left for tomorrow in minor conferences.

Conference Standings - 2023 Big Ten Baseball | WarrenNolan.com

Big Ten Conference Standings for College Baseball with division standings, games back, team RPI, streaks, and conference RPI

www.warrennolan.com

 

[TomEric4756]

BiG Tournament Pairings at
https://www.warrennolan.com/baseball/2023/conference-tournaments?type=Big Ten

May 23rd
Game 1	11:00 AM	Michigan	0	0	Iowa	6 vs 3
Game 2	3:00 PM	Illinois	0	0	Indiana	7 vs 2
Game 3	7:00 PM	Michigan State	0	0	Maryland	8 vs 1
May 24th
Game 4	3:00 PM	Rutgers	0	0	Nebraska	5 vs 4
Game 5

 

[ptrich]

BiG Tournament Pairings at
https://www.warrennolan.com/baseball/2023/conference-tournaments?type=Big Ten

May 23rd
Game 1	11:00 AM	Michigan	0	0	Iowa	6 vs 3
Game 2	3:00 PM	Illinois	0	0	Indiana	7 vs 2
Game 3	7:00 PM	Michigan State	0	0	Maryland	8 vs 1
May 24th
Game 4	3:00 PM	Rutgers	0	0	Nebraska	5 vs 4
Game 5

It will be interesting to see how Mercer decides to use his pitching staff for the tournament.

I might add that the teams that feel they are going to make it to a regional have got to be concerned about another Michigan-type coming up and stealing a bid out of the conference. Who knows what the selection committee is thinking right now and the selection committee I would assume already has a working list right now as far as teams under consideration.

 

[TomEric4756]

I think winning the 2-7 and 2-3 matchups will cement the prior 3/2-seed projection for an NCAA regional invitation. Lose the 2-7 matchup, and the invitation will be a much lower seed, much farther away. IU will be punished for getting swept by MD and losing the series to MSU without winning a few games next week.

 

[Orford]

Carl James ran a calc on our RPI in 0-2 and thinks it would only drop to 32, implying we don’t need to worry about getting “Rutgered”… and can shift our worries to having a good ncaa showing… not sure I buy that though 😀

 

[ptrich]

As expected, IU remained 27th in the final RPI rankings of the regular season with only a few games today that were left to be played in some of the minor conferences.

D1Baseball, which had Rutgers among their bubble teams and as one of the first four out, has now dropped Rutgers from that category to needing to win the B1G tourney to get in. Here are their comments on that:

"Rutgers likely ended its at-large hopes over the weekend with a series loss to Minnesota. With the series loss, the Scarlet Knights dropped to 61 in the RPI and finished the regular season fifth in the Big Ten standings. Furthermore, RU is 2-8 vs. T50. That is not only not a bubble team, but probably one that needs to win the automatic bid to make the field."

So, if their projections are right and it's Maryland, IU, and Iowa making the field, we had better hope that another Michigan-type team doesn't win the conference's auto bid, and I believe it would be the Iowa fans and team that would have the most to worry about if that happened. That is predicated on the selection committee seeing no more than three B1G teams in the NCAAs and we obviously don't know what they are thinking or doing.

One positive about the B1G is that the conference ranked 8th in the conference RPI rankings last season and they finished this season at No. 6, so the conference moved up a couple of notches.

 

[Orford]

I could see msu, Nebraska or Rutgers stealing the auto bid. Pretty much anything can happen but believe best odds likely Iowa

 

[ptrich]

I could see msu, Nebraska or Rutgers stealing the auto bid. Pretty much anything can happen but believe best odds likely Iowa

If the selection committee is locked in to taking no more than three B1G teams and someone other than MD, IU or Iowa gets the auto bid, then here is the "tale of the tape" so to speak on MD, IU, and Iowa as to which team would be the most concerned. During the conference season, Iowa lost series to both MD and IU, 2-1.

RPIs: IU (40-16) - 27, Iowa (35-13) - 32, Maryland (37-19) - 45

SOS: IU - 67, Maryland - 72, Iowa - 113

NC SOS: IU - 68, Maryland - 135, Iowa - 170

Q1 record: IU - 7-11, Maryland - 5-4, Iowa - 5-6

Q2 record: IU - 8-4, Maryland - 6-7, Iowa - 6-2

Q3 record: IU - 8-1, Maryland - 14-4, Iowa - 5-2

Q4 record: IU - 17-0, Maryland - 12-4, Iowa - 19-3

 

[baileyiu]

If the selection committee is locked in to taking no more than three B1G teams and someone other than MD, IU or Iowa gets the auto bid, then here is the "tale of the tape" so to speak on MD, IU, and Iowa as to which team would be the most concerned. During the conference season, Iowa lost series to both MD and IU, 2-1.

RPIs: IU (40-16) - 27, Iowa (35-13) - 32, Maryland (37-19) - 45

SOS: IU - 67, Maryland - 72, Iowa - 113

NC SOS: IU - 68, Maryland - 135, Iowa - 170

Q1 record: IU - 7-11, Maryland - 5-4, Iowa - 5-6

Q2 record: IU - 8-4, Maryland - 6-7, Iowa - 6-2

Q3 record: IU - 8-1, Maryland - 14-4, Iowa - 5-2

Q4 record: IU - 17-0, Maryland - 12-4, Iowa - 19-3

With those stats it appears we have the strongest resume!

 

[ptrich]

With those stats it appears we have the strongest resume!

I think it's safe to say that Maryland is the best team in the B1G and they certainly took us to the cleaners in a series where they were locked in and focused and every single pitcher we threw at them in that series were pretty much hammered by the Terps hitters. If you asked Maryland, they would probably tell you that it's the best baseball they played all year in that series and probably in several years.

If you look at what Maryland did after that series, it wasn't nearly as impressive and they struggled to get by PSU, a non-tournament team, in their last series where they had to come from behind in the 9th to win game 1, lost game 2, and PSU was tied with them at 4-4 in the 7th in game 3 before the Terps pulled away.

The Terps RPI was hurt some by a weaker SOS and they did have four losses each to Q3 and Q4 teams.

If some team other than IU, MD, and Iowa won the B1G tournament, the committee would probably see those three teams as Maryland, IU, and Iowa in that order, with Iowa being on the outside looking in if they had to eliminate one of those teams from the NCAAs.