Schedule change for the Hoosiers...

[ptrich]

You may have already seen the announcement, but IU's home game with Southern Indiana on May 9th will not be played and IU will go on the road to play Xavier on May 10th.

With the addition of a game with Xavier, IU just strengthened their already strong SOS (best in the B1G) by replacing USI (RPI - 278) with the Musketeers (RPI- 57), a strong Q2 team. Xavier is currently 27-17 and is in 3rd place in the Big East with an 8-4 record, and they are a game out of first place. IU dropped 3 of 4 games to the Musketeers at The Bart last season.

Here is the release:

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Indiana baseball program has announced a change to its schedule, as the team will now travel to Xavier for a non-conference contest on Wednesday (May 10) at 3 p.m.

The Hoosiers (31-14, 9-6 B1G) game with Southern Indiana originally scheduled for Tuesday (May 9) at Bart Kaufman Field will not be played. Anyone holding a ticket for the May 9 contest can redeem that for a ticket to any of the remaining home games at Bart Kaufman Field. Anyone with questions can contact the ticket office at (812) 855-4006.

Indiana will travel to the Chicagoland area for a three-game series with Northwestern this weekend. First pitch of the series opener will be thrown at 4 p.m. ET on Friday, May 5.

 

[Bucket Getter]

That seems kind of rude. Did we really cancel the game simply because they weren't strong enough RPI?

 

[Dude Where Is My Car]

That seems kind of rude. Did we really cancel the game simply because they weren't strong enough RPI?

As much as I can't stand Mercer this was the best call he has ever made and no different than a dozen other teams have done in last couple weeks (including Maryland). When you are on the bubble to make the tourney as IU is you have to do what you have to do and it is common practice.

Blame the RPI which deducts points if you beat a bad team. This Southern Indiana game would have deducted 15-20 points from the RPI while losing to Xavier will deduct exactly the same (beating them will gain 40ish points). Already we are losing 10 points a game beating Northwestern and will likely lose around five per game beating Purdue.

If you do the math that is 45 points lost if you sweep all six conference games. Would you rather beat Xavier to get back to even with a victory or lose 65 points if you sweep the week? Blame a system that deducts points for winning.

This practice would go away if you changed the main committee metric (as basketball has) that does not penalize you for beating bad teams. As long as they keep using RPI which deducts points for winning against bad teams this practice will continue for better or worse.

 

[dconifer]

As much as I can't stand Mercer this was the best call he has ever made and no different than a dozen other teams have done in last couple weeks (including Maryland). When you are on the bubble to make the tourney as IU is you have to do what you have to do and it is common practice.

Blame the RPI which deducts points if you beat a bad team. This Southern Indiana game would have deducted 15-20 points from the RPI while losing to Xavier will deduct exactly the same (beating them will gain 40ish points). Already we are losing 10 points a game beating Northwestern and will likely lose around five per game beating Purdue.

If you do the math that is 45 points lost if you sweep all six conference games. Would you rather beat Xavier to get back to even with a victory or lose 65 points if you sweep the week? Blame a system that deducts points for winning.

This practice would go away if you changed the main committee metric (as basketball has) that does not penalize you for beating bad teams. As long as they keep using RPI which deducts points for winning against bad teams this practice will continue for better or worse.

Great post, in my opinion.

Yeah, rude to bag on a local team (Mount St. Mary's in Maryland's case) because stepping on the same field with them will have major negative implications. But that's the way it's set up. This is big boy sports, even at Mount St. Mary's...