This piece is being discussed within the Bracketology thread.
There is no controversy. There is no conspiracy. Nico, the most popular kid at school, is having the party of the year and he can only invite 17 people. His parents made him invite 8 people, some his friends, some not so much. And the other 9 were invited 100% by his own volition. You knew he was going to invite his best friend and him and him and her and… You were on the cusp of being invited. You weren’t 100% sure if you’d be invited and… You weren’t. How come he was invited but I wasn’t?! I’m much funnier! I’ve known him longer! The list of grievances is endless. But the bottomline answer is, He gets to decide who is coming to his party and he decided not to invite you.
Period. Full Stop.
Now, with that said, this being stated as a point of interest and not as a complaint, it’s odd how Nico selected the people to come to his party. Who his parents selected, let alone that his parents are selecting half the party-goers at all, is a different discussion. Our interest is how Nico selected who he selected.
For the D1M party, Nico seemingly selected the kids via a Simplified Ratings Percentage Index (SRPI). We call this a simplified RPI because, over time, the originally simple RPI model has become more complicated. Point adjustments for wins and losses at home vs. away, point adjustments for wins and losses against teams that are ranked in the Top 5, ranked in the Top 10, ranked in the etc. An SRPI ignores these newer versions of RPI and looks at three things and only three things: (1) the team’s Winning Percentage, (2) their opponents’ Winning Percentages, and (3) their opponents’ opponents’ Winning Percentages. And by multiplying (1) with 25% and (2) with 50% and (3) with 25%, each team has an SRPI. You can see the SRPI of every D1M team in the last column of the FanLax Computer Rankings. On Saturday, SRPIs 1 through 11 will be at the party. The kids that Rico’s parents invited being the exceptions, SRPIs 12 and larger (in order, OSU, Cornell, Denver, UNC, High Point…) will be playing Dungeons and Dragons in Villanova’s garage. Again, Nico can invite who he wants and can use any criteria he chooses. It just seems odd that Nico would use a metric that was created in 1982 and is all but universally criticized for being a rudimentary, inefficient metric for evaluating… Kids to invite to your party. (For context, the Apple IIe, which was also rudimentary and inefficient, was created in 1983.)
So, Nico and all, enjoy the party. Heaven knows, it’s an awesome party. If it wasn’t, OSU, Cornell, Denver, and the rest of the D&D crew wouldn’t be so bothered. And no one will enjoy this party more than us. But, Nico, be aware. Even the people who love your party more than a human being should really love a party, are aware that… This could be a better party.
This piece is being discussed within the Bracketology thread.
