I think that we have no control over the fact that USC decided to stink up the field this year, that BYU ended up mediocre, and that San Diego has gone in the tank. I also think Texags needs better straws to grasp at. There isn't a team out there that gets a trophy for strength of schedule.
That's true, at least you tried to play some good teams. Unlike other Big 12 teams. But I still think that stregth of schedule is going to hurt you come tournament time.
In the RPI rankings, strength of schedule is hurting now. It's why Oklahoma State has the best win/loss record, but still is only #14 in the RPI rankings. According to the RPI (which is not necessarily the best measure of Strength of Schedule but is the one we live with), Oklahoma State's SoS is the 119th in Division I. Looking at the schedule, it's partly due to anticipated strong teams having poor years (although BYU's record isn't that bad) but it's also due to having scheduled a significant number of games against teams that aren't strong. Scheduling is a fine balance plus educated guesswork, though, so it isn't that easy especially when a lot of it has to occur a couple of years out. Regarding NCAA tournament time, my first reaction was that we don't know yet how it will work out for the tournament. But, then I remembered my guidelines for tournament seeding. Based on the 2007 through 2010 years, and based on RPI rankings at this exact point in the season, one would reasonably expect that the four #1 seeds will come from the top 9 teams in the current RPI rankings. One would reasonably expect that all seeds will come from the top 37 teams. So, reasonable expectations are that Oklahoma State will not get a #1 seed, but will be in the pool for a #2-3-4 seed. Obviously, it is possible for there to be exceptions to these guidelines. A particular question is whether an undefeated and untied team would be denied a #1 seed based on strength of schedule.
cpthomas of course will give you the carefully considered, solidly backed up answer. I'll give you the quick answer (but no less true in its own way): Oklahoma State is going to get hosed. It happened last year and it's likely to happen this year as well. Sorry, but that's life under RPI and the Committee.
To be fair, that's also what happens when you don't play a very difficult non-conference schedule. Some of that is not OSU's fault, as noted above. But some of it can be avoided by not playing the UAB's and Oral Roberts' of the soccer world. Their strength of schedule will also improve through the rest of Big Twelve play. Their four remaining opponents have a RPI of 79 or better.
(Emphasis added.) Are you sure about this? Last year, the end-of-regular-season RPI had Oklahoma State at #6, which put them in the pool of teams being considered for a #1 seed. They only got a #3 seed, but if I remember my analysis correctly this was due to the other decision-making criteria. Massey, on the other hand, in his end-of-regular-season ratings had Oklahoma State at #10, which would be a #3 seed, which is what they got.
Yeah?! You're probably right. I probably misremembered that. Good thing I said something about The Committee in addition to the RPI.
The good news for OkSt is they might get to play Texas A&M twice in the next few weeks which will really help their SoS. Unfortunately, the first time A&M won't be ranked in the top 25, so OkSt is going to make it through the whole regular season without playing a top 25 team.
We'll get placed where we get placed. Like I said, there's nothing we can do about the play of other teams. I know there was a lot of talk among OSU soccer fans before the season that after the junk games at the start, there should be some good tests during the latter part of the non-conference slate. Wish it would have turned out that way. It would be nice to drop a few of the RPI killers. Unfortunately, most of those are the local games that fill up the seats. Oral Roberts and Arkansas are awful - but casual fans will show up for those games because the schools are local. I doubt the staff could get traditional powers to come to Stillwater (I'm still surprised USC came a couple of years ago), so the local games have to get played to bring in fans. Same principle applies to playing an extra game with Oklahoma. There's not really a good option. OSU is still in a transitional phase from being an also-ran into a strong program. Next year won't help with that since there will be a lot of rebuilding. As for us getting hosed, well, I think that's kind of what redd is hoping for. Texas A&M supporters aren't big fans of what's been happening in Stillwater.
I don't care what's happening in Stillwater as long as I'm happy with what happens in College Station next Sunday
Then my suspicion is you're going to care about what's happening in Stillwater...even with your strength of schedule.
Next weekend will be the true test for OK St. Having to go into Waco to play Baylor Friday night is going to be a monumental task. Baylor is always tough at home and will be even more difficult with the team they have this year. They are undefeated at home with a 8-0-1 record. Should OK St. survive that, then Texas A&M on Sunday in College Station will provide a whole new challenge with their potent offense.(No. 1 in NCAA) While Texas A&M had an early season rocky start in their first 8 games, going 4-4 with a freshmen ladden team, giving up 17 goals during that time, the last 8 games(7-1) paint an entirely different picture. They gave up 5 goals(no multiple goal games) while scoring a total of 34. The freshmen seemed to have settled down and are making big contributions all over the field.
Going to Waco is not going to be a monumental task. Baylor has been terrible for the better part of a decade. They've gotten better this year, yes. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Their home schedule thus far has been disgraceful. The only decent teams that have gone into Waco this year are Missouri and Texas Tech. People want to rip on OSU's scheduling? Baylor's is far worse. A&M looks a lot better because their opponents have gotten a lot worse. Yeah, they beat Carolina somehow. They also went and lost to Missouri a couple of weeks ago - which at this point remains Missouri's only Big 12 win. As has been the norm for the last few seasons, the OSU-A&M game will decide the Big 12 champion. And unfortunately, someone else has again nicked OSU so that it becomes a winner-take-all. I had planned to post the result of the Texas game, but I have not been able to get a solid report of what happened. Some have said Texas played well, some have said we let off the gas, and some have said Texas got extremely physical and was allowed to get away with it. I wasn't able to go, so I can't say what happened - may have even been a simple case of the ball not bouncing the right way. What I do know is that something didn't go right, because most of the girls on this team have played and beaten much better teams than that one. It's immensely disappointing to have been tied by a mediocre Texas team and be back in this position.
Oklahoma State and Texas A&M draw 0-0 in College Station today. Both teams had some chances, neither capitalized. Disappointing, but a fair result. OSU beat Baylor 1-0 on Friday night, eliminating the Bears from the title chase. OSU leads A&M by one point, with each team having one game left. The Cowgirls play Texas Tech on Thursday night for Senior Night on Fox Soccer Channel.
Oklahoma State beat Texas Tech 2-0 tonight to finish the regular season at 17-0-2 and win the Big 12 title.
With heavy hearts, OSU was able to pull out a 1 - 0 win over Illinois last night. The players hugged some of the women's basketball players before going onto the field. Maryland tomorrow at 1 p.m.
While of course the other teams there didn't know the ones you lost, the players were affected (I heard from one personally). And to be so near the ten year anniversary of a similar tragedy would seem too much to bear. Sincerest condolences.