KANSAS CITY, Mo. – As the calender turns to mid-October, the NAIA has released the second MRPI ratings of the season.
The Raven Men's Soccer team moved to No. 18 on Tuesday in the latest NAIA Top 25 Coaches' Poll and moved to No. 19 in the October MRPI.
For the first time since adopting the MRPI ratings system, the NAIA will use the rating as part of their criteria for at-large selections to the NAIA Men's Soccer Championship. Since its inception, the MRPI was the primary tool used to select at-large berths in the championship.
The NAIA Modified Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) was created by a joint NAIA Men's and Women's Soccer Committee in 2010 as a result of a directive by the NAIA National Administrative Council in 2008 to have a standardized system in place for selecting at-large national qualifying teams and seeding the national tournament field.
The NAIA MRPI is modeled after the RPI used by the NCAA since 1981 to seed/select teams for it Division I National Basketball Championship. There are three major differences (modifications) between the NAIA MRPI and the NCAA RPI. Those modifications are as follows:
1. In the NCAA RPI, the third variable in the equation is the winning percentage of the opponents of a team's opponents (OOWP). The NAIA MRPI replaces OOWP with actual ratings points (specific ratings formula is explained below).
2. The NAIA MRPI modifies the value of home/away/neutral results (w/l/t) and adds more points/RPI value for games against ranked opponents.
3. As a result of modifications in #1 and #2 above, the weighted percentages for each of the three variables [WP – winning percentage; OWP – opponents' winning percentage; RP – ratings points] in the modified NAIA RPI are as follows:
• WP (winning percentage) = 44%
• OWP (opponents' winning percentage) = 26% • RP (ratings' points) = 30%
** The Lowest OWP and OWP Range will be identified with each release of the MRPI.
4. Only regular season games will be calculated into the WP and OWP.
The Ravens return home on Saturday to host Graceland University at 7:30 p.m at the BC Soccer Complex. The final MRPI rating of the season will be released by the NAIA on Nov. 13.
