When discussing his team’s strength of schedule after its 70-48 win over Eastern Michigan on Tuesday, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim veered his thoughts toward his distaste for the NCAA’s Ratings Percentage Index.

“It’s math people playing with numbers that don’t know anything about the game of basketball,” Boeheim said. “That’s what the RPI boils down to.”

As No. 2 Syracuse (13-0) heads into its first ever Atlantic Coast Conference schedule, it has a handful of impressive out-of-conference wins under its belt. Victories over Baylor, Indiana and Villanova top that list, and it has jumped the Orange to second in the latest RPI standings.

RPI  is ultimately used by the NCAA Selection Committee to rank teams for the NCAA Tournament in March. It is used across NCAA sports and considers wins, losses and strength of schedule to rank teams.

Boeheim described SU’s nonconference schedule as tough, and said it couldn’t have played out any better for the Orange. But he’s not ready to let RPI illustrate Syracuse’s success in the early going.

“The other day before we played Villanova we were 15th in the RPI,” Boeheim said. “We played Villanova at home which you’re supposed to win even though it’s a tough game, we win that game and we go to one. We jumped 14 places? That doesn’t make any sense. The whole thing doesn’t make sense.”

ESPN college basketball analyst Joe Lunardi and a team of “bracketologists” replicate the system for college basketball and update rankings throughout the season.

Currently, Massachusetts is the only team with a higher RPI than Syracuse.

“I don’t understand the whole strength of schedule, RPIs,” the Syracuse head coach said. “The more you look at it, it doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.”

Published on December 31, 2013 at 6:33 pm

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse