Nearly two weeks ago, the brackets for this year's NCAA volleyball tournament were released. And in a rite of winter that is starting to become as regular as the Midwest's frigid December temperatures, coaches exploded in outrage.
The most glaring source of their ire lay in the Honolulu Regional, where the top three teams in the coaches poll — USC, Nebraska and Hawaii — were all in the same bracket.
USC coach Mick Haley blasted the selection committee on national television. Nebraska coach John Cook sardonically remarked, "Nothing the committee does surprises me any more." Insults on the committee's choices littered the college volleyball landscape.
The World-Herald spoke with NCAA officials, coaches and a college volleyball ratings guru to bring the picture into focus and try to answer the question: If the bracket doesn't make sense to some of the sport's top figures, who exactly does it make sense to?
College volleyball is ruled by three letters: RPI, or the Ratings Percentage Index. The RPI is a statistical grade given to each team that is based 25 percent on a team's won-loss record, 50 percent on their opponent's won-loss record and 25 percent on the won-loss record of teams your opponents have played.
The RPI is one of four primary criteria the selection committee is instructed to use when comparing teams for selection and seeding, along with head-to-head record, record versus common opponents and significant wins and losses.
Diane Turnham, chair of this year's selection committee, said the RPI is a fair way to measure teams that have similar records but may not have played head-to-head, but stressed it isn't the only criteria the committee used.
"If it was the only tool, there would be no need for a committee," Turnham said.
Still, Turnham said the committee is instructed not to consider the coaches poll or conference standings. So the RPI plays a significant factor in determining a team's postseason path. This season, every at-large team in the field of 64 was among the top 62 teams in the RPI.
Coaches complain RPI isn't the best indicator of a team's quality. It can be manipulated through scheduling opponents that a coach thinks his team can beat, but who may dominate a less-talented conference, giving them an impressive-looking record.
There is also a case to be made that the RPI skews favorably toward teams in the East. Rich Kern, who runs the popular volleyball website RichKern.com, points out that there are more Division I teams east of the Mississippi River, but most volleyball powers lie outside the Eastern time zone. This means it's easier for an Eastern team looking to schedule a probable win to find a willing opponent that will help boost its RPI.
Florida State coach Chris Poole, whose Seminoles were seeded 12th in the tournament, has earned the reputation for devising RPI-friendly schedules. Poole freely admitted he schedules to his team's RPI advantage, but said he would be foolish not to game the system.
"You know, if someone tells me that if I wear a garnet shirt and gold tie (FSU's colors) then I will start out with a 5-0 lead every set, then I'll wear it," Poole said. "I schedule that way because that's what the NCAA tells me to do."
Coaches also grumble about the NCAA's practice of trying to ensure no team has to travel more than 400 miles to play in the first and second rounds, which again means teams will usually see tougher opponents than their counterparts in the East.
"If we keep trying to regionalize the sport, we're going to kill it," Haley said.
Maybe there wouldn't have been such a shock this season if the coaches poll had not deviated so sharply from this season's RPI. Iowa State grabbed the No. 4 seed — despite being ranked 14th in the coaches poll — thanks to its No. 3 rating in the RPI. Poole's Seminoles, seeded 12th, were ranked 21st in the coaches poll but sat 10th in the RPI.
The big loser in the shakeout was Haley's Women of Troy, who despite winning the rugged Pac-12 and being ranked No. 1 by the coaches to end the season, were seeded seventh in the field. USC suffered an early-season upset loss at Central Florida that likely dinged its RPI, where it finished eighth.
The Women of Troy's penance for that slip-up: a Sweet 16 match this weekend at Hawaii, where the Wahine enjoy one of the best home-court advantages in college volleyball.
Haley said it's time to get serious about revamping the system and urged that a solution won't gain momentum unless it's from the country's top coaches.
Cook thinks the committee should include a former prominent coach or player who could add common sense to balance out the weight of statistics. Kern suggested replacing RPI with another rating system that accounts for margin of victory and home-court advantage.
A thoughtful discussion of alternatives could lead to less shouting on future Selection Sundays.
"The real responsibility is back on us, the coaches, to organize and present this in a manner that is helpful and outlines our concerns," Haley said. "It behooves people to know the tournament could be much different."
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