The Atlantic 10 and NCAA RPI

The NCAA released its first official RPI of the year and here is how the A10 stacked up as individual teams out of 289 teams in Division 1 softball.

28 Fordham
68 UMass
87 St. Joseph's
124 St. Louis
132 Dayton
162 Charlotte
173 Temple
225 George Washington
254 Rhode Island
268 La Salle
283 St. Bonaventure

So what does this mean? To be frank it really doesn't mean much to teams not named Fordham. Fordham is well within striking distance for an at-large bid and if the Rams can take care of business the rest of the way they will lock up a spot in Regionals. That is a good sign for the A10 and it is some well deserved recognition for the Rams and the results they have produced against a brutal schedule.

For everyone else it is essentially reflects the strength of their non conference schedule and how they did against that schedule. At this point an at large bid is pretty much out of reach for all the other A10 teams, unless UMass or St. Joseph's are able to run the table.

Here is how the conference as a whole stacked up against other conferences

 Rank Conference AVG
 1 Big 12 27.3
 2 Pac-10 29.4
 3 SEC 49.1
 4 Big Ten 60.2
 5 ACC 71.1
 6 CUSA 89.3
 7 Mountain West 92.2
 8 Sun Belt 96.3
 9 Big West 98
 10 Big East 108.6
 11 WAC 116.5
 12 Atlantic Sun 123.3
 13 Missouri Valley 126.6
 14 Mid-American 139.1
 15 Southern 148.6
 16 Southland 153.9
 17 Big South 162.1
 18 Horizon 163
 19 Atlantic 10 164 
 20 OVC 167
 21 CAA 172.6
 22 Summit 189.1
 23 America East 191.8
 24 Independent 201.3
 25 Pacific Coast 201.6
 26 Northeast 206.5
 27 Ivy 209.3
 28 Metro-Atlantic 211.6
 29 Patriot 233.1
 30 Mid-Eastern 251.9
 31 SWAC 262.8

The A10 currently sits 19th out of 31 conferences (I included Independent as a conference). It's not bad spot or a good spot, more than anything it really just represents the wide range of teams in the A10. It is a number that I am fully expecting and hoping to see improve as the season progress, especially if those A10 teams in the 200s can get on a roll and win some game. Towards the end of the year I would like to see the A10 in the 12 to 15 range, as that is where I feel the conference belongs.