For the first time, the NCAA released its official collegiate baseball Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) on Wednesday April 25, and will continue weekly for the next five weeks until the 64-team field is announced May 27.
Baseball America reported that Jim Wright from the NCAA said they publicly released its basketball RPIs in the 2005-2006 academic year, to positive reviews, so the organization has released all RPIs for all sports in the ‘06-’07 year.
The RPI is mainly used by the NCAA to aid in the selection and seeding process for post-season play. Now that the NCAA will publicly release the RPI, fans will have the same information as the NCAA’s Division I baseball committee.
Teams represented in the Texas Collegiate League faired well in the first NCAA baseball RPI published on Wednesday as four of the top six ranked teams (#2 Rice, #4 Texas A&M, #5 Long Beach State and #6 Texas) have players competing in TCL’s upcoming 2007 season and twelve teams in the top 25 (#10 Arkansas, #11 Wichita State, #14 Florida State, #16 East Carolina, #18 Oklahoma, #19 Louisiana Lafayette, #21 Pepperdine, #23 Cal State Fullerton).
For more information on the NCAA baseball RPI rankings, go to http://www.ncaasports.com/baseball/mens.