This season marks the third in which the Ohio High School Athletic Association is using a Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) compiled by MaxPreps to determine the seed order for all districts across all divisions.
“I love the RPI,” Springboro girls head coach Mike Holweger said.
Some coaches, however, believe improvements can be made.
What is the RPI?
Different versions of RPI formulas have been used for different sports at various levels. The NCAA most notably previously used it as a contextual ranking tool for inclusion into its basketball tournament before creating its own NET formula.
The RPI formula used by the OHSAA consists of a team’s adjusted winning percentage (40 percent), its average opponents win percentage (40%), and their average opponents opponents’ win percentage (20%). The three components are averaged together to get the final rating.
Rather than solely using a team’s win percentage, points are awarded based on what divisional classification the opponent is assigned for defeating teams. Division I opponents offer the most points (2.0) and D-VII get the fewest (1.1). All out-of-state opponents are classified the same as D-IV Ohio teams and get 1.55 points.
The purpose of the formula is to be an objective measure of a team’s strength with the final goal of determining the seed order for district tournaments. A coaches vote was previously used. Coaches still get to determine their own placement on the bracket using the seed order the RPI produces.
“It simplifies things. I think using a formula, and they can change the percentages, overall I think it’s a useful tool,” Fairmont girls head coach Jeremey Finn said.
All data is only as accurate as what has been inputted. The state requires coaches, specifically from the winning teams, to input their game results into MaxPreps so the formula can then do its thing.
The ratings are finalized the Friday prior to the tournament draw whether game results are missing or not. For the 2024-25 basketball season more than half of the state’s districts had incomplete data due to missing results.
Credit: Marcus Hartman/STAFF
Credit: Marcus Hartman/STAFF
Some data also is just incorrectly input into the system. As of Thursday morning, the Windham girls basketball team, a D-VII school in the Northeast District, has only defeated two D-VI teams this season but in the formula are getting credit as if those opponents were in D-V. With over 800 schools to keep track of, other numerous unknown mistakes are likely to be made.
Those can create minuscule differences in a team’s final rating and easily cause two teams to be flipped. The only real repercussions are one coach getting to pick their tournament path before another.
“I don’t care who gets to be the one-seed or two-seed, I’m going to go play who I think we can beat,” Tippecanoe boys basketball coach Brock Moon said.
Human inputs
All of the Dayton-area coaches providing their thoughts said they like the usage of the RPI. It was rare, however, to get a firm opinion believing nothing about it or the way it is used could be altered.
The consensus is the RPI when viewed as a sorting tool does the job it’s designed to accomplish. It can sort out details that most coaches don’t have the time or the need to compare while being involved in other activities such as preparing their teams for the next game.
Tri-Village boys basketball head coach Josh Sagester said he believes his team never received a seed it did not deserve when coaches voted. He said the fluctuation the RPI or coaches’ votes used to have likely would not far off from one another.
He likes the RPI but wishes coaches could have a little more input than the new system allows.
“I still like the human element because I think you can get rewarded for playing a really difficult schedule when you’ve got coaches voting on teams,” he said. “Now there’s really no way to get rewarded if you lose. Does that make sense?
“Of course, if you go play a good team and you win, you get a reward, but if you go play a good team and you lose, what’s the reward? But if I’m voting for you, I know you went and played X, Y and Z, but got beat, but I still don’t probably want to play you. I’m going to vote you at a higher seed.”
Some coaches just want the formula to be tinkered with for how they feel improvements can be made.
Moon said no system can ever be perfect. He said taking another look at how strength of schedule is computed would be a step in the right direction.
“The hardest thing to do is adjusting for strength of schedule and what that looks like. I think the divisor that they put on the divisions is as good as it could be, and even still, in divisions, the quality of wins isn’t really represented,” he said. “We’ve been the beneficiary of that, I’ll be honest. We’ve come out and been 20-2 in a year and I’ve probably known there’s some teams that are seeded below us that are probably just as good, if not better, than us at times.”
He does like the decisions being taken out of his own and fellow coaches hands.
“I think because we still get to pick where we go, you know, you’re not locked in once those get seeded, that helps a little bit,” he said.
Moon also said he loves the way Martin RPI — a similar system created by Brayton Martin which the OHSAA also considered using — uses its representation of strength of schedule by separately baking in school size.
The version the OHSAA uses does not take into consideration any games against preparatory or boarding schools.
The OHSAA cites that more than 98 percent of all games are two of its member schools playing one another, but those other contests, including those against out of state schools, not being properly rated in the formula can have down stream effects which some coaches would also like to see altered.
“I think [the RPI] gives you a true picture of where teams are. Now saying that, we played [Western Reserve Academy] and we don’t get any points for that as a prep school, and it seems like it’s playing an out of state school where you get a few points but it doesn’t count,” Finn said. “It’s tough because you want to play teams like that and play some of the top teams in other states. But I think as a coach when it comes to seeding I really like it.”
Super sectionals
D-I and D-II having 64 teams allow for a prime setup of a perfect bracket — no byes needed and all teams needing an equal amount of wins to advance to the championship.
That isn’t currently the case. The amount of teams placed in each district differ from district to district. D-I is split into four groups and D-II is split into five.
The Northeast District has 33 teams in D-II alone. The Dayton-area has 11 total schools across the two divisions, mostly made up of Greater Western Ohio Conference members.
GWOC schools are the only D-I schools in the area and means those teams are forced to play one another for a third time in the opening tournament round.
Credit: Steven Wright
Credit: Steven Wright
“I hate the fact that GWOC teams have to play each other in the first round,” Holweger said. “It’s almost like a GWOC bubble and I don’t like that. But I love the RPI and if we would go to a super sectional then I think you would got it. Cincinnati and us.”
He’s not alone in his thought. Finn also brought up the idea.
“The only thing I wish tournament-wise would be since there’s four regions, if it was like a true 64-team, like the NCAA, or something like that, that would be really cool,” he said. “Could do like super sectionals instead of these. The numbers are a little off.”
The other five divisions all vary to smaller degrees in the number of teams, but utilize more districts. There are many more teams from the same division to potentially play and also more teams may not know much about.
“I think the hard thing about combining them is a lot of the North, we play a lot of the same teams, so there’s a lot of crossover as you get to see each other,” Moon said. “I think it makes a lot of sense as sometimes in the South, we don’t see a lot of those teams all year, nor do we even see teams that they play. It’s hard to see an opponent and really understand who’s who because I, you know, don’t go off the rankings.”
As Moon said, a blanket solution that works for all divisions as they are currently set up isn’t a realistic possibility.
And when the games begin the rankings really don’t matter anymore.
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