R.I.P. RPI - 1981-2018

The NCAA has junked the RPI in favor of (wait for it) a quadrant-based system (gotta love the quadrants) which incorporates KenPom.com, Sagarin rankings, ESPN’s Strength of Record and Basketball Power Index and more.

It’s going to be called N.E.T. - get it? - which stands for the NCAA Evaluation Tool.

Part of this will still be “subjective,” says the NCAA’s Dan Gavitt, son of Dave, which is to say that politics will remain so that smaller conferences can alternately praise it (when they’re picked) and damn it (when they’re left out) and that the bigger conferences will have arguments for more teams - or may, anyway.

It will depend on how the teams grade out.

What it also means is that spineless guys like Jellyfish Herb Sendek won’t be able to game the system and fatten up on bottom tier teams while relying on the ACC or a similar big conference to drag them across the finish line just in time for a first weekend exit.