Since 1990 the Big Ten has averaged 4.4 schools per year in the 64-team NCAA women’s field. Six teams represented the Big Ten in 1996. The number dropped to four in the last two years. Penn State coach Rene Portland indicated the number could drop again this spring because some conference schools play weak non-conference opponents, which lowers the league’s Ratings Percentage Index.
“Our RPI used to be No. 2 or 3 among conferences,” Portland said. “This year we’ve been between Nos. 4 and 5. A lot of that depends on the strength of the teams our teams play in the non-conference schedules. Some schools in this league have been hurting the rest of us.”
Big Ten coaches still have high expectations when it comes to how many teams will be in the NCAA tournament.
“I’d say six,” said Wisconsin’s Jane Albright, whose Badgers won the National Invitation Tournament last year after they were not offered an NCA bid. “Purdue is the cream, but there are a pack of us at the next level.”
“Obviously, we should have more than four,” answered Purdue coach Kristy Curry, whose fifth-ranked Boilermakers are 21-3 overall and 11-0 in conference. “There’s a logjam below us: Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana …”
Portland recalled what a former member of the basketball selection committee told Big Ten coaches last year about the selection process. That was Joni Comstock, then senior associate athletic director at Purdue and now athletic director at North Carolina-Ashville.
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“The selection process used to be a mystery, but Joni Comstock explained it,” Portland said. “The RPI is a big part of the process. And a big part of a team’s RPI is the strength of the teams it plays.”
Fifty percent of a school’s RPI is determined by won-lost records of its opponents. Twenty-five percent is based on the team’s own record. The other 25 percent involves strengths of teams its opponents play.
Current RPI ratings range from Purdue at No. 10 through Northwestern at No. 174. Others are Penn State at 13, Wisconsin 25, Iowa 32, Indiana 38, Michigan 44, Illinois 52, Ohio State 91, Michigan State 129 and Minnesota 163.
Why has the Big Ten’s RPI slipped? Perhaps because its members play in a league with Ohio State.
The Buckeyes, who zipped through non-conference play with a 10-0 record, have a 3-7 Big Ten record. True, they absorbed five season-ending injuries, including one to 6-foot-4-inch star LaToya Turner. But they also have by far the weakest strength of schedule in the league, No. 120 in the nation.
Big Ten teams ranked ahead of Ohio State in order of their strength of schedule are Iowa at 12, Penn State 13, Illinois 16, Wisconsin 19, Purdue 31, Indiana 43, Michigan 45, Northwestern 46, Michigan State 56 and Minnesota 84.