Re: 2010/2011 UML In-Season Thread II
Indeed, this team needs to play either a CCHA or WCHA team once/year. Playing ECAC, Atlantic Hockey, or ALA-HSV isn't going to help the strength of schedule or help us get to that next level.
The current RPI would disagree with you.
Yale, #2 in PRI, SOS rank #27.
Boston College, #3 in RPI, SOS rank #28.
Union, #4 in RPI, SOS rank #37.
Merrimack, #7 RPI, SOS rank #45.
UNH, #10 RPI, SOS rank #29.
RPI, #15 in RPI (but #13 in PWR), SOS rank #40.
Dartmouth, #16 in RPI, SOS rank #25.
All those teams have winning percentages .600 or above.
So one third of the top 20 teams have a schedule rank of #25 or below. Five of those teams will probably make the NCAAs this year, maybe more. Make the schedule you can make, and win the games you schedule, and a team will do OK for itself. Strength of Schedule is there to help compare teams with winning records to one another, to properly weight wins against good teams more than wins against bad ones.
NoDak, currently #1 in RPI and #2 in PWR, has the #1 SOS rank.
Alaska-Anchorage, currently #26 in RPI and PWR, has the #2 SOS rank. And a winning percentage of .420.
If you don't win, it's irrelevant. In fact, it can actually hurt you. BU and UNH are both ahead of Merrimack in Hockey East, but ranked lower in PWR. BU lost to Brown (and tied them) and lost to RPI and tied Notre Dame.
UNH lost to Miami and St. Lawrence, tied Michigan, and tied Brown.
Merrimack's OOC schedule was not strong, but they ran the table. There are enough TUCs in the league to help you gain a good ranking if you post a winning record.
I guess the moral of the story is.. don't schedule Brown.