PonyFans.com

The exciting news is SMU is back in the NSCAA Central Regional rankings this week. SMU is in a tie for 10th with Missouri. Memphis is number 2, UCF is number 4, and Rice is number 7. Memphis is number 8 nationally and UCF is number 25.

It will be interesting to see if the Memphis draw did anything to help our RPI when the official NCAA rankings come out today. Based on the raw unadjusted RPI calculations it looks like SMU moved up a little bit but not significantly.

In the unadjusted RPI, SMU is now 76. Memphis is 7, UCF is still 18 somehow, and Rice is 33.

The obvious drains on our RPI are the losses to Arkansas and North Texas. While North Texas has rolled off five straight wins (unfortunately against bad Sun Belt teams), Arkansas has lost four straight (albeit against good SEC teams).

It still looks like SMU is going to need to win out in the regular C-USA season and have a decent run in the conference tournament to have a legitimate shot at making the NCAA field. On the bright side, there is a good chance Memphis and UCF might end up on the same side of the conference tournament bracket making an appearance in the finals that much easier.

The obvious focus now has to be taking care of our final two home matches of the season this weekend. Go Ponies!

The NCAA RPI rankings this week are pretty much as expected. The top C-USA teams are:

7 Memphis
17 UCF
32 Rice
70 SMU
72 Tulsa
74 Colorado College
80 UTEP
85 East Carolina

It is amazing how much the "bad" losses hurt your RPI. Rice and SMU are pretty much equal this year in record and strength of schedule (and on the field of play based on our game with them), but they are 38 places higher than we are just because of a couple of poor results on our part.

Both teams have a couple of nice wins:

Rice - LSU (27), Western Kentucky (56)
SMU - UCF (17), Stephen F. Austin (54), and a draw with Memphis (7)

But look at the losses:

Rice - Memphis (7), Texas Tech (50), Utah State (64), Colorado College (74), and a draw with UTEP (80)
SMU - UCLA (1), Rice (32), Loyola Marymount (99), North Texas (110), Arkansas (116)

It is especially frustrating knowing we outplayed LMU, North Texas, and Arkansas but just couldn't get the goals - and also to know we could have easily been up 2-0 or 3-0 in the first half against Rice.

Oh well, all we can do now is keep winning. UCF is at Rice Friday night, I imagine it would be better for SMU if UCF wins that one...

With UCF beating Rice AND UAB unexpectedly beating Colorado College plus the Pony win last night against Marshall, looks like the stars are aligning for a rise in our RPI. Pony Up!!