Ohio State tops first RPI rankings of season

Ohio State is atop the national rankings that matter when it comes to Selection Sunday.

The defending NCAA champion Buckeyes were ranked No. 1 in the season’s inaugural RPI rankings that were released Monday.


The RPI is one of the several pieces of criteria the selection committee uses to determine the NCAA Tournament field. A team’s RPI ranking is generated by a mathematical formula that includes a team’s winning percentage, its strength of schedule and its opponents’ strength of schedule.

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Ohio State following its first loss of the season dropped behind Long Beach State to No. 2 in the national coaches poll last week. The national coaches poll is not part of the selection committee’s criteria.

Despite its No. 1 ranking in the coaches poll, Long Beach State finished at No. 3 in the inaugural RPI. BYU, which is a half-match behind Long Beach for first place in the MPSF, earned the No. 2 ranking.

Five of the top six teams in the RPI rankings are from the MPSF. Among these teams includes Hawai’i at No. 4, UC Irvine at No. 5 and UCLA at No. 6.

The RPI rankings will be updated weekly throughout the regular season and postseason until Selection Sunday.

RPI rankings (March 19)
1. Ohio State
2. BYU
3. Long Beach State
4. Hawai’i
5. UC Irvine
6. UCLA
7. Lewis
8. Ball State
9. USC
10. Stanford
11. Penn State
12. Loyola
13. Pepperdine
14. Grand Canyon
15. UC Santa Barbara
16. Sacred Heart
17. UC Santa Barbara
18. Barton
19. NJIT
20. St. Francis
21. King
22. Princeton
23. CSUN
24. George Mason
25. Mount Olive
26. Harvard
27. McKendree
28. Fort Wayne
29. Concordia-Irvine
30. Limestone
31. Quincy
32. Lindenwood
33. Cal Baptist
34. Coker
35. Charleston
36. North Greenville
37. Erskine
38. Belmont Abbey
39. Alderson Broaddus
40. Lincoln Memorial
41. Lees-McRae
42. Emmanuel
43. Pfeiffer