The Sicatoka

It's not speculation when you know the history of the RPI formulas for college basketball and college hockey.

Anybody recall how many times the college hockey RPI formula has been tweeked in the last five years? My memory says at least two (new ratios, and then this "adder" stuff from last season). Trying to get a majority on something like this would make herding cats seem easy.

Last call boys. You worked hard to get here. What's it going to be? One by one.

OK .... then how to you weight them? WinPct is 50% OppWinPct is 35% OppOppWinPct is 15% or how about WinPct is 33.33% OppWinPct is 33.33% OppOppWinPct is 33.33% or how about WinPct is 75% OppWinPct is 15% OppOppWinPct is 10% or how about WinPct is 35% OppWinPct is 50% OppOppWinPct is 15% What the above is called is the Ratings Percentage Index, or RPI. Ask college basketball (and college hockey) about trying to find the right ratios (between WinPct, OppWinPct, OppOppWinPct) to find the best teams. Everyone has their own opinion, their own personal bias, as to what the right numbers ratios are.

Humans have biases. Computers are programmed by humans. The criteria and formulas that the computer uses to make its calculations are all based on what, and how, a human told it to figure (how the human programmed it). In the programming trade it is called "garbage in, garbage out." Now re-read statement 1 and try to trust "the computers." A simple example: The DII strength of schedule criteria. Those are biased, skewed, to favor playing other DIIs and were applied evenly to all .... and the computers figured out the numbers exactly that way. Yet, no one will disagree that the computer came out biased against certain schedules. Why? Because of the criteria, the programming, set by .... humans. Never be biased indeed.

So now you speak for NDSU ....

Ah the sound of pucks hitting boards in the morning. Just the thought makes these old bones feel young again. Is there anything better? Let me correct a minor problem here in my first supposition: "So Roger, where are you?" "Oh, I'm at the host desk for our between periods and weekly television show, Sioux Illustrated, The TV Show, here in the $100 million dollar Ralph Engelstad Arena on the University of North Dakota campus, home to the Number 1 ranked college hockey team in the land."

So, is anyone watching? I really like that they're using the "Sioux Illustrated, The TV Show" desk for the interview. I can almost hear it now .... "So Roger, where are you?" "Oh, I'm at the host desk for our between periods and weekly television show, Sioux Illustrated, The TV Show, here in the $100 million dollar Ralph Engelstad Arena on the University of North Dakota campus."

From http://www.fightingsioux.com/sports/footba...RELEASE_ID=2462

bisonguy: Thanks for putting that one up. That attempted abduction happened just two blocks from NDSU's new architecture building. We have to get the message out to to everyone watch out for yourself.

Yeah, and Prpich was pretty much "undressing" Peluso.

Now if I remember the elementary schoolyard correctly, isn't this where you're supposed to make foul-like clucking sounds and flap your arms like chicken wings?

Who to play for the Nickel? No one.

Precedent (which is what the polls are based on) shows that late season losses, especially in championship games are supposed to hurt worse than early season losses. They need a playoff, however, a partial, de facto, one was played Saturday: #1 Oklahoma got rocked by #13 Kansas State #2 USC knocked off the (unranked?) OSU Beavers #3 LSU knocked off #5 Georgia #4 Michigan didn't play (?) When it was all out there for the taking, an undefeated season and an uncontested championship, Oklahoma couldn't get it done. (Dare I say North Alabama here?) That tells me that in this "what is available in terms of games left to play" tournament, the championship game should be USC and LSU. That argument is based on on-field results, not any sort of naivity. PS - Just so you know my biases here, I can't stand OU, USC, or LSU. Go Longhorns!

Another Level 3 is moving into Thief River Falls today. Then I heard on KFGO Radio News last week that two more Level 3s are moving into Fargo soon.

Since going to a 28-game schedule in the 1997-1998 season, the lowest league champion's point total was 42 (UND in 2001). As of right now, Minnesota can at most tally 41 points. In that same time frame, it's taken at least 26 points to get home ice in the first round (Minnesota in 1999). If Minnesota were to play 0.500 hockey for the rest of the WCHA season (and they're only playing 0.375 now) they'd have 25 points. People think late-season losses hurt worse. No, a loss is a loss, they all hurt, when it comes to league play. Alternatively, never count them out until their season is confirmed to be over.

Kansas State 35 Oklahoma 7 The Sooners are not undefeated. If they would have lost by a TD or less I wouldn't have problems with it either. But losing by four .... touchdowns? Sorry but USC and LSU should be playing. Oh well, USC will win, it'll split the title and they'll have to do something real with the BCS down the road.

I just got the December "Sioux Illustrated." Why not just put the two-page Prpich vs. Peluso picture from in there on a sign with a simple caption: Back for more?

If the initial claims here are true you have my apologies for that unacceptable behavior. However, regarding the location of the game: Is it possible that the site committee knew, or got wind, of the positive drug test results Saturday night and that also helped to sway their thoughts toward putting the game in Grand Forks? Put yourself in their position: Just about all criteria are even. One team is undefeated. The other team has a marginally higher power rating. Then you find out one team has "off field" issues regarding drug testing ....

No disrespect to Kammrad, but he had a good passing game working for him that day. That helped his numbers rushing. Heckendorf, what he did to UND in the first half was stunning. Then the defense adjusted and he got no more. Sorry but Hall is third of the three. From my point of view, flip a coin on the first two, which means Hall will win be cause the northern vote will be split.

I believe the lyric is: North Dakota's U.

As if the Dru Sjodin case shouldn't have everyone more wary of their surroundings, now this happens Saturday night in Fargo. (Northport is only about a mile from the NDSU campus. However, in this case the victim wasn't a student.) Folks, and on this I know all fans can agree, let's be careful out there. Be aware of your surroundings. And let's get these (omitted) and put them away.

No cheating or looking it up. One UND player has both 100 goals and 100 assists. Obviously, it has to be a 200 point guy. Those are all listed here. Who is the 100 goals / 100 assists guy? Hint: A current player wears the same jersey number and, if the current player'd stay four years, would probably also be a 100/100 guy. (Now I'm trusting my memory as far as jersey numbers, so be nice.)

Back to the original thesis: NDSU versus the playoff field. Note that this is only, and purely, a hypothetical exercise. At least when Northern Colorado and UC-Davis left DII they left after a DII playoff loss and didn't come around with claims of "what could have been."