bshot44, what caught my eye was this "The second column will include home games against teams ranked 31-75, neutral-site games versus teams ranked 51-100 and road games against teams ranked 76-135." When was OHIO last in the top 135?
Ohio RPI last few years according to ESPNs RPI page
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/rpi/_/year/20... 2016-17 #119 (Non-Conf SOS 260)
2015-16 #80 (Non-Conf SOS 116)
2014-15 #230 (Non-Conf SOS 138)
2013-14 #85 (Non-Conf SOS 146)
2012-13 #68 (Non-Conf SOS 176)
2011-12 #50 (Non-Conf SOS 251)
2010-11 #172 (Non-Conf SOS 100)
Obviously these are all season-end ratings ... so some you have to take into consideration postseason games, specifically 2011-12 when they had wins over Michigan, USF and a loss to UNC in the NCAAs
Last year's schedule was awful. Period. I hope it's a total blip on the radar. 2nd place in the MAC and an RPI near 120.
As you can see, we've played some decent OOC schedules per RPI. And to no surprise, some of those years when we are actually good and our schedule is good .... OUr RPI is good.
If Ohio can, at worst, play a schedule around 150 that would be great. If they are serious about ever competing on an at-large stage, that schedule needs to be closer to 100 each year.
It's not too huge of a stretch for them to get there. Just have to find a way to cut some of the dead weight (i.e. the sub 200-RPI games) from their schedule. They played 6 OOC games vs. teams with RPI > 193 last year.
There are going to be games vs. bad RPI teams because of the MAC ... and the league is trying to rectify that with the scheduling mandates .... but the "mandatory" home games might be hurting them a bit because it forces some teams to schedule these 300+ RPI SWAC/MEAC teams.
Again .... I KNOW .... this is easier said then done. But I would love to see the effort to improve things.