A good read as there has been plenty of discussion on SRS and what it means.....
FCS notebook: SRS going through trial run this season
Chris Lang Follow Chris Lang on Twitter: @ChrisLangLNAPosted2 months ago
Consider the 2013 season a test period for the Simple Rating System (SRS).
In June, the Division I Football Championship Committee added the SRS to the list of factors to be considered when looking at potential at-large teams for the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. Though the vote to add the SRS went through during the summer, the selection committee for the 24-team tournament is still tweaking a number of factors, which is why the SRS is sort of in beta mode this season.
“We want to make sure it’s right before we go into it and all of a sudden there’s all these issues that come out of it,” Northern Iowa athletics director Troy Dannen — a committee member — told the Argus Leader of Sioux Falls, S.D. “Basically, if we pick the wrong teams, it’s going to lose credibility.”
The hope is for the SRS to be similar to the RPI used by the NCAA for both basketball and baseball tournament selections. There’s one big difference, though between the SRS and the RPI — Division II victories will be taken into consideration, and not simply ignored as non-factors as has been the case in the past.
Because there are plenty of ratings that measure the strength of Division II and Division III programs — the Massey Index and Sagarin come to mind — there will be a way to differentiate between playing a high-level DII like fifth-ranked Colorado State-Pueblo, which beat FCS Northern Colorado, and a low-level DII like Kentucky Wesleyan, which plays Liberty at the end of September.
Beginning this season, thanks in part to the expansion from 20 to 24 teams, the committee will strongly consider teams with six Division I victories. The past threshold was generally seven DI wins.
Why is this all so important? Much of it has to do with scheduling challenges teams in the Midwest and West face. Eastern Washington’s schedule, for instance, features two FBS opponents, one DII and one FCS non-conference foe. Southern Utah has two FBS teams, a DII and will play league foe Sacramento State in a non-conference game to fill out its schedule.
“To be able to get credit for difficult scheduling, having to play a quality Division II school and the FBS, that balances out a little bit the fact we can’t get a game with Valparaiso, Butler or Saint Francis or Drake or people like this,” Central Arkansas coach Clint Conque told The Sports Network. “And I think also, too, because they have this rating system in place, it creates a more objective opinion instead of backroom lawyering that potentially could go on with at-large selection opportunities. I’m not suggesting that goes on. What I am saying, though, it that it does create a more objective, black and white tool for the committee to use versus more subjective material.”
FCS notebook: SRS going through trial run this season
Chris Lang Follow Chris Lang on Twitter: @ChrisLangLNAPosted2 months ago
Consider the 2013 season a test period for the Simple Rating System (SRS).
In June, the Division I Football Championship Committee added the SRS to the list of factors to be considered when looking at potential at-large teams for the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. Though the vote to add the SRS went through during the summer, the selection committee for the 24-team tournament is still tweaking a number of factors, which is why the SRS is sort of in beta mode this season.
“We want to make sure it’s right before we go into it and all of a sudden there’s all these issues that come out of it,” Northern Iowa athletics director Troy Dannen — a committee member — told the Argus Leader of Sioux Falls, S.D. “Basically, if we pick the wrong teams, it’s going to lose credibility.”
The hope is for the SRS to be similar to the RPI used by the NCAA for both basketball and baseball tournament selections. There’s one big difference, though between the SRS and the RPI — Division II victories will be taken into consideration, and not simply ignored as non-factors as has been the case in the past.
Because there are plenty of ratings that measure the strength of Division II and Division III programs — the Massey Index and Sagarin come to mind — there will be a way to differentiate between playing a high-level DII like fifth-ranked Colorado State-Pueblo, which beat FCS Northern Colorado, and a low-level DII like Kentucky Wesleyan, which plays Liberty at the end of September.
Beginning this season, thanks in part to the expansion from 20 to 24 teams, the committee will strongly consider teams with six Division I victories. The past threshold was generally seven DI wins.
Why is this all so important? Much of it has to do with scheduling challenges teams in the Midwest and West face. Eastern Washington’s schedule, for instance, features two FBS opponents, one DII and one FCS non-conference foe. Southern Utah has two FBS teams, a DII and will play league foe Sacramento State in a non-conference game to fill out its schedule.
“To be able to get credit for difficult scheduling, having to play a quality Division II school and the FBS, that balances out a little bit the fact we can’t get a game with Valparaiso, Butler or Saint Francis or Drake or people like this,” Central Arkansas coach Clint Conque told The Sports Network. “And I think also, too, because they have this rating system in place, it creates a more objective opinion instead of backroom lawyering that potentially could go on with at-large selection opportunities. I’m not suggesting that goes on. What I am saying, though, it that it does create a more objective, black and white tool for the committee to use versus more subjective material.”
