RPI Bonus Question

I'm looking at the effect of the "Quality Win" bonuses right now. The big winners: NoDak, Northeastern, and MichSt. The Sioux jump from 13th to 10th in RPI with a modest 3-2-1 bonus. The losers: Colgate. They drop to 17th as they get passed by Northeastern and MSU while Dartmouth and UVM gain ground. The definition of "Quality Win" on the USCHO page reads:

[Q]The bonus, added in 2002-03, is awarded for "quality wins," defined as nonconference wins against a team in the Top 15 of RPI. More bonus points are awarded for neutral-site wins than home wins, and even more for road wins. Since the amount of bonus points is kept secret, we can't calculate a definite RPI. However, USCHO allows users, through the form on the right, to enter their own guesses on how much the bonus is worth, and based on that, see the effect on RPI.[/Q]

Here's my question: Do league tournament games count as "nonconference" games? The schedules at USCHO seem to indicate this, as do JTW's "Do It Yourself Rankings." We don't know what the committee uses, but will the USCHO scripts count the conference tournament games as "quality wins?"

For example, UML plays Maine next week in the Hockey East tournament. Both are top-15 in RPI. Lowell could fly up the RPI rankings with a sweep in Orono by simply nabbing two Quality Road wins. JTW's script didn't have this option for 2003, so I can't compare what happened virtually with the actual NCAA selections.

No, postseason games are not non-conference for the point of quality wins. They are simply 'non-conference' because they don't count in conference standings, so I think for USCHO's standings scripts not to screw up, they have to put in the (nc).

I guess I can't find proof that post-season doesn't count for quality wins, but the point of only counting NC was not to allow teams in stronger conferences to rack up Quality Wins from regularly scheduled games. Making post-season games count would defeat that.

Games against teams from your conference don't count as quality wins, regardless of whether they're in the regular season, conference tournaments, holiday tournaments, or extra non-conference games played for some reason. I'm 99% sure the scripts on USCHO and slack.net handle things this way, even though the schedules say "nc" for those games.

Thanks.

anyone have a good reason why playing a conference opponent in a nonpostseason tournament shouldnt give you bonus points?

is it to try to get teams to schedule nonleague opponents in these tourneys...not that cornell has a say on who is down in estero. this question has been bugging me over the last few weeks

From the latest Bracketology article

[www.uscho.com]

"Now remember, nonconference wins against conference opponents do not count toward the bonus. For example, when Alaska-Anchorage defeated Minnesota in the Nye Frontier Classic, that didn't count."

[Q]jy3 Wrote:

anyone have a good reason why playing a conference opponent in a nonpostseason tournament shouldnt give you bonus points?[/q]

I wouldn't work too hard trying to make sense of the bonus points.