RPI meaning in Sports ?

Answer:

What is Rating Percentage Index mean?

The rating percentage index, commonly known as the RPI, is a quantity used to rank sports teams based upon a team's wins and losses and its strength of schedule. It is one of the sports rating systems by which NCAA basketball, baseball, softball, hockey, soccer, lacrosse, and volleyball teams are ranked. This system was in use in Division I men's college basketball from 1981 through 2018 to aid in the selecting and seeding of teams appearing in the men's playoffs (see March Madness), and has been used in the women's tournament since its inception in 1982.

During the 2018 offseason, the NCAA announced that the RPI would no longer be used in the selection process for the Division I men's basketball tournament. Effective immediately, it was replaced with the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET). This new metric will initially be used only by the Division I men's selection committee—the Division I women's basketball committee, plus all other NCAA selection committees, continue to use their own versions of the RPI.

In its current formulation, the index comprises a team's winning percentage (25%), its opponents' winning percentage (50%), and the winning percentage of those opponents' opponents (25%). The opponents' winning percentage and the winning percentage of those opponents' opponents both comprise the strength of schedule (SOS). Thus, the SOS accounts for 75% of the RPI calculation and is 2/3 its opponents' winning percentage and 1/3 its opponents' opponents' winning percentages.

The RPI lacks theoretical justification from a statistical standpoint. Other ranking systems which include the margin of victory of games played or other statistics in addition to the win/loss results have been shown to be a better predictor of the outcomes of future games. However, because the margin of victory has been manipulated in the past by teams or individuals in the context of gambling, the RPI can be used to mitigate motivation for such manipulation.

Some feel that the heavy emphasis upon strength of schedule gives an unfair advantage to teams from major conferences. Teams from "majors" are allowed to pick many of their non-conference opponents (often blatantly weaker teams). Teams from minor conferences, however, may only get one or two such opponents in their schedules. Also, some mid-major conferences regularly compel their member teams to schedule opponents ranked in the top half of the RPI, which could boost the strength of that conference and/or its tougher-scheduling teams. In basketball, the Missouri Valley Conference has successfully done this: It has become one of the top-rated RPI conferences, despite having very few of its teams ranked in the two national Top 25 polls. In 2006, the NCAA began to release its RPI calculations weekly starting in January. Independent sources, such as ESPN or CNN/SI, also publish their own RPI calculations, which are updated more frequently.

reference

Full Form	Category
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute	Academic & Science
Research and Policy Institute	Academic & Science
Retail Price Index	Business
Resort Parks International	Business
Rural Property Investments	Business
Rotary Precision Instruments UK, LTD.	Business
Richards Packaging Income Fund	Business
Renewable Properties Inc	Business
Ratings Performance Index	Community
Retinitis Pigmentosa International	Community
Ratings Power Index	Community
Request Progression Interface	Computer Hardware
Rockwell Proprietary Interface	Computing
Rowdy Puz Institution	General
Rutgers Pitiful Injustice	General
Retarded People's Institute	General
Rick Pitino Inflated	General
Ratings Percentage Index	General
Recognition Professionals International	General
Reticulocyte Production Index	General
Random Party Implosion	General
Reciprocal Ponderal Index	General
Recruiting Publicity Item	General
Roofing Products International	General
Real Property Information	General
Render Performance Index	General
Really Poor Index	General
Retail Prices Index	General
Rapid Process Improvement	General
Recursive Program Interface	General
Raspberry PI I	General
Railway Progress Institute	Governmental
Republican Initiative	Governmental
Registered Provisional Immigrant	Governmental
Real Property Inventory	Governmental
RUPAHELI	Indian Railway Station
Reverse Puiseux Inequalities	Maths
Region of Probable Injury	Medical
Requested Packet Interval	Networking
Rockwell Protocol Interface	Networking
Role Playing Intensive	Sports
Rebounds Per Inning	Sports
Rating Percentage Index	Sports