Sooner Rather Than Later

Since I posted the Top 50 rankings for the Relative Ratings a few days ago, I figured maybe I should post the Top 50 SAWP rankings. As a reminder, the SAWP rating only uses win/loss and location as inputs, which is similar to the RPI. SAWP will typically correlate much closer to the human polls than will the Relative Ratings.

I am not a big fan of win/loss rating systems, because although they are a reasonable zero-sum look at what happened, they aren't typically helpful in identifying what will happen. And in the end, isn't that what the NCAA tournament committee's job is? They have a product to sell, after all, and the best product should consist of the best 64 games. If RPI isn't a good indicator of what will happen, then why is it one of the main factors in determining which teams make the tournament? And now off the soapbox, I'll post the rankings.

Updated through games of March 12th

Top 50	Conf	W-L	SAWP	RPI/Rnk	SOS/Rnk
1. Kansas	B12	31-2	.7535	.665 / 1	.584 / 18
2. Kentucky	SEC	30-2	.7331	.644 / 4	.543 / 78
3. Syracuse	BE	28-4	.7256	.650 / 2	.585 / 17
4. West Virginia	BE	26-6	.7072	.644 / 3	.603 / 6
5. Duke	ACC	27-5	.7069	.640 / 6	.583 / 19
6. Purdue	B10	27-4	.7026	.621 / 9	.536 / 92
7. Kansas St	B12	25-6	.6991	.642 / 5	.610 / 3
8. New Mexico	MWC	29-4	.6990	.617 / 11	.526 / 114
9. Northern Iowa	MVC	28-4	.6898	.602 / 23	.501 / 164
10. Temple	A10	27-5	.6895	.611 / 15	.531 / 104
11. Butler	HL	28-4	.6879	.611 / 16	.527 / 111
12. Baylor	B12	24-7	.6811	.622 / 8	.582 / 21
13. Villanova	BE	24-7	.6807	.617 / 12	.564 / 43
14. Tennessee	SEC	25-7	.6784	.616 / 14	.568 / 40
15. BYU	MWC	28-5	.6774	.598 / 24	.504 / 157
16. Georgetown	BE	23-9	.6738	.632 / 7	.632 / 1
17. Pittsburgh	BE	24-8	.6737	.620 / 10	.589 / 13
18. Vanderbilt	SEC	23-7	.6721	.611 / 17	.566 / 41
19. UTEP	CUSA	26-5	.6703	.594 / 29	.510 / 140
20. Xavier	A10	24-7	.6694	.604 / 21	.547 / 70
21. Ohio St	B10	25-7	.6656	.594 / 28	.530 / 107
22. Utah St	WAC	26-6	.6644	.590 / 32	.520 / 121
23. St Mary's CA	WCC	25-5	.6615	.590 / 33	.506 / 152
24. Richmond	A10	25-7	.6603	.593 / 31	.531 / 101
25. Maryland	ACC	22-8	.6602	.606 / 18	.575 / 30
26. Gonzaga	WCC	25-6	.6596	.585 / 40	.506 / 150
27. Cornell	Ivy	25-4	.6590	.568 / 59	.459 / 271
28. Texas A&M	B12	22-9	.6563	.616 / 13	.606 / 5
29. Wisconsin	B10	23-8	.6546	.606 / 19	.575 / 31
30. UNLV	MWC	24-7	.6543	.586 / 38	.516 / 128
31. Siena	MAAC	27-6	.6537	.580 / 46	.496 / 177
32. Murray St	OVC	28-4	.6524	.553 / 76	.425 / 318
33. Michigan St	B10	24-8	.6522	.596 / 25	.549 / 65
34. Texas	B12	24-9	.6490	.595 / 26	.549 / 66
35. San Diego St	MWC	22-8	.6460	.586 / 39	.542 / 79
36. Old Dominion	CAA	26-8	.6455	.585 / 41	.531 / 100
37. California	P10	23-9	.6448	.605 / 20	.589 / 14
38. Oklahoma St	B12	22-10	.6392	.595 / 27	.576 / 28
39. Rhode Island	A10	23-8	.6376	.584 / 43	.533 / 98
40. Notre Dame	BE	23-11	.6367	.587 / 37	.561 / 49
41. Florida St	ACC	22-9	.6356	.588 / 35	.553 / 62
42. Virginia Tech	ACC	23-8	.6351	.567 / 60	.494 / 184
43. Louisville	BE	20-11	.6346	.602 / 22	.610 / 4
44. Marquette	BE	22-11	.6344	.583 / 44	.558 / 53
45. Missouri	B12	22-10	.6341	.584 / 42	.552 / 63
46. Washington	P10	23-9	.6325	.580 / 45	.532 / 99
47. Clemson	ACC	21-10	.6323	.593 / 30	.579 / 24
48. UAB	CUSA	23-8	.6304	.579 / 48	.530 / 106
49. Wichita St	MVC	24-9	.6285	.572 / 55	.519 / 123
50. Wofford	SC	25-8	.6265	.545 / 86	.459 / 269

Notes: The RPI rating shown may not precisely equal other sources. It is close enough that I am comfortable in providing it simply as a comparator to SAWP.