Every year at this time, coaches around the Horizon League preach about the strength of the conference.
This year, they might have a point.
With conference play to resume tonight after a monthlong break, the league has its highest RPI ranking in history: ninth out of 31 Division I leagues. In addition to Butler, which is ninth in the individual RPI and 16th in the latest Associated Press poll, the league has two other teams in the top 40 ? Wright State at No. 35 and Valparaiso at No. 36 ? and six of its 10 members in the RPI's top 110. The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (7-5 overall, 1-1 Horizon League) is 110th out of 341 teams in Division I this season. Tonight's opponent, Detroit (4-8, 0-2), is one of only two Horizon teams outside the top 200.
"Butler helps, of course, but both Valpo and Wright State are top 40 and Cleveland State is 84th," said Jerry Palm, who runs the Web site CollegeRPI.com. "Except for Detroit (No. 239) and Loyola (No. 307), everybody is top 200. Is it unusually high? I suppose, but the league was 10th last year, so perhaps it's the start of a trend."
Before last season, the Horizon League's best showing was 11th in the 2000-2001 season. It has closed the gap with the Missouri Valley, the highest midmajor league in terms of RPI (No. 7). The Atlantic 10 is sandwiched between the Valley and the Horizon.
"One mistake people make when evaluating conferences is simply looking at the top and ignoring the rest," Palm said.
"The top of the A-10 is probably the best among the better nonmajors with four pretty competitive teams. No nonmajor conference has a team anywhere near as good as Memphis (No. 1 in the RPI) like Conference USA has, but the rest of the league (rated No. 12) isn't doing much. I don't know if the Horizon can come up with two at-large quality teams like the A-10 probably will this year, but it's still a pretty competitive league."
The only nonconference games remaining for most Horizon League teams are in the Feb. 23 ESPN BracketBusters series, and opponents for those games won't be known until early next month.
In most years, the Horizon's RPI has dropped once league play began, but Palm said that might not be the case this year because the league has so many highly rated teams.
The key to the Horizon's No. 9 ranking has been two-fold: More wins and higher-quality opponents.
The Horizon League combined for a 52-42 record against nonconference Division I foes this season against a schedule that was rated seventh toughest out of the 31 leagues. The league went 3-1 vs. the ACC, 2-3 vs. the Big East, 2-7 vs. the Big Ten, 13-7 vs. the MAC and 6-7 vs. the Missouri Valley. Butler has two of the ACC wins (over Virginia Tech and Florida State) and both Big Ten wins (over Michigan and Ohio State).
Butler's schedule was ideal for a mid-major team looking to make a splash nationally. Its wins over Michigan, Virginia Tech and Texas Tech of the Big 12 came at a neutral site during the Great Alaska Shootout. It beat Ohio State at home and Florida State at Conseco Fieldhouse in downtown Indianapolis, a few miles from its campus area. The Bulldogs played only four true road nonconference games and only one ? its last-second win over Southern Illinois (RPI No. 66) ? was against a team in the RPI's top 200. Butler went 11-1 against a nonleague schedule that was ranked 83rd.
Wright State took a different approach to its schedule. It played only three true nonconference road games and scheduled all mid- and low-major opponents. It played only two nonconference games against teams in the RPI's top 80 ? Bradley (No. 75) and Miami of Ohio (No. 30), both at home. Wright State went 7-2 against a nonleague schedule that was ranked 91st.
Meanwhile, UWGB played true road games against three Big Ten teams ? Ohio State (RPI No. 23), Wisconsin (No. 15) and Michigan State (No. 12) ? and at UMass (No. 22) and lost all four games. The Phoenix went 6-0 in the rest of its nonconference games, but its highest-ranked opponent among those six was North Dakota State (No. 126) for an overall strength of schedule of 169.
"We've had, in my opinion, the toughest nonconference schedule in the league when you consider we played on the road at three Big Tens and at UMass," UWGB coach Tod Kowalczyk said. "No one else in our league has done that, and maybe we shouldn't have done that. I think our RPI would have been higher without doing that.
"Wright State does a great job with their schedule. They've played seven home games, and they went to a tournament (at Tennessee-Chattanooga) where they were the best team and should have won and did. That's an area that we need to do a better job with. Not to take anything away from Butler, but Butler's big wins were at neutral sites or at home. We need to do a better job of finding those neutral-site games."
Word has started to spread about the Horizon League. UWGB assistant coaches Jon Harris and Brian Wardle said they have noticed in recruiting that there's more respect for the conference.
"It's turning," said Harris, who is in his fifth season at UWGB. "It's changed a lot since I've been here. I still don't think we get the respect we deserve quite yet, but people are starting to look at our league as being pretty close to the Valley."
Said Wardle: "The Horizon League is a selling point now, where maybe it wasn't five or six years ago."
This year, they might have a point.
With conference play to resume tonight after a monthlong break, the league has its highest RPI ranking in history: ninth out of 31 Division I leagues. In addition to Butler, which is ninth in the individual RPI and 16th in the latest Associated Press poll, the league has two other teams in the top 40 ? Wright State at No. 35 and Valparaiso at No. 36 ? and six of its 10 members in the RPI's top 110. The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (7-5 overall, 1-1 Horizon League) is 110th out of 341 teams in Division I this season. Tonight's opponent, Detroit (4-8, 0-2), is one of only two Horizon teams outside the top 200.
"Butler helps, of course, but both Valpo and Wright State are top 40 and Cleveland State is 84th," said Jerry Palm, who runs the Web site CollegeRPI.com. "Except for Detroit (No. 239) and Loyola (No. 307), everybody is top 200. Is it unusually high? I suppose, but the league was 10th last year, so perhaps it's the start of a trend."
Before last season, the Horizon League's best showing was 11th in the 2000-2001 season. It has closed the gap with the Missouri Valley, the highest midmajor league in terms of RPI (No. 7). The Atlantic 10 is sandwiched between the Valley and the Horizon.
"One mistake people make when evaluating conferences is simply looking at the top and ignoring the rest," Palm said.
"The top of the A-10 is probably the best among the better nonmajors with four pretty competitive teams. No nonmajor conference has a team anywhere near as good as Memphis (No. 1 in the RPI) like Conference USA has, but the rest of the league (rated No. 12) isn't doing much. I don't know if the Horizon can come up with two at-large quality teams like the A-10 probably will this year, but it's still a pretty competitive league."
The only nonconference games remaining for most Horizon League teams are in the Feb. 23 ESPN BracketBusters series, and opponents for those games won't be known until early next month.
In most years, the Horizon's RPI has dropped once league play began, but Palm said that might not be the case this year because the league has so many highly rated teams.
The key to the Horizon's No. 9 ranking has been two-fold: More wins and higher-quality opponents.
The Horizon League combined for a 52-42 record against nonconference Division I foes this season against a schedule that was rated seventh toughest out of the 31 leagues. The league went 3-1 vs. the ACC, 2-3 vs. the Big East, 2-7 vs. the Big Ten, 13-7 vs. the MAC and 6-7 vs. the Missouri Valley. Butler has two of the ACC wins (over Virginia Tech and Florida State) and both Big Ten wins (over Michigan and Ohio State).
Butler's schedule was ideal for a mid-major team looking to make a splash nationally. Its wins over Michigan, Virginia Tech and Texas Tech of the Big 12 came at a neutral site during the Great Alaska Shootout. It beat Ohio State at home and Florida State at Conseco Fieldhouse in downtown Indianapolis, a few miles from its campus area. The Bulldogs played only four true road nonconference games and only one ? its last-second win over Southern Illinois (RPI No. 66) ? was against a team in the RPI's top 200. Butler went 11-1 against a nonleague schedule that was ranked 83rd.
Wright State took a different approach to its schedule. It played only three true nonconference road games and scheduled all mid- and low-major opponents. It played only two nonconference games against teams in the RPI's top 80 ? Bradley (No. 75) and Miami of Ohio (No. 30), both at home. Wright State went 7-2 against a nonleague schedule that was ranked 91st.
Meanwhile, UWGB played true road games against three Big Ten teams ? Ohio State (RPI No. 23), Wisconsin (No. 15) and Michigan State (No. 12) ? and at UMass (No. 22) and lost all four games. The Phoenix went 6-0 in the rest of its nonconference games, but its highest-ranked opponent among those six was North Dakota State (No. 126) for an overall strength of schedule of 169.
"We've had, in my opinion, the toughest nonconference schedule in the league when you consider we played on the road at three Big Tens and at UMass," UWGB coach Tod Kowalczyk said. "No one else in our league has done that, and maybe we shouldn't have done that. I think our RPI would have been higher without doing that.
"Wright State does a great job with their schedule. They've played seven home games, and they went to a tournament (at Tennessee-Chattanooga) where they were the best team and should have won and did. That's an area that we need to do a better job with. Not to take anything away from Butler, but Butler's big wins were at neutral sites or at home. We need to do a better job of finding those neutral-site games."
Word has started to spread about the Horizon League. UWGB assistant coaches Jon Harris and Brian Wardle said they have noticed in recruiting that there's more respect for the conference.
"It's turning," said Harris, who is in his fifth season at UWGB. "It's changed a lot since I've been here. I still don't think we get the respect we deserve quite yet, but people are starting to look at our league as being pretty close to the Valley."
Said Wardle: "The Horizon League is a selling point now, where maybe it wasn't five or six years ago."
