The Colorado High School Activities Association has announced a slight shake-up to the RPI formula that will affect a few high school sports. The recent proposals were passed at the CHSAA Legislative Council meeting Thursday.
Starting with baseball this spring, CHSAA will scrap the previous formula (¼ x winning percentage) + (½ x opponent’s winning percentage) + (¼ x opponents of opponents winning percentage) for baseball, football and boys soccer. Baseball and soccer will adopt a new formula of (0.35 x winning percentage) + (0.35 x opponents winning percentage) + (0.30 opponents of opponents winning percentage).
Football will take on a slightly different formula of (0.375 x winning percentage) + (0.375 opponents winning percentage) + (0.25 x opponents of opponents winning percentage).
Girls soccer will not use the soccer formula this season, but the idea will be reintroduced at CHSAA’s April Legislative Council meeting. Softball, volleyball and field hockey won’t be impacted by the change. The new formula announcement will put a slightly larger emphasis on wins and losses and less upon the opponent’s winning percentage in determining a team’s RPI.
“It’s absolutely a good thing when teams are rewarded for wins, which is exactly what needed to happen,” Durango High School boys and girls soccer coach Dalon Parker said. “I shared my concerns at the end of last season because, essentially, it didn’t always matter if you won or lost. I could have created a schedule with the highest ranked teams to start the season, forfeited the first six games, and still had one of the top RPI rankings in the state. I don’t think that’s fair.”
According to Parker, the Demons boys soccer team, which made it all the way to the state semifinals, would have been a No. 2 seed with the current formula instead of the No. 7 seed they were awarded.
“Our schedule was created last season solely based on RPI, and we still have to do that,” Parker said. “The reason we have to do that is because our league isn’t as competitive as some of the others. Teams in some of those powerhouse leagues can afford to schedule non-league games that are easy because the teams in their league, like the Pikes Peak League for example, already has teams way up in the RPI. We don’t have that in our league so we’ll still have to schedule some tougher games, but this is better, no doubt about it.”
Durango head football coach David Vogt is also pleased with the change.
“I’m not sure how much of a difference it would have made for us last year, but something wasn’t right when a 9-1 Loveland team didn’t make the playoffs,” Vogt said. “This will make a win feel like a win no matter who we play.”
jfries@durangoherald.com
