If you want to throw out RPI almost entirely, you could try to balance out the schedule as much as possible and just take the best records.
For instance:
Quote:
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2. Each team will play 7 non-conference games, 1 game against a team from another conference, until all 8 conferences have played each other once. The games will also be selected totally random with a dice roller.
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Play a balanced schedule for non-con: every team should play a 1 or 2, 3 or 4, 5/6, 7/8, 9/10, 11/12, 13/14, and 15/16 from another conference.
I haven't looked at the pre-season tourneys but if they are also balanced then it would be pretty even for all schedules. That said, marquee tourneys with big name teams are fun, too. You can just ignore everything above this point as it may be too much work up front.
The more I think about it, the more rankings are useless. Maybe if you want to create some sort of way to sort teams, great. If this isn't what you want to do, just do a bracket as we'll see how you rank teams from there.
And, seriously, there are 24 AQ tourneys aside from the conference tourneys? Seriously? Wow. You will probably need to do some conference consolidation at the bottom rung as you'll wipe out a lot of good teams for those 44 at large spots. By dragging the Wichita States into the fold, there's going to be an auto-bid going to a team that wouldn't have made the tourney otherwise. I love mid-majors but you just pulled the top 128 teams in and now you're only letting 44 play. Perhaps it would be better to drop the AQs down to 20 or 16. Let every team have a chance to make it in (you have to love the "democracy" of the NCAA tourney where any team winning the right number of games can win the title) but you may make the road a bit bumpier as suddenly the MVC becomes a 16 team tourney instead of the 8 it is without Whichita State and Indiana State.
A few other little points:
* I'd run the pre-season tourneys like you did the group play last year. First round gets a post, second round gets a post, and third round gets a post.
* Same with the post-season tourneys. Are you going to do a simple 4 round or the silly (but "more fair") Big East 5 round 16-team monstrosity with 2 sets of byes?
* If you decide to do an NIT, CBI, and CIT- they can be quick writeups and should be done before the real tourney
* If there is suitable fan participation, you could throw open the final 2 or 4 spots to audience participation. Post 10 or so resumes and post a poll. It's a little harder without RPI rankings, tho.
SI