Predicting College Basketball Winners With RPI 

When sports betting and handicapping another tool in your toolbox is the ratings percentage index or more commonly known as the RPI. It is a mathematical formula that quantifies and ranks sports teams based on wins and losses in relation to the teams strength of schedule. Since 1981 and has been one of the ranking system is used to rank NCAA sports and build our bankrolls wagering on college basketball predictions. The main reason to pay attention to the RPI is if you like wagering on NCAA mens college basketball picks or want to indulge in predicting college basketball selections. There were few if any other barometers to quantify the teams better than the ratings percentage index or RPI. What good is it betting on an undefeated team when all that team did was beat basement dwellers? Before you go to the sports book to wager on your college basketball picks and bet on what you believe will be college basketball winners because you’re 8-0 team is actually an underdog and getting points from a 5-3 team. Always make sure to look at the ratings percentage index because the RPI doesn't just take into account your teams winning percentage but also your opponents winning percentage, as well as all the teams your opponent has played. So basically it takes into account yours, your opponents and everybody your opponent has played and it breaks down the formula as follows. Win percentage (WP .25%) + opponents win percentage (OWP .50%) + opponents opponent win percentage (OOWP .25%)

The win percentage in the RPI also accounts for differences in home and away and in neutral court games. All of us know whether you played college basketball or whether your a sports bettor who likes handicapping and wagers on college basketball predictions than there's a big difference when playing or betting home or away teams. So when calculating college basketball RPI, a home win accounts for 0.6 wins and a road win is 1.4 wins, and on the flip side a home loss equals 1.4 losses and a road loss only 0.6 of a loss. Neutral court wins and losses count as one. Home teams win college basketball picks almost 66% of the time. This curve only applies in winning percentage only, and obviously only Division 1A teams are included in these formulations. The formulas for NCAA basketball, baseball, hockey and other sports very but again we are only concerned with college basketball RPI because it helps us make our college basketball selections and really zero in on the top college basketball predictions available on any given day. We do not wager on any other NCAA sports and focus ourselves on college basketball selections and college football which does not use RPI but rather uses a power ranking system or index such as the Segarin rankings, NY times rankings or CBS sports rankings or various others. Any index or system whether the ratings percentage index or any other are all devised and created for one reason only, and that is because every sports gambler wants to beat the house and consistently pick college basketball winners. We all want a piece of the pie and lord knows the bookmakers and casinos make a fortune off all of the uninformed and under informed bettors out there in this great country of ours. So weather its the RPI or any other tool we have that helps predict college basketball winners there is good reason we look at them and any other pertinent information that we can get to make the most informed decisions when involving your bankroll. After all, if you do all of your homework and handicapping and look at games from different angles, treat sports betting like a business and play smart there are big profits to be made wagering on well informed college basketball picks.