INDIANAPOLIS— The Colorado Mesa University volleyball team is ranked third in the South Central Region and 22nd nationally in the NCAA Division II National Power Index or NPI Rankings, which were officially released for the first time on Monday morning.
Those rankings, being used in Division II team sports for the first time this year, will eventually determine the at-large selections and the seeding for the regional portion of the NCAA Tournament. Eight total teams, including the Lone Star Conference and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament Championships, who will earn automatic spots will be selected. The other six spots will be determined by these ever-changing and purely mathematical rankings.
The NPI rankings have replaced the former regional rankings, which were compiled somewhat subjectively be a regional advisory committee with oversite and using criteria from the NCAA's various national sports committees.
The NPI rankings evaluates a team's season by considering both results and the strength of the teams it plays. Each contest produces a value based on whether the team won, lost or tied and the opponent's NPI. The calculations are then based on established settings, known as dials, which determine the weighting between winning percentage, strength of schedule and the minimum number of wins a team must retain in its calculation.
These dials are pre-determined before the season.
Victories over highly-ranked opponents that have an NPI rating above a threshold also earn a quality win bonus for that match.
Weighting of home and away matches are also factored in.
The Mavericks, who sport a 16-4 record and a pair of 7-match winning streaks this season, currently have a 61.475 NPI ranking, trailing only Angelo State (66.611) and the Colorado School of Mines (62.725) in the South Central Region.
Dallas Baptist (59.720), MSU Denver (59.355), UT Tyler (57.530), UCCS (56.952) and South Dakota Mines (56.506) are ranked fourth through eighth in the region and would all be in the NCAA Tournament field as of Monday. St. Edward's (54.667) and West Texas A&M (54.431) are ranked ninth and tenth.
The next official NPI ranking will be released next Monday (Oct. 26). They will then be released again on Nov. 2 and will updated daily through the NCAA Tournament selections on Nov. 15.
