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Reg: 04-24-05
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08-06-05 03:01 PM - Post#9190
Below are the 2004-2005 RPI stats of the Cornell and Penn 2005-2006 non-conference opponents. As of now, it appears that these two teams have very comparable games for their "top three" opponents as well as for their bottom "five" opponents. (I remind Penn fans that the Villanova game is at home, while Cornell plays its top three on the road) Cornell and Penn also share the same 14 Ivy games. Hence, these teams essentially are on par with each other for 22 of their 27/28 games.
The Penn and Cornell schedules differ in those remaining five to six games to fill out the schedule.
Penn's schedule is definitely stronger overall, not because of the "heavy weights" at the top of the board, but instead, primarily because of the quality mid majors that fill out the remaining dates. Penn's games against teams ranked 99 (Temple), 102 (Colorado), 131 (Hawaii), and 213 (La Salle) are superior to Cornell's games against 195 (Albany), 203 (St. Francis, Pa), 226 (Penn State), 238 (Colgate), 240 (Lehigh) and 265 (Long Beach State).
Perhaps Cornell should have scheduled some better mid majors such as Holy Cross (48), Boston U (76), American (130), Fairfield (166), Maine (170), San Diego (122) or Loyola Marymount (175) (instead of LBSU), or Binghamton
(182).
In any event, the Penn fans have no right this year to come over to the Cornell board to dance and brag about their schedule's level of difficulty. Wake up Quakers. Your schedule is better, but not by light years. And it is by no means a "killer" schedule. And last year your schedule was also not that exciting. This year, the Penn schedule is "deeper" than Cornell's strength of schedule, but not by much. Plus, in defense of Cornell, the games at LBSU and Penn State are cool places to play and the Albany team could be an NCAA tourney team (along with Washington, Syracuse, and Bucknell). Lastly, the Patriot League is better than ever before, and those games against Colgate and Lehigh are not cake-walks for any Ivy program, even Penn.
Anyhow, here are the RPIs:
CORNELL's SCHEDULE (27 D-I games)
Washington 3
Syracuse 20
Bucknell 64
Albany 195
St. Francis Pa 203
Penn State 226
Colgate 238
Lehigh 240
Long Beach State 265
Lafayette 267
Qunnipiac 299
Hartford 300
Army 327
Keuka College (Non-Division I)
PENN's SCHEDULE (26 D-I games)
Duke 4
Villanova 15
St. Joes 56
Drexel 87
Colorado 99
Temple 102
Hawaii 131
LaSalle 213
Lafayette 267
Citadel 293
Siena 297
Navy 304
BYU-Hawaii (Non-Division I)
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