Norfolk State (#235) and Gardner Webb (#245) both have very low RPI numbers and those 4 games against them would have negatively impacted our strength of schedule.

I asked the person who runs the Daily RPI projections about the impact Longwood had on our RPI on the same day that Oklahoma defeated Kentucky, and this was his answer:

"I'd say the Oklahoma win over Kentucky was likely 50% of it. Then Game 1 vs Longwood was 25% and Game 2 vs Longwood was 25% (I just listed it that way to show there was 3 separate events).

"When you combine the increase in OU's SOS they got from KY along with the bonus points they got with the 2 different times VT inherited a .3600 winning pct (for now) from Longwood, that was the kicker.

"I will say also that VT has from an RPI standpoint been very fortunate when it comes to their SOS. They currently have 8 games versus worse than 100 RPI teams but really only 3 of those games are Bad 100+ teams (ETSU and 2 versus Longwood). Crazy enough, the 3 games versus 143 Syracuse are at the moment still very, very good RPI games. Also the 2 games versus 154 Evansville are at the moment still very good RPI games. Not very often does a team catches the luck of that break. Not sure those will hold throughout the season, but it interesting to look at right now."

Just win, baby