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Ohio State is continuing to rack up the wins while starting to fall behind in one of the criteria categories used to determine the NCAA Tournament field.
The Buckeyes following two more conference wins to end their MIVA regular season undefeated dropped five spots to No. 12 in the latest strength of the schedule rankings that the NCAA released earlier this week.
This is the lowest strength of schedule ranking for Ohio State since the NCAA began unveiling the weekly rankings last month. Ohio State now has the fifth-best strength of schedule among teams under NCAA Tournament consideration, according to the latest Off the Block bracketology.
The Buckeyes (27-2, 16-0 MIVA) closed out the regular season on a four-match winning streak, but their opponents in those matches had a combined 34-74 record. In addition, Ohio State’s next match will be against eighth-place Quincy (7-20, 2-14 MIVA) in the MIVA Tournament quarterfinals on Saturday.
BYU leads all projected teams under NCAA Tournament consideration at No. 5 for the strength of schedule. UC Irvine, Hawai’i and Pepperdine also are in the top 10 of the rankings.
Ohio State, though, remains ahead of Long Beach State, which dropped two spots to No. 14 in the new strength of schedule rankings.
Strength of schedule is one of the many pieces of criteria the selection committee uses to determine the NCAA Tournament field. It also is part of a mathematical formula to establish a team’s RPI ranking, along with winning percentage and opponent strength of schedule.
STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE (April 9)
1. UCLA
2. UC San Diego
3. Stanford
4. Pepperdine
5. BYU
6. UC Irvine
7. USC
8. Hawai’i
9. Penn State
10. St. Francis
11. CSUN
12. Ohio State
13. UC Santa Barbara
14. Long Beach State
15. Loyola
16. George Mason
17. Lewis
18. McKendree
19. Lindenwood
20. Fort Wayne
21. Quincy
22. Grand Canyon
23. Princeton
24. Ball State
25. Harvard
26. Cal Baptist
27. NJIT
28. Concordia-Irvine
29. Erskine
30. Sacred Heart
31. Barton
32. Pfeiffer
33. Alderson Broaddus
34. Charleston
35. Mount Olive
36. Belmont Abbey
37. North Greenville
38. Limestone
39. Emmanuel
40. Lincoln Memorial
41. Coker
42. King
43. Lees-McRae
OPPONENT STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE(April 9)
1. Pepperdine
2. BYU
3. UC Irvine
4. Hawai’i
5. UC San Diego
6. Long Beach State
7. CSUN
8. Concordia-Irvine
9. UCLA
10. USC
11. Stanford
12. Cal Baptist
13. UC Santa Barbara
14. Ohio State
15. Loyola
16. Lewis
17. Grand Canyon
18. Ball State
19. Fort Wayne
20. McKendree
21. Penn State
22. Lindenwood
23. St. Francis
24. Quincy
25. Harvard
26. Princeton
27. Sacred Heart
28. NJIT
29. George Mason
30. Charleston
31. Coker
32. Mount Olive
33. Lees-McRae
34. King
35. Belmont Abbey
36. Limestone
37. Barton
38. Erskine
39. North Greenville
40. Emmanuel
41. Alderson Broaddus
42. Lincoln Memorial
43. Pfeiffer