ESPN's new BPI, or Basketball Power Index, is more comprehensive and logical than the established RPI, or Ratings Percentage Index. I have immediately adopted it as a preferred measure.
As with any index, if you want to examine pools of teams against one another, especially to compare conferences, you want to compare median rather than mean. This gives you an indication of how difficult an average game is for any team in that conference.
It paints a slightly surprising picture:
1) Big 12 - median BPI 28 - much better than mean, shows that most game nights are no cakewalk in the 2012 version of this league
2) Big Ten - median BPI 47 - everyone knows this is a strong league, no surprise here
3) Big East - median BPI 59.5 - also ranked third in mean BPI and mean RPI
4) ACC - median BPI 63 - better than they fare in mean BPI
5) SEC - median BPI 77 - worse than they rate in mean BPI
6) Pac-12 - median BPI 78 - much better than their mean BPI
6) Atlantic 10 - median BPI 78 - much better than their mean BPI
8) MWC - median BPI 80 - worse than their ranking for mean BPI
9) MVC - median BPI 106 - as expected
10) WCC - median BPI 146 - as expected
In some ways, the SEC performed better in this year's nonconference games than would've been expected. However, the overall rigor of the league is still roughly on a plane with the Pac-12, A-10 and MWC. As always, the NCAA tournament will provide us with much more data for assessment of each league's strength.
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