Coupeville Sports

   Kailey Kellner (42) and the Coupeville girls have fought their way to a strong start in the state’s first RPI rankings. (John Fisken photo)

There are six varsity high school basketball teams on Whidbey Island, and one is getting a lot more respect than the other five today.

The Coupeville High School girls, who carry a 7-3 record into a game at Chimacum tonight, are ranked #15 in 1A in the first RPI rankings released by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association.

That puts them a solid 13 slots ahead of any other Whidbey hoops squad.

But wait, what is the RPI and why do we care, you ask?

After years of being ridiculed for the way it conducted the draw for the state basketball tourneys (spoiler: they basically pulled names out of a hat most of the time), the WIAA decided to take a step into the future.

The RPI, which is a complicated formula, which we shall (sort of) explain in a second, is supposed to fix that.

When we get down to the final 16 teams in each classification — the teams that are state-bound, like the Coupeville girls last year — the RPI rankings will be used to pair teams off for the tourney.

With 1 vs 16 and 8 vs 9, for example, the hope is to stop what has become a bad trend in recent years, where the blind draw often ended up putting 1 vs 2 or 1 vs 3 in the round of 16.

So, essentially, it’s only going to matter if you make it to state. Otherwise, it’s just another number to brag about (or not) as the season unwinds.

And, as always, playoff upsets will mean teams that finish in the top 16 don’t make it to state, while teams outside the “elite” will still earn their way to the big dance.

How do they get the rankings?

The formula uses a team’s winning percentage (25 percent), opponents winning percentage (50 percent) and opponents’ opponents winning percentage (25 percent).

You don’t get extra credit for beating teams in bigger classifications or from out of state, and the RPI is frozen at the end of the regular season.

So, you go on a run in the playoffs, it’ll punch your ticket to state, but you’ll carry in your regular season ranking with you.

The first rankings were released Friday, and from here on out will be updated daily through the end of the season.

Of course, there are going to be complaints about the RPI rankings, and one huge one centers around the WIAA getting its results from MaxPreps.

The web site, which “covers” the entire USA, is notorious for errors.

Case in point, they currently give the Coupeville boys two identical 48-37 losses to Klahowya on Dec. 9, even though only one game was obviously played.

That lowers the Wolves winning percentage, while inflating the Eagles winning percentage, both of which affect the two team’s RPI.

While it’s not as bad as earlier this year, when MaxPreps had a football score (Coupeville beating Chimacum) listed as a girls’ basketball result, it’s still irksome.

Where Whidbey’s teams sit on Day 1 of the Great RPI Experiment:

Girls:

Coupeville (#15 in 1A)
South Whidbey (#28 in 1A)
Oak Harbor (#54 in 3A)

Boys:

South Whidbey (#54 in 1A)
Coupeville (#63 in 1A)
Oak Harbor (#63 in 3A)