Should NCAA Baseball Teams Be Allowed To Cancel Midweek Games to Maintain a High RPI?

Looking into a college baseball issue following Texas A&M's cancelled midweek game.

Last week, Texas A&M's baseball team announced that it had canceled an upcoming midweek matchup against Incarnate Word in a mutual decision to maintain its high RPI.

RPI, which is short for Rating Percentage Index, ranks teams based on their strength of schedule. The RPI for each team changes often and is calculated using a team's own winning percentage and every opponent's winning percentage. RPI also plays a huge part in selecting which teams make a regional...and which teams don't.

So, how does that play into Texas A&M's choice to cancel a game against a 19-29 Incarnate Word team? The Aggies have a high RPI and are projected to host a regional once the postseason begins. The team didn't want to play a midweek game against a weak opponent after realizing that it wouldn't be beneficial and could potentially hurt its RPI.

On one hand, that's smart thinking by head coach Jim Schlossnagle. He's simply trying to do what's best for his Aggies, and nobody is trying to stop him. After all, plenty of games get canceled or modified due to weather and travel curfews...what does scrapping one for the betterment of his team hurt?

The problem is that Texas A&M committed to playing Incarnate Word months before the season began. That was back when the Aggies weren't expected to be much of anything in the SEC West. Now that they are having success, it doesn't seem right to take away opportunities from smaller schools and break a commitment that was made months in advance. It's ultimately taking advantage of a system that has a few flaws in it and doing something unfair that most other teams don't do.

Now that the Aggies have set a new standard, there's a good chance that other teams will try to do the same thing: that's not good for college baseball. If one team can scrap a game without punishment for the sake of a few RPI points that likely won't matter in the end, then every team can do it as well. It wouldn't be surprising if other highly-ranked teams try to pull the same stunt in the future.

Let's also think about the smaller schools that could ultimately fall victim to the cancellations. Many players look forward to the tough games because they can face stiff competition and ultimately become better throughout the nine innings. How do players on those smaller teams grow and improve if they can't face opponents who play on a much bigger stage?

There's no rule against canceling games to protect a team's high RPI, but that doesn't mean it's a moral thing to do. The NCAA will likely need to put an end to situations like the one Texas A&M has created and hold college baseball teams to a higher standard.