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Was looking at the rankings for this week, and saw this nugget (courtesy of Boyd's World): Now, why do Iterative Strength Ratings (ISRs) matter? Because they provide a clearer picture of team (and conference) quality over the Strength of Schedule (SoS) or the Ratings Power Index (RPI), and it's becoming a bigger factor in how teams are perceived (and ultimately ranked). And for a breakdown of ISRs by conference for the same week, check this out: Middle of the pack is not too bad for the Big 10--could be a lot worse, but yes...for the 'half-empty' folks on this board, it could be better as well. As for RPIs, since the NCAA still uses this formula, here's the latest (pseudo) RPIs for this week: Of note, Illinois is the next Big 10 team, at #65, for Boyd's (pseudo) RPIs. And while RPIs will take a hit, Nebraska and/or Illinois could get a good assist by beating Purdue, and if Illinois comes in a solid third in the Big 10 (behind what appears to be a Nebraska/Purdue battle for the conference title), there is a good (not great--just good) possibility of landing three teams from the B1G in the tournament this year.