Very few teams have better road resume than MU this year - record for all 73 BCS schools

I was thrilled to see Marquette get credit for grabbing the signature road over #19 UConn that was apparently necessary to make the NCAA, but I do hope other teams are held to the same standard since the top RPI team beaten by Duke is #89 Miami, by Arizona is #89 Washington State, by Texas A&M is #77 Oklahoma State and by UCLA is #121 Oregon.

Despite the charge that MU’s resume weakness was that they could not win on the road, the win over UConn makes MU one of the better road teams in the country based on any criteria.

1. MU now has a better road record than tournament bound teams like Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan State, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, West Virginia and WISCONSIN.

2. Looking at the 73 “BCS” teams, MU would be the 14th best road team in the country if they had pulled off the 1-point losses at Vanderbilt and Louisville. Even with those two losses and the most difficult road schedule in the country, MU is above average – tied with the 30th best road record - among 73 BCS teams.

3. Of these 29 teams with a better road record than MU, only nine have won on the road against a team higher in the RPI than #19 UConn. More than half (16 of 29) have yet to beat a Top 40 RPI team on the road, with 12 of 29 failing to beat a team ranked higher than #60. I believe its safe to say MU would have one of the top road records in the country except for the ridiculous road schedule.

4. After the UConn game, MU is even better on the road than at home based on Sagarin, which overall now ranks MU as one of the top 30 teams in the country. I can’t go through the math on all the teams for their road games, but MU is probably close to one of the Top 20 road teams in the country based on Sagarin.

5. As mentioned earlier, MU is now one of only a couple of dozen teams with a road win against an RPI Top 25 team and have not lost any road Top 25 games by double digits. The rest of the DI wins 9% of those games and loses by double digits 67% of the time. With the UConn win, MU has now won 14% of them and loses 0% by double digits.

Bottom line, there is an under appreciation for how tough road wins are. Here are the road records for all 73 BCS schools, with the top RPI road win for the 29 teams with a better road record than MU:

1 Florida 7-1 0.875 #21 Xav
1 Kansas 7-1 0.875 #60 Neb
3 Pittsburgh 6-1 0.857 #11 Gtown
4 Ohio State 8-2 0.800 #8 Flo
5 Duke 6-2 0.750 #80 Miami
5 Texas 6-2 0.750 #1 Kans
7 Texas A&M 5-2 0.714 #77 Okl St
8 Arizona 7-3 0.700 #89 Wash St
8 Georgia 7-3 0.700 #41 Tenn
8 Villanova 7-3 0.700 #13 Syr
11 North Carolina 6-3 0.667 #64 BC
12 Georgetown 7-4 0.636 #13 Syr
13 Syracuse 5-3 0.625 #25 Nova
14 Cincinnati 6-4 0.600 #11 Gtown
14 Purdue 6-4 0.600 at #56 Ill
16 Florida State 7-5 0.583 #80 Mia
17 Alabama 4-4 0.500 #41 Tenn
17 Connecticut 4-4 0.500 #7 Tex
17 Maryland 4-4 0.500 #76 Penn St
17 Tennessee 4-4 0.500 #20 Vandy
17 UCLA 4-4 0.500 #121 Oregon
17 Vanderbilt 4-4 0.500 #42 Georgia
23 Washington 5-6 0.455 #39 UCLA
24 California 4-5 0.444 #97 USC
24 Kansas State 4-5 0.444 #60 Neb
24 Louisville 4-5 0.444 #13 Syr
24 Michigan 4-5 0.444 #63 Mich St
24 Virginia Tech 4-5 0.444 #72 Mary
29 Notre Dame 3-4 0.429 #6 Pitt
30 Marquette 4-6 0.400 #19 UConn
30 Miami (FL) 4-6 0.400
30 Mississippi 4-6 0.400
30 Northwestern 4-6 0.400
30 Seton Hall 4-6 0.400
30 St. John's 4-6 0.400
30 Washington State 4-6 0.400
37 Oregon 3-5 0.375
37 Wisconsin 3-5 0.375
39 USC 4-7 0.364
40 Clemson 3-6 0.333
40 Illinois 3-6 0.333
40 Minnesota 3-6 0.333
40 Virginia 3-6 0.333
40 West Virginia 3-6 0.333
45 LSU 3-7 0.300
45 Michigan State 3-7 0.300
45 South Carolina 3-7 0.300
48 Baylor 2-5 0.286
48 Mississippi State 2-5 0.286
48 Missouri 2-5 0.286
51 Colorado 3-8 0.273
52 Boston College 2-6 0.250
53 Iowa 2-7 0.222
53 Kentucky 2-7 0.222
53 Stanford 2-7 0.222
53 Texas Tech 2-7 0.222
57 Iowa State 2-8 0.200
57 Penn State 2-8 0.200
57 Rutgers 2-8 0.200
60 Arizona State 2-9 0.182
61 Nebraska 1-5 0.167
62 Arkansas 1-6 0.143
63 Auburn 1-7 0.125
64 DePaul 1-7 0.125
65 NC State 1-8 0.111
65 Oklahoma State 1-8 0.111
67 Oklahoma 1-9 0.100
68 Oregon State 1-10 0.091
69 Georgia Tech 0-9 0.000
69 Indiana 0-9 0.000
69 Providence 0-8 0.000
69 South Florida 0-11 0.000
69 Wake Forest 0-8 0.000