To do well in the RPI, you have to play a lot of good teams, and beat just enough of them. That's exactly what Harvard did this season. Teams like Davidson (14-8) and Loyola Marymount (12-6-1) were a couple of the "easy" opponents on the Crimson's non-conference schedule.

The NCAA does not blindly accept the RPI. It will disregard teams that earned high rankings without getting a quality win all season, but Harvard was not in this category. The Crimson beat two conference champions, Princeton and Boston University, and Boston College while it was nationally ranked.

So how did the selection committee react to Harvard's loss to Columbia? It only hurt Harvard as much as it hurt its RPI ranking, i.e. not much at all. The RPI treats a win over Princeton paired with a loss to Columbia the same as it would treat a win over Columbia paired with a loss to Princeton.

Still not convinced? Let's go to the ultimate source, Debbie Warren, Selection Committee Chair, who appeared on an online chat session last night. A likely heartbroken relation of Brown freshman forward Molly Cahan asked Warren, "Why was Harvard selected over Brown?"

Warren's reply: "Harvard had more significant results and their schedule was tougher. The regional committee in the Northeast felt Harvard was a stronger team even with the head-to-heads."

Based on that quote, this is my impression of what actually happened:

The selection committee needed another at-large team from the Northeast. Harvard's high RPI and high-quality wins made it the best candidate. The chair then turned to the Northeast committee and asked, "Is Harvard really that good?" The Northeast committee smiled and nodded.

Harvard was written into the brackets.