Collegiate Basketball News first compiled the RPI for the 1990-91 regular season retroactively, and began in-season distribution of The RPI Report to interested parties on a subscription basis during the 1991-92 season. The 2016-17 college basketball season is the 26th consecutive year for publication of The RPI Report. Continual improvements to The RPI Report are the norm, as each year CBN has shown improvements over the last concerning additional content and readability.

The first issue of The RPI Report (Volume 1, Number 1) was dated January 6, 1992 and covered games played through Jan. 5, 1992. There were 12 issues of The RPI Report published during that inaugural season. The first issue of The Women's RPI Report was dated January 22, 1997 and covered games played through January 19, 1997. A total of nine issues and one bonus issue were published during the 1996-97 season.

Both The RPI Report and The Women's RPI Report have undergone extensive makeovers since their inaugural editions. Complimentary data in the Reports are now grouped together with headings that enable readers to quickly find the data that they are after. In addition, the categories are divided by vertical lines to clarify the distinction between the categories. Additional changes in both the format and content of the Reports will be ongoing in the future based upon the wants and needs of our subscribers.

The format and content of both The RPI Report and The Women's RPI Report are identical. The title pages of the Reports include news and comment, followed by a listing of the expanded RPI ratings for all Division I teams ranked in the RPI. This listing shows team-by-team rankings and ratings of the three factors and the RPI, a team's record in its last ten games, and road and conference records. The list also includes the non-conference record, schedule strength, and non-conference RPI of each team. These are followed by a portion of the same table listing records of how each team has fared against teams ranked 1-25, 26-50, etc. in the RPI. Following this numerical ratings list, a table showing Division I conference vs. conference records is presented. Numerical schedule strength rankings follow the numerical RPI team list. The conference ratings are shown next, followed by a conference-by-conference listing, showing each team in each conference, along with the identical data that are presented in the team numerical list. Team alphabetical RPI rankings are shown next, and finally, a listing of the top 100 teams in the RPI are given, showing their chances of being selected for the NCAA tournament, in various non-RPI categories. 

Subscriptions to The RPI Report and The Women's RPI Report consist of 15 weekly issues, plus two issues following the championship game. The first issue is available on either the first or second Monday in December, depending upon the calendar, and the final, full-season issue is mailed following the NCAA championship game. The last (and 17th) issue of the season is mailed in May and gives historical RPI and schedule strength information. Basic subscriptions are accessed via the internet, while First Class Mail and fax subscriptions are available at additional cost. As a bonus for subscribers to The Women's RPI Report, access to The Jeff Sagarin/CBN Women's Ratings is available on a daily basis throughout the basketball season.

Only subscribers to The RPI Report and The Women's RPI Report have access to the daily updates that appear on the CBN web site. Usernames and passwords are provided to subscribers prior to the first issues of The RPI Report and The Women's RPI Report of the season. Subscribers can print out the Report to which they subscribe literally seconds after it is available online in PDF format via the password-protected login page.

Non-subscribers still have access to the RPI ratings on a weekly basis as they have had in the past. CBN will update the conference standings on a daily basis on the CBN web site starting in late November and will update the short versions of the RPI on a weekly basis starting in early December. Conference standings and a wealth of additional statistics can be found in the free areas of the CBN web site.

Single sample back issues of both The RPI Report and The Women's RPI Report are available on a complimentary basis. Go to how to reach CBN for our e-mail and snail mail addresses and our telephone and fax numbers.

Historical Perspective of The RPI Report and The Women's RPI Report

Looking into past issues of The RPI Report, it is easy to say that the current issues are light-years ahead of that first issue. Information contained in the early days of the Report was sparse. The numerical ratings consisted of the RPI rank, team name, Division I wins and losses, and four-decimal digits for D-I winning percentage, schedule strength, opponent's schedule strength, and RPI for each team. That's it. It would certainly be considered bare-bones when compared to today's Report. Here is a look at additions and changes to The RPI Report through the years leading up to the publication that it is today. The list below refers to information found in the numerical RPI list of teams.

1991-1992 - First year contained RPI rank, team name, Division I wins and losses, and four-decimal digits for D-I winning percentage, schedule strength, opponent's schedule strength, and RPI.

1992-1993 - Added Non-Division I W-L record

1993-1994 - Added Factor I, Factor II, and Factor III Rankings; Last 10 Games Record; and Road Record.

1994-1995 - Added RPI Last Week; Conference Record; Non-Conference Schedule Strength and Non-Conference Schedule Strength Rank; and Non-Conference RPI and Non-Conference RPI Rank.

1995-1996 - Minor format changes.

1996-1997 - Added W-L records vs. teams ranked 1-25, 26-50, 51-100, 101-150, and below 150 in the RPI; Debut of The Women's RPI Report, which contains the same data and format as The RPI Report.

1997-1998 - Added Home and Neutral W-L Records; and Offensive, Defensive, and Scoring Margin averages.

1998-1999 - Added the Adjusted RPI; added Conference Rank; added dashes (i.e. 17-10) between W's and L's for clarity.

1999-2000 - Added RPI change from previous week; added W-L records vs. teams ranked in top 100 of RPI.

2000-2001 - Began ranking teams numerically by adjusted RPI; additional format changes.

2001-2002 - Added Winning/Losing Streak; added last 5 Games wins; added dashes between four-digit numbers and associated rankings for clarity; added "Chances of Being an At-Large NCAA Selection in Various Non-RPI Categories" section for top 100 teams in the RPI.

2002-2003 - Added Non-Conference Road Record; added "Close Games" stats, consisting of number of losses by 1, 2, and 3 points for each team and overtime wins and losses for each team; added average RPI of opponent for alternate schedule strength; major reformatting of data for easier reading.

2003-2004 - Added expanded streaks data for best non-conference and best conference streaks, and best and worst overall streaks which alternates in the Reports with scoring data.

2004-2005 - Began using new 0.6 - 1.0 - 1.4 weighting of home - neutral - road wins and losses; added difference between old "normal" RPI and new "weighted" RPI; added Conference Road Advantage, which takes conference road wins and subtracts conference home losses to give a number representing how well a team takes advantage of winning conference games on the road.

2005-2006 - Introduced records by day of week and by month for all teams in the subscriber area of web site. National champ Florida had records of 3-0, 2-0, 3-0, 5-3, 4-0, 6-0, and 10-3 on Sunday through Saturday, respectively, and records of 6-0, 6-0, 7-2, 3-4, 9-0, and 2-0 in November through April, respectively, for an overall 33-6 record.

2006-2007 - Introduced opponents' won-lost records and percentages. In addition to the RPI schedule strength, CBN began including teams' opponents' cumulative won-lost percentages. For example, at the end of the 2006-07 season, the opponents of national champ Florida had a cumulative won-lost record of 775-535 (.5916) for a rank of No. 25 among all Division I teams. Began alternating scoring data, streaks data, and alternative schedule strength every three issues. Added "Key to The RPI Report Columns", a full page explaining in detail what each column in the Report meant.

2007-2008 - Began using Last 12 games records rather than last 10 games records because committees began using this new standard.

2008-2009 through 2009-10 - Only minor format changes.

2010-2011 - Removed old "normal" RPI rank, and difference between weighted and normal RPI ranks for men because normal rank was no longer used. This also provided more margin space for easier reading.

2011-2012 - Removed old "normal" RPI rank, and difference between adjusted and normal RPI ranks, for women because normal rank and adjusted rank were no longer used. Women began using weighted RPI in 2011-12, just as men.

2012-13 through 2013-14 - Minor format changes.

2014-2015 - Added conference designation to RPI numerical rating list.