Ranking Methodology

The emphasis of the Ranking Methodology is two fold. First, it's designed to be simple. Second, it's a points system that's based on the ranking of an opponent at the time the game is played and the points gained for winning at home or away. Points are awarded for each game (unless a team loses to a I-AA school). The difference is you gain more points based on two categories.

The first category comes from assigning each team a numerical value of points based on their current position out of 120 teams (this includes Western Kentucky as they make their transition to I-A). For example, playing the #1 team in the nation would give a team three points; playing #50 would give a team 1.75 points.[1] This serves as the strength of schedule component. The points range between .025 to 3 points based on the ranking of the opponent.

The second category comes from adding points for winning a game. Obviously, your points accrue more rapidly for winning games against opponents from the first category above, because the value of playing the #1 team in the nation automatically gives a team one whole point more than playing the #40 team, for example. On top of that, points are also added for winning games under the following situations:

• 7.0 points for a ROAD win against a Top 10 team
• 6.0 points for a HOME win against a Top 10 team
• 5.5 points for a ROAD win
• 5.0 points for a HOME win
• Losing to a I-AA school results in zero points being added for that week.

Following is an example. Team A (ranked #10) is on the road against Team B (ranked #43). Team A wins the game.

First Category of Points: Team A receives 1.925 and Team B receives 2.75
Second Category of Points: Team A earns 5.5 points for the road win.

Final Points total: Team A earned a total of 7.45 (5.5+1.925) while Team B earned 2.75 (all of which are based on the strength of their opponent). Had team B won they would have earned a total of 8.75 (6+2.75), so there is an emphasis on winning games against teams with higher rankings.


[1] To understand how these values were assigned all 120 teams were assigned their reciprocal and that number was divided by 40 or 1/3 of the number of teams. So, the #1 team would have a value of 120/40=3. The 120th ranked team would only have a value of .025.