College Football Computer Ranking

Sports Crossfire allows registered members to personalize their College Football Computer Ranking.  The variables used in the calculation are:

Strength of schedule [0 - 100%] – This determines how much the opponents rating factors into the value of a win or loss.

Away win:  [100% to 140%] This determines the value of a win on the road vs. a win at a neutral site.

Home win: [60% to 100%] This determines the value of a win at home vs. a win at a neutral site.

Margin of victory value: [100% to 140%] – This determines the value of a win by more than the Margin of Victory Amount.  This may not be awarded in games vs. 1AA opponents.

Margin of victory amount: [10 – 25 points] – This determines the margin of victory necessary to be awarded the Margin of Victory Value.

Do 1AA games count? [Yes, No] – Do victories against 1AA opponents count in your computer ranking.  If not, these games are ignored. If you choose to use victories over 1AA teams, the 1AA Victory Value determines the value of that victory vs. a 1A opponent.  (All losses vs. 1AA opponents are used in the calculation.)

1AA victory value: [60% - 100%] If 1AA teams are used in the rating, this determines the value awarded for a victory over a 1AA opponent as compared to a 1A opponent. (All losses vs. 1AA opponents are used in the calculation.)

Does margin of victory count for 1aa games? [Yes, No] –If you choose to use victories over 1AA teams, the 1AA Margin of Victory variable  determines whether to apply the Margin of Victory reward to these games.  If you decide to use Margin of Victory vs. 1AA opponents, the same parameters will apply to 1AA games that apply to 1A games. 

The calculation:

Sports Crossfire’s Computer Rankings calculates a teams rating using the following equations:

(Sum of Victory-ratings + 1) / (Sum of Game-ratings + 2)

Victory-ratings are equal to the product of the appropriate variables (i.e. Home Win, Margin of Victory, etc.) and the Opponents-SOS calculation. 

The Opponents-SOS calculation is simply the weighted average of the opponent’s rating and that of a perfect team (1.000).  The Strength of Schedule Value determines the weighting.  It sounds more complicated that it is. The opponent’s rating is multiplied by the Strength of Schedule Value.  Then we add 1 minus the Strength of Schedule Value to calculate the weighted average.   

The final calculation is to determine the Game-ratings.  For victories the Game-rating is 1.  To provide for Strength of Schedule to factor into losses, we perform a slightly different weighted average to determine the Game-rating.  As before, we subtract the Strength of Schedule Value from 1 to get the weighting for a perfect team.  We also take the team rating and multiply it by the Strength of Schedule Value as we did before.  Here is the difference, we then take this weighted team rating and subtract it from 1 before adding the two together.  This creates a smaller denominator for losses to teams with better ratings and leads to better overall ratings.  (1-SOS) + (1-(SOS*TeamRating). 

Let us know you thoughts, good or bad, and any suggestions you have that may help our computer rankings.

Write a comment