IRC National Rankings: 9/16/07

Friday, September 21, 2007

Week 1 Rankings

#1 Lindenwood continues to set records all around the country. After successfully going wire to wire last year, the Lions once again remain atop the polls for the 19th consecutive week. In DI, only four teams were ranked in every poll last season. Those teams include: #1 Lindenwood, #5 Michigan State, #10 NC State and #13 Florida International. #11 UM-St.Louis and #12 SUNY Stony Brook are two teams, formerly of DII, that have moved into the national spotlight in their first years at the DI level. Both teams will have their work cut out for them, but expect to see at least one, if not both at Nationals once again this season.

In DII #1 Neumann is back were they belong at the top of the rankings. After spending 16 weeks at #1 last year, the Knights expect to be there just as long this season.

In DIII, #1 Broward Community College opens the season at the top of the poll, followed by the defending national champions #2 St. Charles Community College. Broward and St. Charles met in the finals last season and you should expect the same this year.

Good Luck to everyone opening the season next weekend in the Rockies. Including Kansas State who is traveling outside their region. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come in the NCRHA this year.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

2007-2008 Pre-Season DI Rankings

#1 – Lindenwood University
Last Week: 1

#2 – University of Rhode Island
Last Week: 2

#3 – Rochester IT
Last Week: 3

#4 - Eastern Michigan University
Last Week: 4

#5 - Michigan State University
Last Week: 6

#6 – The Ohio State University
Last Week: 5

#7 - University of Michigan
Last Week: 7

#8 - University of Florida
Last Week: 11

#9 – Towson University
Last Week: 9

#10 – North Carolina State University
Last Week: 10

#11 – University of Missouri-St.Louis
Last Week: NR

#12 – SUNY Stony Brook
Last Week: NR

#13 - Florida International University
Last Week: 8

#14 - University of Central Florida
Last Week: 12

#15 - Purdue University
Last Week: 13

2007-2008 Pre-Season DII Rankings

Rankings for this week were edited with the movement of Long Beach State to DI. Good Luck at the DI level.

#1 – Neumann College
Last Week: 3

#2 – West Chester University
Last Week: 8

#3 – Truman State University
Last Week: 10

#4 - Emory University
Last Week: 9

#5 – University of Reno, Nevada
Last Week: 7

#6 - University of California, San Diego
Last Week: 6

#7 - Saint Louis University
Last Week: 2

#8 – Drexel University
Last Week: 4

#9 – Cal Poly Pomona
Last Week: 11

#10 – University of Miami
Last Week: NR

#11 – Missouri State University
Last Week: 13

#12 - University of San Diego
Last Week: 12

#13 - University of Texas - Dallas
Last Week: NR

#14 - Washington University (STL)
Last Week: NR

#15 – SUNY Albany
Last Week: NR

2007-2008 Pre-Season DIII Rankings

#1 – Broward Community College
Last Week: 2

#2 – St. Charles Community College
Last Week: 1

#3 – Suffolk Country Community College
Last Week: 3

#4 – Nassau Community College
Last Week: 4

#5 – Riverside Community College
Last Week: NR

The Rankings Explained

Since the conclusion of the season both founders set out to find the best solution to answer the age old question, “Who’s #1?” After much search, the answer was to use a mathematical formula to calculate the answer. Removing the human element from the voting would likely result in less biased rankings towards individual teams and regions.

The solution would be found in the ELO chess rating system. They system was created to rank chess players by another means that wins, losses and draws. The system uses a mathematical formula to reward each person for impressive feats and punish them for lesser impressive feats. Because chess and inline hockey are two different animals, the general equation had to be changed to allow for more hockeys related factors into the equation.

Using the FIFA Women’s World Rankings as a guideline (Elo Based), we managed to change the rankings to suit the nature of our sport. The rankings include the importance of the game, the outcome of the game, the expected result of the game, and the goal differential of the game when calculating a result. To better explain the way the rankings work I give you the following examples (all team start with a ranking of 1500):

Lindenwood University (1500) vs. UMSL (1500): If Lindenwood won the regular season game 4-3; they would be awarded 15 points for the victory and UMSL would be docked 15 points. However, if the game was won 12-2, Lindenwood would earn 39.38 points for the victory and UMSL would be docked 39.38 points. Additionally, the importance of the game could change, using the national title game as the example, with both teams having equal ratings Lindenwood would be awarded 52.5 points for a 6-3 win.

However, as you could assume, two teams having the same rating would be rare. Each teams point total carries over from one week to the next and from one season to the next. The following is a example of two teams with different point values and the different results it can produce.

Lindenwood University (1746.38) vs. Illinois State (1360.88): There are a few things that you can determine because of the vast difference in each teams rating (385.5). The first is that Lindenwood is expected to win the game. The second is that Illinois State winning the game would be a much bigger accomplishment that Lindenwood winning the game. The maximum points Lindenwood can earn from this game is 7.72, which would mean they won by at least 10 goals. However, on the flip side, if Illinois State was to win the game by at least 10 goals they could earn as many as 71.03 points. This is based on the projection that Lindenwood would win the match-up 90% of the time.

As the two examples show, there are a bunch of positives when using this system. For starters, once a team has achieved a high rating, it becomes difficult for them to increase it without playing a higher level of competition. This rewards regions that have more competitive teams. It also rewards teams who travel out of the region and win games against other higher rated teams. For example, last season, Towson and Army both played James Madison who would have had a higher rating that both visiting teams. In the games, Army and Towson both won handily and would have increased their ratings while negatively hurting James Madison. But, the hidden bonus is they now can bring those rating points back into their region. Those points then become spread out over the entire region as the season progresses and teams win and lose.

For the ratings system to work, each game has to have a certain amount of value attached to it. In the system we will be using five different levels to rate the importance of any give game. The first level is the lowest level of importance; it contains all pre-season exhibition games. The second level includes all regular-season regional games, as well as cross-divisional exhibition games. Level three includes all cross-regional games and invitational based tournaments, like WinterFest. The fourth level includes all regional playoff games and the fifth and final level includes all national playoff games.