IRC National Rankings: 12/2/07

Friday, December 7, 2007

Mid-Season All-Americans

For the first time ever, the IRC will be releasing a mid-season All-American Team. The players selected were voted on by the six voting members of the IRC. All-American Teams were selected for the Divisions I, II and III. Each division is represented by two teams, with four skaters and one goaltender on each team. A unanimous selection is a player who is listed as a first team All-American by all voting members. A consensus All-American is a player who is listed as a first team All-American by at least half of the voters. The IRC All-Americans have no affiliation with the NCRHA and are meant as a service to the sport and only represent the opinion of six individual voting members.

Division I:

First Team All-Americans:
#Ryan Burrows - Long Beach State
#Charlie Middletown - UC Irvine
*PJ Tallo - UM St. Louis
*Jim Tamburino - Stony Brook
Goalie: Richie Latona - Buffalo

Second Team All-Americans:
Tommy Bruce - Lindenwood
Sam Haslam - North Texas
Tony Ascenzo - Michigan State
John Schultz - Eastern Michigan
Goalie: Joe Wurst - Michigan State

Division II:

First Team All-Americans:
*Victor Scotto - Neumann
Stephen Hebert - ULL
Christian Bernad - CSU San Bernardino
Drew Vandas - Truman State
Goalie: John Pechner - Truman State

Second Team All-Americans:
Ryan Weekes - Elon
Tim Baca - Austin College
Tommy Hagg - Shippensburg
Erik Rivas - Cal Poly Pomona
Goalie: Dan Hogan - West Chester

Division III

First Team All-Americans:
#Rowan Porter - Nassau
#Michael Thiefault - Broward
#Jason Yokubison - Oakland
Chris Sandoval - Aropahoe
Goalie: Kevin Hessman - St. Charles

Second Team All-Americans:
Gus Maloney - St. Charles
Andy Lane - Macomb
Collin Sipperley - Oakland
Nick Wolfer - Nassau
Goalie: Amber Bonne - Aropahoe

# = unanimous selection
* = consensus selection

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Week 10: DI National Rankings

#1 – Lindenwood University (6-0-0)
Last Week: 1

#2 - SUNY Stony Brook (14-0-0)
Last Week: 2

#3 - Michigan State University (11-1-0)
Last Week: 3

#4 - University of Missouri-St. Louis (5-2-0)
Last Week: 4

#5 – SUNY Buffalo (12-1-0)
Last Week: 5

#6 - University of California, Irvine (11-0-1)
Last Week: 8

#7 – University of Florida (5-1-2)
Last Week: 6

#8 - University of Michigan (6-2-0)
Last Week: 7

#9 - Long Beach State (9-1-1)
Last Week: 9

#10 –Colorado State University (10-0-1)
Last Week: 11

#11 - The Ohio State University (8-1-0)
Last Week: 10

#12 - University of North Texas (9-0-1)
Last Week: 12

#13 - California Polytechnic State University, SLO (7-2-2)
Last Week: 13

#14 - University of Rhode Island (9-3-1)
Last Week: 15

#15 - Rutgers University (12-4-0)
Last Week: NR

Week 10: DII National Rankings

#1 – Neumann College (14-0-0)
Last Week: 1

#2 – Truman State University (5-0-1)
Last Week: 2

#3 – West Chester University (11-2-0)
Last Week: 4

#4 - University of California, San Diego (10-1-0)
Last Week: 5

#5 – Cal Poly Pomona (9-1-2)
Last Week: 3

#6 - Missouri State University (4-0-1)
Last Week: 6

#7 – Washington University (STL) (5-1-0)
Last Week: 8

#8 – California State University, San Bernardino (9-1-1)
Last Week: 9

#9 – Elon University (6-2-0)
Last Week: 10

#10 – Grand Valley State (9-1-2)
Last Week: 13

#11- University of Louisiana at Lafayette (10-0-0)
Last Week: 11

#12 – Albany (9-3-1)
Last Week: 12

#13 - Southern Illinois University - Carbondale (5-2-0)
Last Week: 15

#14 – Shippensburg University (9-5-0)
Last Week: NR

#15 – Sam Houston State University (8-2-0)
Last Week: NR

Week 10: DIII National Rankings

#1 – St. Charles Community College (6-1-0)
Last Week: 1

#2 – Broward Community College (6-1-1)
Last Week: 2

#3 – Arapahoe County Community College (9-2-0)
Last Week: 3

#4 – St. Louis CC – Meramec (4-2-1)
Last Week: 5

#5 – Oakland Community College (2-2-2)
Last Week: 4

Week 10: B National Rankings

#1 – Lindenwood University – Gold (7-0-0)
Last Week: 1

#2 – University of Central Florida (7-0-1)
Last Week: 2

#3 - State University of New York at Buffalo (11-0-2)
Last Week: 3

#4 – Michigan State University (9-1-1)
Last Week: 4

#5 – University of Michigan (5-0-1)
Last Week: 5

#6 - North Texas University (9-0-0)
Last Week: 7

#7- Colorado State University (9-1-1)
Last Week: 8

#8 - Eastern Michigan (3-0-0)
Last Week: 9

#9 –Penn State University (9-1-2)
Last Week: 6

#10 - Lindenwood University Black (5-1-1)
Last Week: 10

#11 - Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Gold (7-1-0)
Last Week: 13

#12 –UC Santa Barbara Gold (5-1-2)
Last Week: 11

#13 - St. Charles Community College (4-2-0)
Last Week: 12

#14 – Central Michigan University (4-0-0)
Last Week: 14

#15 - University of Missouri - Columbia (4-2-1)
Last Week: 15

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.