IRC National Rankings: 1/25/09

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Should We Stop Ranking Teams?

The new SLAMM Hockey Blog has been doing an outstanding job promoting the NCRHA and producing new and exciting rankings for everyone to talk about. With that in mind, should the IRC stop producing rankings, because the original purpose of these rankings was to fill the void left by the ending of the NCRHA rankings system.

Your opinion is important, because if enough value is found in these rankings, we will continue to spend time and energy making sure they are available for everyone to enjoy.

Please take a second to vote on the poll as everyone's opinion matters.

Some Statistics Since October 5th 2008:
2,162 Unique Visitors

Top 10 States based on Unique Visits:
Michigan - 1,375
New Jersey - 625
Missouri - 581
California - 574
Pennsylvania - 551
New York - 395
Ohio - 151
Georgia - 127
North Carolina - 117
Florida - 115

Monday, January 26, 2009

TOP 25 Games This Weekend:

This weekend should be the most exciting weekend in the history of the NCRHA when no champions were being crowned. The ECRHA event in Pittsburgh, PA should garner most of the attention, however, the WCRHL will be having some outstanding hockey being played as well. Last weekends SCHL action is not factored into the current rankings.

Saturday Games:
Division I
#12 Colorado State vs #15 UC Santa Barbara
#14 UNLV vs #16 Long Beach State
#1 Lindenwood vs #2 Michigan State
#15 UC Santa Barbara vs #16 Long Beach State
#14 UNLV vs #23 Arizona State
#9 Ohio State vs #22 Penn State
#4 Buffalo vs #5 Central Florida
#1 Lindenwood vs #8 Rutgers
#11 Towson vs #20 Eastern Michigan
#5 Central Florida vs #22 Penn State
#13 Florida vs #17 Kennesaw State University (Division II)
#12 Colorado State vs #23 Arizona State
#7 UL-Lafayette vs #13 Florida
#11 Towson vs #18 Michigan
#14 UNLV vs #23 Arizona State
#2 Michigan State vs #4 Buffalo
#6 UC Irvine vs #15 UC Santa Barbara
#20 Eastern Michigan vs #22 Penn State
#8 Rutgers vs #9 Ohio State
Division II
#1 Neumann vs #9 Shippensburg
#20 Millersville vs #24 Slippery Rock
#9 Shippensburg vs #24 Slippery Rock
#1 Neumann vs #20 Millersville
#9 Shippensburg vs #12 Drexel
#3 UC San Diego vs #19 Northern Colorado
#7 UL-Lafayette (Division I) vs #17 Kennesaw State University
#12 Drexel vs #20 Millersville

Sunday Games:
Division I
#6 UC Irvine vs #15 UC Santa Barbara
#1 Lindenwood vs #4 Buffalo
#7 UL-Lafayette vs #13 Florida
#10 Rhode Island vs #25 Stony Brook
#5 Central Florida vs #18 Michigan
#9 Ohio State vs #11 Towson
#15 UC Santa Barbara vs #16 Long Beach State
#8 Rutgers vs #20 Eastern Michigan
#6 UC Irvine vs #14 UNLV
Division II
#9 Shippensburg vs #20 Millersville
#12 Drexel vs #24 Slippery Rock

Division I Rankings - 1/26/08

#1 – Lindenwood University - 2202.61
#2 - Michigan State University - 2034.32
#3 - University of Missouri-St. Louis - 1990.65
#4 - University at Buffalo - 1939.28
#5 - University of Central Florida - 1901.05
#6 – University of California, Irvine - 1876.07
#7 - University of Louisiana at Lafayette - 1872.30
#8 - Rutgers University - 1852.77
#9 - The Ohio State University - 1833.42
#10 - University of Rhode Island - 1744.65
#11 - Towson University - 1736.13
#12 - Colorado State University - 1728.47
#13 - University of Florida - 1726.87
#14 - University of Nevada, Las Vegas - 1713.78
#15 - University of California, Santa Barbara - 1705.01
#16 - California State University, Long Beach - 1702.84
#17 - University of North Texas - 1665.22
#18 - University of Michigan - 1663.75
#19 - University of Missouri - 1656.30
#20 - Eastern Michigan University - 1621.50
#21 - Louisiana State University - 1595.52
#22 - Penn State University - 1578.88
#23 - Arizona State University - 1569.22
#24 - Florida International University - 1567.69
#25 - Stony Brook University - 1564.66

Division II Rankings - 1/26/09

#1 – Neumann College - 2060.96
#2 - West Chester University - 1999.75
#3 - University of California, San Diego - 1953.91
#4 - Truman State University - 1735.26
#5 - Florida Atlantic University - 1734.76
#6 - Missouri State University - 1731.64
#7 - Elon University - 1715.71
#8 - Grand Valley State - 1701.42
#9 - Shippensburg University - 1684.25
#10 - Rowan University - 1678.55
#11 - University of Texas, Dallas - 1642.46
#12 - Drexel University - 1632.41
#13 - Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville - 1622.35
#14 - Central Michigan University - 1620.24
#15 - State University of New York, Brockport - 1589.20
#16 - University of Tampa - 1587.20
#17 - Kennesaw State University - 1583.62
#18 - St. Louis University - 1571.10
#19 - University of Northern Colorado - 1569.36
#20 - Millersville University - 1560.94
#21 - Metropolitan State College of Denver - 1553.81
#22 - Cornell University - 1545.41
#23 - University of Cincinnati - 1544.55
#24 - Slippery Rock University - 1541.40
#25 - University of Colorado - 1539.02

Junior College Rankings - 1/26/09

#1 – Saddleback College - 1657.57
#2 – St. Charles Community College - 1643.23
#3 - Suffolk County Community College - 1599.42
#4 - Valencia Community College - 1552.92
#5 – Red Rocks County Community College - 1516.38

B Division Rankings - 1/26/09

#1 - West Chester University - 1581.36
#2 - University at Buffalo - 1553.60
#3 - Lindenwood University Gold - 1549.27
#4 - Michigan State University - 1545.99
#5 - University of California, Santa Barbara Gold - 1511.14
#6 - Colorado State University - 1509.69
#7 - University of Missouri-St. Louis - 1484.15
#8 - Suffolk County CC Gold - 1441.98
#9 - Lindenwood University Black - 1437.56
#10 - Grand Valley State - 1432.14
#11 - University of Central Florida - 1428.76
#12 - Towson University - 1411.01
#13 - Arizona State University - 1401.78
#14 - Texas Tech University - 1382.75
#15 - Penn State University - 1370.10
#16 - Drexel University - 1356.79
#17 - Texas A&M University - 1355.90
#18 - Saddleback College - 1353.23
#19 - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University - 1338.03
#20 - University of Texas, Arlington - 1332.10

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.