Saurian Sagacity Week 7 Power Ratings

Thanks to the always helpful comments of our readers (some too obscene to print here), we have “tweaked” this week’s power ratings a bit.

The present formula uses the following –

1. Total Offense – This number is reduced to a ratio against the other 118 Division I-A schools, and then multiplied against the school’s strength of schedule (also a ratio) per the NCAA.

2. Total Defense – same as above.

3. Win-Loss record .

The 3 are added together to get the rankings.

By multiplying the total offense and defense ratios by the strength of schedule we get a better picture of what it took to put up those numbers. Two examples of total offense calculations–

LSU

Total Offense 427.86 ypg. (Average yards per game)
Strength of Schedule 0.657143 (Winning percentage of teams played)

Total Offense Ratio - .735155 (73.5% of the NCAA’s best offense)
SOS Ratio – 0.87619 (87.6% of the NCAA’s toughest schedule)

Tot O Ratio Times SOS Ratio Equals - 0.644135 (one of the three numbers that goes into LSU’s rankings)

Compare this to what we get for Hawaii –

Total Offense 538.37 ypg. (110.5 more yards per game than LSU, but...)
Strength of Schedule 0.2 (Winning percentage of teams played – worst in NCAA)

Total Offense Ratio - .925378 (92.5% of the NCAA’s best offense)
SOS Ratio – 0.26667 (26.6% of the NCAA’s toughest schedule)

Tot O Ratio Times SOS Ratio Equals - 0.246767 (2.6 times less than LSU number).

Thus, for having played the worst schedule in the NCAA (119th), Hawaii gets roughly 2 and ½ times less credit for their offensive numbers than LSU does (the 10th hardest schedule overall).

Using this formula, our top 25 are –

1 LSU
2 South Fla.
3 Ohio St.
4 Oregon
5 Kentucky
6 Missouri
7 Oklahoma
8 Kansas
9 Kansas St.
10 West Virginia
11 Florida
12 South Carolina
13 Arizona St.
14 Oregon St.
15 Boston College
16 Boise St.
17 Rutgers
18 Auburn
19 Oklahoma St.
20 Tennessee
21 Texas
22 Texas Tech
23 Georgia Tech
24 Georgia
25 Illinois

Looks pretty good to me. I would say that is a fair opinion of the “best” teams in the land.


Comments, obscene or otherwise, always solicited.