Power Rankings

by radiorob123 on Nov 27, 2008 4:39 AM EST Comment 6 comments

Well, I think I may have finally done it. I'm obsessed with the various NFL Power Rankings that come out each week but I've always thought that they were flawed. Most Power Rankings lean too much on a teams win-loss record and where the team was ranked the week before. I thought about trying to find a way to come up with a set of Power Rankings that would not rely heavily on those two things and I believe I may have done it. It was a simple solution in the end. I want to get a clear picture of how the teams in the NFL stack up overall through this point in the season and I figured the best way to do that was to take my opinions of how good I thought each team was and toss them out the window. These Power Rankings are based strictly on the numbers. I came up with a simple formula using all of the important factors in determining how well a football team is performing.

Basically, I added each teams winning percentage, net yards, net points and total giveaways/takeaways and then averaged the total to come up with a score for each team. I'm not convinced that it's perfect as it still ignores special teams but I think it's a good start. Here are the results of the first run through:

1. New York Giants - 285.100

2. Tennessee Titans - 257.925

3. Pittsburgh Steelers - 218.400

4. Tampa Bay Buccaneers - 218.275

5. New York Jets - 210.425

6. Carolina Panthers - 201.850

7. Arizona Cardinals - 194.500

8. Baltimore Ravens - 190.650

9. New England Patriots - 182.275

10. Washington Redskins - 177.45

11. Atlanta Falcons - 175.125

12. Dallas Cowboys - 174.425

13. New Orleans Saints - 161.750

14. Indianapolis Colts - 159.875

15. Philadelphia Eagles - 150.225

16. Chicago Bears - 144.375

17. Minnesota Vikings - 143.125

18. Miami Dolphins - 141.825

19. Buffalo Bills - 139.425

20. Green Bay Packers - 125.600

21. Denver Broncos - 122.775

22. San Diego Chargers - 88.275

23. Houston Texans - 87.600

24. Jacksonville Jaguars - 85.725

25. Cleveland Browns - 63.025

26. San Francisco 49ers - 42.175

27. Oakland Raiders - 24.775

28. Seattle Seahawks - -5.425

29. Cincinnati Bengals - -24.150

30. Kansas City Chiefs - -33.550

31. St. Louis Rams - -35.900

32. Detroit Lions - -69.550

I'm not sure they came out exactly as I would have placed the teams if this was done based on my opinion but it's not terribly off either. I'd like to know what everyone else thinks about the results and any suggestions on how to make the formula more accurate are always welcome.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Stampede Blue's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Stampede Blue's writers or editors.

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Comments

Not quite sure if you have the forumula set right....

You’ve got us behind the ‘Aints, who are last in their division…but it’s a good start!

by MarkFive05 on Nov 27, 2008 7:31 AM EST reply actions

'Aints just stomped the Packers. That passing game is sick.

Shonn Greene for Heisman
Big Ten's leading Rusher, Leads FBS
144 yards per game
6.2 yards per carry
08 TDs per game > 06 GPA

by shake n bake on Nov 27, 2008 12:21 PM EST up reply actions

try the median

Averages tend to be heavily influenced by outliers. So a team having one really good game but otherwise being pretty mediocre will look better than it is and vise versa for a team that just didn’t show up one week. The median will give a better measure of the team’s typical performance.
Overall the results look similar to a power ranking system I made to do my weekly prediction contest picks.

by jedye on Nov 27, 2008 11:14 AM EST reply actions