Somerville is top Big Central team in Week Three Strength Index rankings

While OSI – Opponent Strength Index – is 60 percent of New Jersey’s UPR formula to determine playoff qualification, that index gets its data from each team’s Strength Index, how strong a team is considered to be. The SI has nothing to do with wins or losses, but how each team performs based on its own rating relative to its opponent’s rating, and the final score.

Somerville is the highest ranked team in the Big Central, according to the official Week Three Strength index values, updated by Gridiron New Jersey, the website that calculates such values for the NJSIAA. This means the Pioneers are considered – by the formula – the top team in the Big Central Conference.

While Gridiron does not publish the numbers directly, Central Jersey Sports Radio compiled the values for all 339 schools playing football in New Jersey in 2021, and will continue to do so all season long.

The top team overall in the state was St. Peter’s Prep, with an SI of 98.49. The Marauders are followed by Bergen Catholic (96.33), Cedar Creek (94.51), Seton Hall Prep (92.34) and DePaul (91.77).

Rumson-Fair Haven is 6th at 91.14, followed by St. Augustine (89.86), Ramapo (88.47), Holy Spirit (87.89) and Red Bank Catholic (87.69) to round out the Top Ten.

Somerville is right behind at 87.54.

OSI works so that a winning team gets the full value of its opponent calculated into its average. If it beats a team with an SI of 80 and a team with an SI of 60, it’s OSI is 70 (the average of 60 and 80).

Losing teams get half the value of its opponent. A loss to an 80 team is worth 40, for example. A tie garners three-quarters of the SI value (an 80 would be worth a 60).

Click below to download a PDF of all the teams in New Jersey ranked by Strength Index values. Big Central teams are highlighted in yellow. Independent area teams are in blue.

Here are the rankings for all 60 teams in the Big Central Conference:

RANK	TEAM	SI
1	Somerville	87.54
2	Woodbridge	79.73
3	Ridge	79.53
4	Cranford	78.36
5	Phillipsburg	77.53
6	Union	76.27
7	Hillsborough	75.65
8	Monroe	72.99
9	Bernards	72.75
10	Delaware Valley	71.98
11	Hillside	71.87
12	North Brunswick	69.57
13	Warren Hills	69.37
14	Old Bridge	68.84
15	St. Thomas Aquinas	68.72
16	Colonia	67.47
17	East Brunswick	66.90
18	Sayreville	66.88
19	Westfield	66.45
20	Brearley	66.07
21	Summit	65.83
22	Watchung Hills	65.12
23	Bridgewater-Raritan	64.66
24	Linden	63.98
25	New Providence	62.49
26	North Hunterdon	62.30
27	Edison	62.20
28	St. Joseph-Metuchen	61.05
29	Montgomery	60.49
30	Rahway	59.71
31	Piscataway	59.69
32	New Brunswick	58.37
33	South Brunswick	57.44
34	Elizabeth	55.13
35	North Plainfield	54.89
36	Manville	53.66
37	Bound Brook	53.20
38	Scotch Plains-Fanwood	53.19
39	Plainfield	51.60
40	South River	50.76
41	Franklin	50.41
42	South Hunterdon	50.41
43	Hunterdon Central	50.22
44	Voorhees	48.40
45	Middlesex	47.87
46	South Plainfield	47.66
47	Belvidere	47.44
48	Governor Livingston	46.89
49	Roselle Park	46.09
50	Perth Amboy	45.89
51	Carteret	44.85
52	Dayton	44.72
53	Roselle	43.88
54	JFK	43.35
55	Johnson	42.00
56	Spotswood	28.52
57	JP Stevens	25.60
58	Metuchen	25.47
59	Dunellen	22.92
60	Highland Park	13.46