A look at the Week 6 UPR standings has Union currently occupying one of the top two positions, meaning if they season ended today, they would get the top seed in either the North 1 or North 2 section.
But it remains to be seen if they’ll hold on to it, and it may be out of their control.
While the Farmers sit second overall in the supersection, the teams right above and below them – East Orange and Clifton, respectively – both have yet to play multipliers, while Union has already played theirs, St. Joseph.
Should all three teams win out – factoring in no other games – Union could very well end up with the overall number one seed. But there could be a scenario where they fall to third, depending on what other teams do.
Right now East Orange – which plays at Pope John Saturday – is ranked first in power points. Union is ranked second. Clifton is fifth, with Delbarton at home next weekend. Wins against those multipliers would give those teams 42 power points, a huge boost to their current power point averages (19.4 for East Orange, 16.83 for Clifton).
The fourth and fifth teams in the power point standings – Passaic Tech and West Orange – also have already played their multipliers.
The point is: there are still three more weeks to play, and nothing is set in stone necessarily, even if Union keeps winning.
The rest…
Bridgewater-Raritan currently sits in 7th in the UPR standings, good enough for at least a first-round home game. But with a UPR of 8.2, they have Union City and Westfield right behind them, both at 8.8. Any jump in OSI rank sheds 0.6 UPR points, and could catch Bridgewater.
But here’s the real “catch.” Westfield is ahead of the Panthers by three places in power point rank, behind them by three in OSI rank. But the Blue Devils don’t have to catch them in OSI to get closer. Bridgewater is 5th, Westfield is 8th, but they only have to pass the 7th team to move up, and that’s only from 48.72 to 49.80, which isn’t much.
Likewise, even though Westfield (13.4 avg.) is ahead of Bridgewater in power points already, ranking 10th while B-R is 13th, they just have to pass the 9th place team (Ridgewood, 13.6) and 8th place team (Phillipsburg, 14) to shed 0.8 UPR points and move ahead of Bridgewater.
Confusing? You betcha.
Phillipsburg sits in 12th place currently, and even though there’s three weeks to play, they probably have four games to count, including a forfeit win against Somerville. But they have a tough way, with a road game at Ridge Friday, a home game against out-of-state Capitol Harbor Prep in Connecticut next weekend, and Westfield at home for their finale.
While Gridiron New Jersey has Plainfield at 2-3 in 17th, just 0.2 UPR points out of a playoff spot, we have them 18th. The reason is Morristown, which is in 21st place.
Why would they affect it?
Well, the Colonials are ranked 21 in OSI, in my book. I used the updated Week 5 SI for out of state teams published by Gridiron. For some reason, they haven’t used those yet. They’ll get updated again at the end of the season, so it still may change, but right now I have Morristown 21; Gridiron has them 18. That affects everyone else’s rank, too.
We’re going with what we’ve got for now.
Finally, does Piscataway have a shot? The Chiefs are 0-5. From the way they’ve been playing, probably not. If they could reel off three wins, it’s possible, especially since they have Edison, Sayreville and Hillsborough on the schedule. But the likelihood of a 3-0 finish for a program that’s had a year away from the field and weight room isn’t good.