NJSIAA to Coaches: Make sure your scores are correct when reporting them

The NJSIAA sent a reminder memo to coaches across New Jersey Tuesday afternoon, emphasizing the importance of correctly reporting scores to Gridiron New Jersey, which is the official calculator of power points, OSI and the UPR rankings that seed the public school playoffs.

The move follows an incorrect score that affected more than a dozen teams.

A copy of the memo – forwarded to coaches by the NJ Football Coaches Association – was obtained by Central Jersey Sports Radio.

The memo says, “Gridiron was recently made aware of an incorrect score on its website from a game on September 30th… the error was identified and reported by a 3rd party. While the score was corrected, it will cause changes to both schools [sic] Strength Index and ultimately the UPR of all opponents.”

On Twitter, @GridironNJ reported that the score being referenced was Northern Highlands’ victory over Ramapo, originally reported as 29-20. The actual score was 29-26.

Not only did that discrepancy affect each team’s Strength Index number, but also the Strength Index of the teams they played the next week, as well as the opponents of all four teams to whom the error had spread.

Essentially, in two weeks, one wrong score led to incorrect OSI values for 16 teams.

The memo went on to remind coaches of the reporting requirement, that final scores must be reported to Gridiron “within 2 hours of the conclusion of each game.” Not doing so will result in a warning the first time, but future violations can result in a $150 fine.