Every week this season, Central Jersey Sports Radio will continue to publish the Big Central and New Jersey Power Rankings.
Simply based on the state’s Strength Index formula – which helps determine a team’s OSI, which is 60% of the UPR playoff formula – the rankings will change each week as games are played. See methodology at the bottom of this page.
This week, our rankings have become official, as Gridiron New Jersey – which does official calculations of SI for the NJSIAA – has now begun updating Strength Index each week along with the UPR standings. Our rankings use the official SI calculations. And some of the changes this week are based on the fact that out-of-state opponents are back in the calculation formula for power points and OSI. We had not factored those in previously.
Phillipsburg and St. Thomas Aquinas remain Nos. 1 and 2 in the Big Central, but Bernards drops from third to fifth with a slight fall in SI value, while Ridge and Summit each move up a spot to three and four.
Big Central Conference Power Rankings
Meanwhile, the slight drop by Bernards left them out of the statewide Top 25, but this week Phillipsburg rose a bit. The Stateliners edged up from 12th to 11th, while the Trojans remain at No. 20 in the statewide rankings.
New Jersey Power Rankings – Top 25
Strength Index Methodology: Team A and Team B are compared to find the difference between their rankings, which provides the Expected Result. The margin of the final score is figured in positive or negative terms compared to the Expected Result. The difference is divided by five, and the teams increase or decrease by the resulting number.
Example #1: Team A has an SI value of 80, while Team B has an SI value of 60. The Expected Result is +20 for Team A. When the game is played, Team A wins by 30. That is 10 points higher than the expected result. Than number is divided by 5, meaning Team A increases by 2 (Team A now has an SI of 82) while Team B decreases by 2 (Team B now has an SI of 58).
Example #2: In the same scenario, Team A defeats Team B by 20. That is the same as the Expected Result, no there is no change. Team A remains with an SI value of 80, while Team B retains its 60 SI value.
Example #2: Team A defeats Team B by 10. That is 10 points fewer than the expected result. Divide by 5 to get 2, but in this case, Team A drops by 2 points to 78 (because Team A “underperformed”) while Team B increases by 2 points to 62.
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