More Big Central teams will start 2025 in league’s “middle class” than among the elite or struggling

Perhaps showing great parity in the league – or maybe just more teams improving than struggling – almost a full 40 percent of Big Central Conference Football teams reside in the middle third of the state when it comes to Strength Index values heading into the 2025 season.

Strength Index is how the NJSIAA measures the strength of a team, and the strength of a school’s opponents, with that weighing into 60 percent of the state’s UPR playoff formula, with the other 40 percent coming from power points.

Out of 337 teams playing football in the state in 2025, there were 18 BCC teams each in the bottom (teams ranked 1 through 113) and top thirds, (teams 226 through 337) with 23 in the middle third, which includes teams ranked from 114 through 225.

How does that compare with previous years? Last season 23 Big Central teams were in the top third, and 21 in the bottom third, with just 15 in the middle. That means there were more very good and very bad teams than those in the middle.

In 2023, there were 18 in the top third, 20 in the middle, and 21 in the bottom third, signalling a good deal of parity. This year’s numbers tend to show parity, as well.

Who made it out of the bottom third?

There were seven teams that started 2024 in the bottom third and moved up to the middle third. The biggest gains were made by North Hunterdon, Belvidere, South Plainfield and Manville, all of whom climbed more than 100 spots over the course of the year.

The County Seaters made the biggest jump, from No. 291 in the state to 150, a jump of 141 spots. Manville rose 139 places from 299 to 160; North Hunterdon rose 116 places to 164, and South Plainfield 101 spots to 197.

Also moving up to the middle third were Spotswood (+82 to 172), Metuchen (+65 to 180) and Governor Livingston (+29 to 209).

Fourteen teams that started in the bottom third last year remained there at the end. The biggest gainer among them was JFK, which rose 88 points in the statewide rankings, but missed the middle third by 15 spots, coming in at No. 240.

Middle third…

Of the teams that started 2024 in the middle third of the state, six of them – Johnson, South Hunterdon, Colonia, Delaware Valley, Middlesex, Roselle and Edison all stayed put.

Four teams moved up a third. Old Bridge (+113) climbed the most, from 201 to 88 in the state, followed by Rahway (+110, from 199 to 89), New Providence (+76, from 162 to 86) and Cranford (+59, from 135 to 76).

Four also went down, meaning the middle third gained three teams against the bottom. Voorhees,, Roselle Park, South Brunswick and Monroe all dropped into the bottom third last season.

What about the top??

The number of Big Central teams in the top third of the state also got smaller, contributing to the gain by the middle. Nine teams dropped down, while four came in, a net gain of five for the middle third. Sayreville, North Brunswick, Watchung Hills, Carteret, Bridgewater-Raritan, Linden and Union all fell, but stayed in the top 200, landing just 75 spots out of the top third.

And just like the bottom, 14 top-third teams remained in that group, including St. Thomas Aquinas, Phillipsburg, Ridge, Bernards, Westfield, Hillside, Piscataway, Summit, Woodbridge, St. Joseph-Metuchen, Somerville, Plainfield, Hillsborough and Elizabeth.

What does it all mean?

The results here are really more about last year than this year. Those that had better seasons in 2024 than 2023 generally went up, and those that saw a dropoff generally went down. Most seemed to center toward the middle.