Phillipsburg edges up in NJ Power Rankings while Big Central Top Ten sees shuffle

Phillipsburg continues to be the dominant team in the Big Central Conference, still at No. this week in the Week Four Big Central Conference Power Rankings.

But while the Stateliners remain in the state Top Ten, and atop the league rankings, many other Big Central teams shuffled around, and there’s a new No. 1 statewide.

The power rankings are simply based on the state’s Strength Index formula, which helps determine a team’s OSI, which is 60% of the UPR playoff formula. SI values and will change each week as games are played. See methodology at the bottom of this page.

In the league, the top two remained the same with Phillipsburg followed by St. Thomas Aquinas, but Somerville dropped from third to fifth and Bernards went from four to eight, even though both won, just against weaker opponents. New Providence gained a spot to fourth, St. Joseph-Metuchen moved up three spots to third. Old Bridge and Ridge each went up one spot, while a loss by Bridgewater-Raritan knocked the Panthers out of the league top ten, and Woodbridge won, but over 1-4 Linden, dropping them from ten to 15. Rahway and Manville – the second of which is 5-0 – joined the Top Ten.

Statewide, Bergen Catholic’s showdown loss to Don Bosco Prep allowed Glassboro to take over the No. 1 spot, with the Crusaders moving down to two. Washington Township won, but dropped two places to fifth, with DePaul – a winner over 1-4 Paramus Catholic – suffered a similar fate dropping from five to seven. Don Bosco went from four to three. Winslow Twp. joined the Top Five at No. 4

From the Big Central, Phillipsburg moved from nine to eight.

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.

Out-of-State Opponent SI: Strength Index ratings for non-New Jersey teams are calculated by finding their MaxPreps national ranking, then averaging the SI ratings of the next New Jersey team above and below them in the MaxPreps rankings.