St. Joseph-Metuchen vaults into Top 25 of NJ Power Rankings; Phillipsburg stays in, too, but Falcons now lead Big Central rankings

Week 6 of the high school football season has brought us our fourth different team to lead the Big Central Conference Power Rankings.

Somerville led the preseason rankings, followed by St. Thomas Aquinas for two weeks, and it’s been Phillipsburg atop the pile since after Week 2 of play. But this week, St. Joseph-Metuchen – by virtue of its 21-0 win over the Stateliners Saturday – have vaulted to the top of the heap.

Statewide, the Falcons join the Top 25, and Phillipsburg drops, but remains in at No. 25.

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 Big Central, the Falcons and Phillipsburg are followed by Somerville, which gets bumped to third on St. Joe’s rise. New Providence drops from three to five while Old Bridge holds steady at four.

Statewide, Don Bosco Prep maintains the top spot after taking it away from Glassboro last week. They fall to fifth this week. Bergen Catholic hangs in at two, followed by Winslow up a spot to third, and Ramapo jumping from seven to four.

Of the Big Central teams, St. Joseph-Metuchen makes its debut this week at No. 18, with Phillipsburg dropping to No. 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.

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.