For the second week in a row, St. Joseph-Metuchen leads the Big Central Power Rankings, with Phillipsburg right behind them, but some other teams made some moves.
New Providence – still unbeaten – continues to climb, hopping over Somerville and Old Bridge – now in fourth and fifth, respectively – into third place.
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.
Ridge edged up to six, while Montgomery pulled into seventh with a win at Sayreville. Bernards went from eleven to eight, with Colonia climbing ten spots to ninth and St. Thomas Aquinas falling from six to ten.
Statewide, Don Bosco Prep fell to third, despite a win over Seton Hall Prep Saturday night, and the Ironmen dropped below 100, but Bergen Catholic and Winslow both topped that mark this week, and take to No. 1 and No. 2 spots, respectively.
Of the Big Central teams, St. Joseph-Metuchen – which made its debut last week at No. 18 – climbs to 14th, while Phillipsburg jumps from 25 to 19. New Providence and Somerville are No. 33 and No. 35 in the state, but out of the 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.
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.
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