Phillipsburg head coach Frank Duffy talks to his team after a 42-31 win at St. Joseph-Metuchen on September 28, 2026. (Photo: Marcus Borden)
The playoff standings after Week Five of play in New Jersey have been updated this week to reflect updated out-of-strength SI values.
In the world of the complicated NJ UPR formula the NJSIAA uses for qualification in the high school football state playoffs, out-of-state opponents make things infinitely more complicated.
The UPR formula is made up of 40 percent power point average and 60 percent OSI, or the Opponent Strength Index. While many are familiar with the power point formula – which is relatively simple – OSI is a bit more tricky.
Every team in New Jersey has a Strength Index value that adjusts every time a team plays. Teams go up or down based not necessarily based on a win or a loss, but on the final score in relation to the difference between each teams rating. Then, the winning team gets 100 percent of the opponent SI for a win, 75 percent for a tie, and 50 percent for a loss.
But what do we do with opponents from out of state? The NJSIAA doesn’t track them all year, of course, as you’d have to follow dozens, maybe hundreds of teams.
The formula is this: find the out-of-state (OOS) team and its ranting on MaxPreps. Then go to the New Jersey rankings, and find the first team immediately above and below that number. Then, we find the Strength Index value for the two New Jersey teams and average them.
For example, to find the SI value of a fictional “Team Brooklyn,” we find their rating at 59.7, for example. We look in the New Jersey SI and find “Team Middlesex County” at 59.8 and “Team Burlington County” at 58.7. We then look up their SI values (64.7 for “Middlesex and 47.8 for “Burlington”) and average them, getting 56.3 as a result. That’s the “Team Brooklyn” SI value.
NJ.com, which does the official calculations for the NJSIAA (formerly done by now-defunct Gridrion New Jersey), is required to publish updated values for OOS opponents after Week 2, Week 5 and heading into Week 8, Cutoff Weekend, when all team SI values throughout the state are locked in – but only for qualification purposes. (Numbers are tracked through the end of the season to get the basis for next year’s preseason numbers.)
We’ve tracked down the numbers for OOS opponents of New Jersey public schools only, since we don’t track non-publics, which are seeded by committee, only with power points, OSI and UPR used as a guide, among other factors.
Here they are, listed by NJ school, then their out-of-state opponents.
- Camden: Imhotep Charter (PA), 91.54; Permian (TX), 82.03
- Camden Eastside: Simon Gratz (PA), 70.33
- Hoboken: Dunbar (DC), 71.16
- Millville: Erasmus Hall (NY), 79.53
- Phillipsburg: Parkland (PA), 77.54; Emmaus (PA), 64.96; Freedom-Bethlehem (PA), 83.46
- Ramsey: Suffern (NY), 45.48
- Rumson:-Fair Haven Tottenville (NY), 77.1
- Salem: Ironton (OH), 84.75
- South Hunterdon: New Hope-Solebury (PA): 34.68
- Southern: Belmont Charter (PA), 53.84
- Trenton: Pennsbury (PA), 74.23
- Wayne Hills: Midland Chirstian (TX), 96.29
A quick look at the schedule for the next three weeks on NJ.com shows just one other NJSIAA member public school game against an out-of-state opponent: Hasbrouck Heights of the NJIC taking on Miller Place (NY) at home next Saturday afternoon at 1:00.
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