Tag: Strength Index

by Mike Pavlichko

NJSIAA releases official 2026 starting Strength Index Numbers

With a little more than a week to go before the start of the 2026 high school football season in New Jersey, the NJSIAA has released – via its new arrangement with NJ.com that prompted the closure of Gridirion New Jersey in June – the official starting Strength Index numbers for the season.

These differ from the final SI numbers for 2025, where we published our own estimates at the end of the season, which can be found here. However, those are not the starting numbers for 2026. Rather, they will be “centered” toward the generally accepted midpoint of 60. (For example, the average final SI of all teams last year came out to 59.82.)

Here’s how the process works: Each team’s ranking gets “centered” by one-third around a mid-point of 60. Teams above 60 are reduced by one-third of the distance they are from the mid-point (i.e., a team rated 90, which is 30 points higher than 60, would be reduced by 10 and start the year as an 80), while the opposite would happen for teams below 60; their SI value would increase. This is to make the value less reliant on historical data, since – unlike power points – the SI carries over from the previous season.

While we also released our own projected starting SI numbers back in early July, the official numbers differ slightly. Some are only off by a hundredth or thousandth of a point, and may be due to rounding. Others could have results in incorrect consolation scores initially reported to Gridiron New Jersey, or games that may not have been added.

That said, below are the official NJSIAA starting Strength Index numbers for 2026, with teams listed in alphabetical order, in a downloadable PDF format. Central Jersey Sports Radio will post these numbers each week of the season, as they change based on each week’s result.

2026 Starting Strength Index ValuesDownload
by Mike Pavlichko

Winslow’s second straight Group 4 title gives Eagles top Strength Index rating in NJ in 2025

A win in the Group 4 title game over Ramapo makes Winslow Twp. the top-rated New Jersey high school football, according to the Strength Index, a major part of the NJSIAA’s playoff formula.

In Central Jersey Sports Radio’s final unofficial calculations, the Eagles finished the year No. 1, with an SI value of 109.49 points. That’s 4.63 points higher than Don Bosco Prep, which was upset by St. Joseph-Montvale in the Non-Public Group B final, and finished at 104.86; the Green Knights finished at 100.79, seventh statewide.

Non-Public B champion DePaul finished 13th in the state, with a 93.64 rating.

Among the other public schools, Group 1 champ Glassboro came in fifth at 102.29. Group 2 winner Camden checked in at 104.52, in third. Group 3 winner Cedar Creek was at 97.97, finishing tenth, and Washington Township – the Group 5 champ – finished sixth with a 101.64 SI value.

South Jersey public schools swept the Group Finals in 2025.

Before the 2026 season begins, each team’s ranking will be “centered” by one-third around a mid-point of 60. Teams above 60 are reduced by one-third (i.e., a team rated 90, which is 30 points higher than 60, would be reduced by 10 and start the year as an 80), while the opposite would happen for teams below 60; their SI value would increase. This is to make the value less reliant on historical data, since the SI carries over from the previous season.

Here are the final, unofficial, Strength Index ratings for all NJSIAA schools, first by rank, then in alphabetical order, in PDF format.

2025 FINAL STRENGTH INDEX RATINGSDownload
2025 FINAL STRENGTH INDEX RATINGS (alphabetical)Download

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.

by Mike Pavlichko

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.

by Mike Pavlichko

Gridiron New Jersey unveils official 2025 starting Strength Index Numbers

In record time – with six weeks to go before the start of high school football season August 28th – Gridiron New Jersey has come out with the state’s official Strength Index Numbers for 2025.

The Strength Index is what is used to calculate a team’s OSI, with that ranking being 60 percent of a team’s playoff qualification. Power point rankings make up the other 40 percent, and for the second straight year, “group points” are no longer a factor in that calculation.

New this year, the NJSIAA – after awarding the top two teams in each of ten public supersections, two in each group, the top seeds – each section of eight teams will be seeded geographically. The northern most teams will go in North 1 and Central sections, then be ranked accordingly; the rest will go in the North 2 and South sections.

Strength Index is a measure of a team’s strength, based on how it competed against its opponents. All games on a team’s schedule – even the post season – count toward Strength Index, and values go up and down each season.

If Team A with an SI of 60 plays Team B with an SI of 50, Team A is considered 10 points stronger. If Team A wins by 20, it outperformed expectations by 10. That numbers is divided by five, and Team A gets stronger by two points, becoming a 62, while Team B declines by two points and is now a 48.

Alternatively, if Team B won by 10 points, then it outperformed expectations by 20 points. Dividing by five, Team B would add four points to its SI to become a 54, while Team A loses four to become a 56, all suggesting that the teams are closer in strength than their original rankings.

The average of a team’s opponents determines OSI – the Opponent Strength Index – with full points given for a win, or half for a loss. A team that plays eight games, assuming all teams had the same SI of 80, and goes 4-4, would have an OSI of 60.

At the start of each year, in order to limit the influence of past year’s SI values, all teams are centered by one third of the way to 60, which is considered the “midpoint,” an average team. So, a team rated at 90 – which is 30 away from 60 – would be reduced by one-third of 30, or ten points making them a 50 to start the year.

A team rated 30, likewise, would increase by ten, to become a 40.

Below are the full Strength Index numbers in PDF format for all teams in the state of New Jersey, per Gridiron New Jersey – which performs the official calculations for the NJSIAA – as of July 17, 2025. Scroll further down for a list of all Big Central Teams.

Note: If the files below do not appear, you may need to click the Download button to see the PDF version of the file.

2025 STARTING STRENGTH INDEX (statewide for web)Download
2025 STARTING STRENGTH INDEX (BCC for web)Download
by Mike Pavlichko

Who was most improved in the Big Central Conference in 2024? A look at the numbers

One can easily look at the Big Central Conference football standings and compare this year to last to see who was much improved, and who dropped off, but the Strength Index will give you a little more nuance.

Since the NJSIAA’s SI values – which are used to calculate OSI for playoff calculation – compare how teams do against their opponents based not on wins and losses but on the score compared to each team’s rating, the system is a good way to see how teams fared.

After all, a team that might have won just two games one year and three the next might have made more of a jump overall if they got blown out in games the first year, but lost by a touchdown or less the next season.

The biggest jump this year in the Big Central was made by Somerville, both in wins and losses and Strength Index. The Pioneers were 5-5 last year, but finished 12-1 this season, winning the Central Jersey Group 3 title, their first sectional crown since 2017.

That’s a plus-7 in the win column. They also jumped a whopping 28.59 points in Strength Index from 67.01 in the preseason to 95.60 at the end of the year.

Rounding out the top five, the next four teams were Manville, Old Bridge, Rahway and Belvidere. Let’s look at them in order.

Manville was a plus-4 this year, going from 3-7 in Dave Markowitch’s first season to 7-3 this year, with a playoff berth. They gained 16.85 SI points, going from a preseason mark of 43.30 to 60.15 in Strength Index.

Old Bridge flip-flopped their record as well, going from 4-6 to 6-4, and it showed in the Strength Index as well. They Knights climbed 15.33 points from a 56.43 to a 71.76 rating.

Rahway also jumped, going from a 56.65 to a 71.74 Strength Index value. They also flip-flopped their record, from 3-7 to 7-3 from last season to 2024.

And Belvidere improved greatly as well. Just 3-7 last year under head coach Jordan Schreffler, they finished 8-2 this season, although they missed the playoffs with a relatively weak schedule. Still, they didn’t beat those teams last year, but did this year. And they improved from 46.63 to 61.62 in Strength Index, an increase of 14.99 points from last year.

Five other teams saw double digit jumps in SI value: Hillsborough (14.18), Phillipsburg (12.35), St. Thomas Aquinas (12.23), New Providence (11.62), North Hunterdon (11.39) and Cranford (11.19).

Overall, 30 of the 59 teams in the league went up, the other 29 went down. The three biggest drops were all by more than 20 points, including Brearley (-26.92), Dunellen (-27.11) and Roselle Park (27.51).

Here’s a look at the entire Big Central Conference, plus or minus in Strength Index for 2024, from the preseason to the end of the year:

In a longer term view, St. Thomas Aquinas has seen the biggest increase in its SI value since the Strength Index was first used in 2019. After using power points for so many years, the NJSIAA switched to the UPR system in 2018 (60% Born Power Index, 40% power points). The next year, the state adjusted the numbers and called it the Strength Index, using a similar formula to Born’s, but using OSI – a reverse form of the Born Power Index – for playoff calculation.

The Trojans have jumped 53.34 points, by far and away more than any other team since the 2019 preseason. They were 4-6 in 2018 in the final season under Joe Vigilante, and just 2-8 the year before that. Brian Meeney went 4-6, 4-1, and 8-3 in his first three seasons.

Tarig Holman took over after Meeney died suddenly in the spring of 2022, and the Trojans have gone a combined 27-6 since, winning 31 straight Big Central Conference games, a league record.

The next biggest gainers are Metuchen (+26.31), Highland Park (+25.46), Manville (+25.35), Belvidere (+24.22), Plainfield (+23.27) and New Providence (+21.63).

Overall, 17 teams rose by more than 10 points, and 27 overall out of 59 league schools have increased their SI since the 2019 preseason.

Here’s a look at the entire Big Central Conference, plus or minus in Strength Index, from the 2019 preseason to the end of 2024:

by Mike Pavlichko

Gridiron New Jersey releases official 2024 starting Strength Index Numbers

We’re less than a month out from the start of the 2024 high school football season, and Gridiron New Jersey is out with the state’s official 2024 Strength Index numbers.

The Strength Index is what is used to calculate a team’s OSI, with that ranking being 60 percent of a team’s playoff qualification.

Power point ranking makes up the other 40 percent, but OSI is likely to have even more of an impact this year, with recent changes to the power point system. The NJSIAA has removed the “group points” from the power point formula, meaning a win over a Group 5 school won’t garner more points than a win over a Group 1 school.

The change was made in other sports, too, however, the NJSIAA’s football regulations – including changes to the formula – have not officially been published by the association.

Strength Index is a measure of a team’s strength, based on how it competed against its opponents. All games on a team’s schedule – even the post season – count toward Strength Index, and values go up and down each season.

If Team A with an SI of 60 plays Team B with an SI of 50, Team A is considered 10 points stronger. If Team A wins by 20, it outperformed expectations by 10. That numbers is divided by five, and Team A gets stronger by two points, becoming a 62, while Team B declines by two points and is now a 48.

Alternatively, if Team B won by 10 points, then it outperformed expectations by 20 points. Dividing by five, Team B would add four points to its SI to become a 54, while Team A loses four to become a 56, all suggesting that the teams are closer in strength than their original rankings.

The average of a team’s opponents determines OSI – the Opponent Strength Index – with full points given for a win, or half for a loss. A team that plays eight games, assuming all teams had the same SI of 80, and goes 4-4, would have an OSI of 60.

At the start of each year, in order to limit the influence of past year’s SI values, all teams are centered by one third of the way to 60, which is considered the “midpoint,” an average team. So, a team rated at 90 – which is 30 away from 60 – would be reduced by one-third of 30, or ten points making them a 50 to start the year.

A team rated 30, likewise, would increase by ten, to become a 40.

Below are the full Strength Index numbers in PDF format for all teams in the state of New Jersey, per Gridiron New Jersey – which performs the official calculations for the NJSIAA – as of August 1, 2024. Scroll further down for a list of all Big Central Teams.

Note: If the files below do not appear, you may need to click the Download button to see the PDF version of the file.

Download
Download
by Mike Pavlichko

The complicated world of Strength Index and OSI: Why it’s important scores are reported correctly

For years, every team had a power points guru.

No, not someone who could do a slideshow presentation. Power points were – and still are – how the NJSIAA seeds the playoffs in all sports.

But in 2018, after stakeholders from all over the state worked to refine the playoff qualification system, the state added a second metric for football: the Born Power Index. Every team had a rating based on how well they did score-wise – not necessarily win or lose – when compared with the rankings of the two teams.

If one school was rated 14 points higher than another, they would be expected to win that game by a couple of touchdowns. Win by more, you’re considered better and your stock goes up. Don’t meet that expectation? Your rating goes down.

It was good, and probably is the best true determinant of strength of a team, without looking at the players and coaches and game plans themselves. But it rewarded teams for winning by larger margins, and was scrapped after a year.

It’s replacement has stuck around since 2019 – the Strength Index – a similar formula, but now the second metric for playoff seeding is OSI, the Opponent Strength Index. Essentially, the Strength Index values of your opponents are averaged, with teams getting the full value for an opponent they beat, half the value for a loss and 3/4 value for a tie.

But what happens when an incorrect score is reported to Gridiron New Jersey – which makes all the official calculations for the NJSIAA – as happens with surprising, and alarming frequency? Anecdotally, there’s at least one a week, sometimes more.

We saw that example two weeks ago, when Gridiron’s Jon Fass tweeted on October 8th: “In addition to accounting for @GoTigersTHS victory today, UPR standings have been updated to include a couple of scoring corrections as well.”

There have been times I’ve seen three different scores at three different media outlets.

So, one might assume things would be better this week. But no. Again, there was a score correction, but this one back on September ninth.

Gridiron didn’t mention the game, but “several teams” were affected. By our count, there were almost two dozen teams that changed by more than 0.01 in Strength Index.

(We use that threshold because there are often differences in how numbers display, or are truncated or rounded when published. For example, a 60.146 would round to 60.15 but be truncated at 60.14, and it’s unclear which Gridiron uses in the many steps of the mathematical process.)

How are so many teams affected?

Well, let’s say Team A plays Team B on September 9th. If those two SI values are wrong, then when Team A plays Team C on September 16th, and Team B plays Team D that same weekend, all four teams’ numbers will be wrong. It’s the NJSIAA math version of “going viral.”

And the mistake can spread to other conferences two if there’s a non-conference game in there, much like, oh, say, a global pandemic.

The game was in South Jersey, and affected the South Group 2 and South Group 2 supersection standings, mostly. Any other effects were minimal and didn’t affect standings.

Here’s a sampling of the more notable changes:

  • Allentown went from a 70.69 down to a 70.43.
  • Audubon dropped from a 52.18 to a 52.15.
  • Glassboro went from 71.15 to 71.06.
  • Haddon Heights went from a 721.31 to 72.21.
  • Haddonfield rose from 88.87 to 88.99.
  • Paulsboro went from 52.89 to 52.87.
  • Penns Grove dropped from 64.96 to 64.60.
  • Pennsville fell from 50.74 to 50.64.
  • Salem went from a 62.92 to a 62.83.
  • Sterling went up from 27.75 to 27.79.
  • Woodbury dropped from a 78.83 to a 79.31.
  • Woodstown went from a 74.75 to a 74.84.

St. Joseph-Hammonton also moved from a 40.23 to 39.83, in a change that could affect Carteret, which beat the Wildcats 42-12 in Week 1. They now will get 39.83 factored into their average when the playoffs are seeded, instead of 40.23. (SI values are locked this weekend. They’re still tracked throughout the rest of the year, but values won’t change for playoff calculation purposes after this weekend’s games, which makes the process much simpler for all involved.)

Carteret is still in the same spot in the standings, but there’s no guarantee that wouldn’t affect things this weekend.

And Lyndhurst, which may have been affected after playing Cresskill in Week 3, went from a 60.95 to a 60.88. That, of course, affected Park Ridge, which beat Lyndhurst by 19 this weekend, but also had its SI adjusted from 77.58 to 77.39.

All of this could affect countless other schools who may have played them even before the error, since SI values change with every game.

Yes, it’s a wacky world when it comes to Strength Index and OSI.

All the more reason coaches, assistants, managers – whoever reports scores to Gridiron New Jersey, or any other media outlet, for that matter – get them right the first time.

by Mike Pavlichko

How many points is a win worth this weekend? Here are unofficial Strength Index numbers through Week 1 of play

Some teams have played one game, many have played two. It’s still too early in the season to look at playoff standings, but we’ve got a look at the entire state’s Strength Index numbers through Week 1 of play.

Strength Index is what’s used to determine a team’s OSI – Opponent Strength Index – which is 60% of the UPR formula that seeds the state’s playoffs for public schools. A team gets the full SI value of an opponent for a win, half the value for a loss, and they’re averaged out over the season to get the final OSI value.

Strength Index changes with every game played. The winning team goes up or down by 1/5 of the difference between the SI of the two teams, and how they did comparatively.

For example, if Team A rated 80 plays Team B rated 73, the difference is 7 points.

  • If team A wins by 7, the difference is 0, and the values do not change
  • If Team A wins by 12, the difference is 5. Team A goes up 1 to 80, Team B goes down 1 to 72.
  • If Team B wins by 3, the difference is 10. Team B goes up 2 to 75, Team A goes down 2 to 78.

Below is a full list of Central Jersey Sports Radio’s unofficial calculations of the Strength Index for all New Jersey NJSIAA member teams. Note that out of state games are not counted for power points, nor are they considered for SI changes or OSI in playoff seeding.

2023 SI Numbers after Week 1 (for web)Download

by Mike Pavlichko

Gridiron New Jersey unveils 2023 preseason football Strength Index numbers

Gridiron New Jersey – which does all the official calculations of the NJSIAA’s high school football playoff formula – has unveiled its preseason Strength Index numbers for 2023.

The Strength Index is used as part of the playoff formula to calculate OSI, a team’s Opponent Strength Index, which is 60 percent of the overall UPR, or United Power Ranking. Simply put, a team gets the full value of an opponent’s Strength Index for a win, and half the value of a team’s SI if they lose.

Traditional power points make up the other 40 percent of the UPR formula.

Since power points have no real value at the beginning of each season, Strength Index can be a good measure of a team’s strength of schedule, based on past results. Every year, the final SI from the previous season i used as a starting point, but it is reduced by one-third of the way to 60 for every team in either direction.

For example, a team with an SI of 90 would be reduced by 10, which is one-third of 30 (the difference between 60 and 90.) Similarly, a team with a 51 SI would increase to 54, since three is one-third of nine, the distance from 51 to 60.

The top team in the state according to the Strength Index is Bergen Catholic – which finished 2022 at 11-1 and was the Non-Public Group A champion – with an 94.20 SI. Toms River North – the reigning Group 5 champion, checks in with a 91.5 SI value.

The highest-ranked Big Central team is Ridge, which was 7-3 last year with a very challenging schedule. The Red Devils are ranked 11th in the statewide SI, with an 80.33 Strength Index value.

Following are all the Big Central teams, ranked from highest SI value to lowest:

  1. Ridge 80.33
  2. North Hunterdon 76.41
  3. Westfield 75.54
  4. Cranford 75.48
  5. Phillipsburg 75.42
  6. Hillside 74.77
  7. Edison 73.78
  8. St. Thomas Aquinas 72.7
  9. Watchung Hills 72.32
  10. North Brunswick 70.44
  11. Brearley 70.09
  12. Bernards 68.82
  13. Hillsborough 67.4
  14. Roselle 66.22
  15. Montgomery 66.15
  16. Somerville 66
  17. Piscataway 65.88
  18. Plainfield 65.67
  19. Delaware Valley 65.05
  20. Summit 65.03
  21. Manville 64.29
  22. Union 63.56
  23. Hunterdon Central 63.5
  24. Woodbridge 63.18
  25. Linden 62.84
  26. Bridgewater-Raritan 62.82
  27. St. Joseph-Metuchen 62.51
  28. South Hunterdon 62
  29. South Brunswick 61.82
  30. Sayreville 59.96
  31. Colonia 59.93
  32. Johnson 59.17
  33. South Plainfield 57.73
  34. Carteret 57.68
  35. Rahway 57.68
  36. Old Bridge 56.75
  37. East Brunswick 56.48
  38. New Providence 54.89
  39. Scotch Plains-Fanwood 54.14
  40. Elizabeth 53.28
  41. Monroe 52.5
  42. Franklin 52.01
  43. Voorhees 51.36
  44. Perth Amboy 50.79
  45. JFK 49.39
  46. Roselle Park 48.4
  47. Spotswood 47
  48. Middlesex 46.13
  49. New Brunswick 45.85
  50. Dunellen 44.72
  51. Governor Livingston 44.3
  52. Dayton 43.99
  53. South River 43.47
  54. North Plainfield 41.86
  55. Metuchen 39.55
  56. JP Stevens 36.82
  57. Belvidere 36.08
  58. Bound Brook 34.43
  59. Highland Park 30.29

Click here for a PDF document with the Strength Index value of every team in New Jersey, as released by Gridiron New Jersey.

by Mike Pavlichko

Ridge leads Big Central in final 2022 Strength Index rankings

With the 2022 high school football season now complete, the numbers are in: five state sectional finalists and two champions. And who knows what 2023 will bring.

But according to Central Jersey Sports Radio’s unofficial Strength Index calculations, Ridge came in with the highest rating of all 59 teams at the end of the year.

Strength Index doesn’t so much take into account wins and losses. Rather it looks at how a team performed against another team relative to their ratings. A team consistently ranked 30 points lower than its opponents that loses all its games by just a field goal would increase its Strength Index, the thinking being that the team is better than the rankings indicated.

Those numbers would indicate Ridge is a “tough out.” At 7-3, their three losses came by 18 to North 2 Group 5 finalist Phillipsburg, by 10 to Hillsborough (before injuries forced the Raiders into their third-string quarterback), and by seven to North 1 Group 4 finalist Ramapo.

All five teams that ended up in sectional finals finished in the top eleven, with North Hunterdon second, Phillipsburg, Hillside and Edison fifth through seventh, and Brearley at No. 11.

Westfield and Roselle saw the biggest gains, nearly 20 points, from the start of the 2022 season. Westfield was 4-6 a year ago, but finished 8-3 this year. Roselle was 5-6 last year, and started this season 0-4, but didn’t lose the rest of the way, finishing with a strong 8-4 record.

The biggest falls were seen by North Plainfield (-23.85), Belvidere (-27.25) and Bound Brook (-32.43).

Overall, 30 teams increased their SI rating, while 29 saw their Strength Index value fall.

The end-of-year SI values are used to determine next year’s starting numbers, with all teams reduced or increased towards 60, which is considered the mid-point.

For example, a team rated 90 – which is 30 above the midway point of 60 – would see its SI reduced by 10, or one-third of 30, and start next season at 80. Alternatively, a team rated 51 – which is nine points below the midway of 60 – would increase by three points, or one-third of nine, and start next season as a 54.

Those Strength Index numbers – which change throughout the season – are used to calculate the Opponent Strength Index, which is 60% of the NJ UPR formula to determine playoff seeding. Playing strong opponents – not just beating them – helps a team’s OSI.

Knowing the starting values for next year can help leagues create favorable schedules for their teams to make the playoffs, and can help schools know what kind of out-of-conference opponents they shoudl schedule.

The average SI value among Big Central teams in the final unofficial 2022 calculations was 58.1.

Below are the 59 teams in the Big Central, with their starting SI, final SI, and the amount of change:

TEAM2022 STARTFINAL SICHANGE
1Ridge73.7890.3416.56
2North Hunterdon69.4984.4915.00
3Westfield63.3483.2019.86
4Cranford76.2783.116.84
5Phillipsburg72.3383.0210.69
6Hillside68.1282.0413.92
7Edison62.5280.5718.05
8St. Thomas Aquinas72.8478.966.12
9Watchung Hills60.2178.3818.17
10North Brunswick69.0975.586.49
11Brearley61.5375.0513.52
12Bernards66.0673.177.11
13Hillsborough84.8771.05-13.82
14Roselle49.5569.2819.73
15Montgomery60.2369.188.95
16Somerville75.3768.95-6.42
17Piscataway52.0568.7716.72
18Plainfield54.3268.4614.14
19Delaware Valley68.0167.53-0.48
20Summit61.8467.515.67
21Manville48.8466.4017.56
22Union82.2365.32-16.91
23Hunterdon Central54.2565.2210.97
24Woodbridge63.5464.741.20
25Linden59.5264.254.73
26Bridgewater-Raritan66.3564.21-2.14
27St. Joseph-Metuchen63.7763.76-0.01
28South Hunterdon59.3662.993.63
29Sayreville71.8659.94-11.92
30Colonia70.4159.90-10.51
31South Brunswick59.6259.28-0.34
32Johnson42.8658.7615.90
33South Plainfield51.9656.614.65
34Carteret53.0356.543.51
35Rahway65.1156.54-8.57
36Old Bridge61.7855.15-6.63
37East Brunswick65.1954.73-10.46
38New Providence66.8052.38-14.42
39Scotch Plains-Fanwood59.6051.25-8.35
40Elizabeth58.6349.97-8.66
41Monroe53.1548.80-4.35
42Franklin57.3748.07-9.30
43Voorhees48.9247.10-1.82
44Perth Amboy42.4346.263.83
45JFK52.8144.18-8.63
46Roselle Park39.9142.682.77
47Spotswood34.0140.586.57
48Middlesex51.8139.30-12.51
49New Brunswick58.0738.87-19.20
50Dunellen34.5837.202.62
51Governor Livingston44.8036.56-8.24
52Dayton46.5136.11-10.40
53South River47.8535.33-12.52
54North Plainfield56.7832.93-23.85
55Metuchen46.5929.48-17.11
56JP Stevens33.3725.41-7.96
57Belvidere51.5524.30-27.25
58Bound Brook54.2621.83-32.43
59Highland Park26.3215.65-10.67

As for the rest of the state, it’s little surprise who’s at the top of the rankings: the two teams widely considered the best among their peers this season in the non-public and public realms.

Non-Public Group A champion Bergen Catholic finished with the highest Strength Index value in the state, at 111.19. While the Crusaders only gained 15.83 points this year, the next team on the list gained a lot more: Toms River North. The Mariners – the state’s first-ever Group 5 champion, and first-ever 14-0 team in state history – ended the year with a 107.01 SI rating.

Ridge – tops in the BCC – finished 11th overall in the state, with north Hunterdon – second in the BCC – at 29, and Westfield (33rd), Cranford (34th), Phillipsburg (36th), Hillside (40th) and Edison (43rd) all in the Top 50.

The Super Football Conference had seven of its teams in the top ten, while the Shore Conference had two and the West Jersey Football League had one. Six of the top ten were public schools.

Below is a downloadable PDF version of the full Strength Index values – according to Central Jersey Sports Radio’s unofficial calculations – for every team in the state of New Jersey, including starting 2022 SI number, final number, and the amount of change.

FINAL UNOFFICIAL 2022 STRENGTH INDEX VALUESDownload