RPR Format
Purpose: To rate FBS teams for a season, with intention of rating seasons from 1936 to present. The teams rated are determined by their inclusion in the FBS or the previous equivalent incarnations dating back to the NCAA starting divisions. Prior to that, teams will be determined based on the work of James Howell (whose work has generally carried over to many other rating systems that rate FBS football teams)
Premise of Rating & Components: Rating = Performance + Strength of Schedule. Performance is based on two components – Win Percentage and Score Ratio. For display purposes only, all values are rounded off to 4 decimal places after calculations have been completed.
Win Percentage (WP) – 25%
Calculated as number of wins divided by number of games played. Calculated based on on-field results (meaning records aren’t adjusted for forfeits/vacated games)
Ties (prior to 1996) – 1/2 win, 1/2 loss
Strength of Schedule (SOS) – 50%
SOS = 2/3*OWP + 1/3*OOWP
OWP: Opponent’s win percentage independent of team
OOWP: Opponent’s opponents’ win percentage independent of team’s opponents
No weighted adjustments for game location. Teams are only counted once, meaning if two teams play twice in a season, their OWP and OOWP aren’t counted a 2nd time in the calculation. For non-FBS opponents, only games by those teams against FBS competition are factored into the SOS calculation.
Score Ratio (SR) – 25%
Percentage of a team’s points scored against total points scored in their games.
Rating = 25% WP + 50% SOS + 25% SR. Teams are rated from highest value to lowest value.
Co-championship Consideration: Similar to the late David Rothman’s FACT ratings, I will further examine my ratings to determine potential co-champions for a season. Co-champions will be determined on a discretionary basis based on the following:
1) A co-championship consideration threshold (CCT) will be calculated based on a difference in the highest & lowest ratings divided by the number of teams that would be in top 10% (rounded to nearest whole number)
2) Any team within the CCT rating cutoff will be evaluated against the top-rated team to determine suitability of being declared co-champion with consideration of the following factors:
* Tied with or surpassing the top rated team in any of the 3 rating components
* Head to head results between teams within the threshold
* Other relevant factors, such as forfeits/vacated games, transitive wins, results against common opponents, number of non-FBS opponents, etc.
If teams are declared co-champions, their ratings will be averaged together for an adjusted rating to reflect co-championship status.