• Name
The team name. (Example: Cleveland, Atlanta, Seattle)
• Strength of Schedule
Here is the first of 3 formulas in my Ranking. For this I will just average all of the rankings from www.espn.com of each team’s opponents. Then I will divide this number by five.
Example: Cleveland has played opponents with a ranking of 26, 27, 19, 14, 20, 6, 4, 9, 11, 20, 28, 14, 13, 10, 9 and 1. Then average all of the numbers and you would get 14.4375. Divide this number by five and you get 2.8875, this is Cleveland’s SOS.
• Combined Ranks
This is the second formula included in my Ranking. This also is the easiest formula in my BCS. This is an average of all the rankings of a team by three different rankings. The www.espn.com ranking (comes out on Monday’s,) the www.si.com ranking (comes out on Wednesday’s) and the www.insidehoops.com power ranking (comes out on Monday’s.)
Example: Cleveland is ranked by espn.com on Monday the 12th as the 10th best team. Also, insidehoops.com has Cleveland as the 8th best team on the same day. The si.com ranking from the 7th had Cleveland as the 11th best team. Average all of these rankings and you get the number 9.667.
• Average Game Score
The Average Game Score component to this ranking is very similar to the one that will be appearing in the 2006 College Football Ranking. The only difference is that the Ranking used in this formula is from www.espn.com and not from my previous week’s ranking.
1. A win over a team ranked lower than you
a. The equation:
• {(31 – ROO) * (-5/31)} + {(ROO – ROS) * 0.001}
b. Real life story example (from the first month of the 05-06 season):
• On November 20th, the 22nd ranked Houston Rockets traveled to Indiana to take on the 5th ranked Pacers. The Pacers were heavily favored because the star of the Rockets, Tracy McGrady was out with a strained back. The Indiana defense double teamed the other Rocket superstar, Yao Ming and forced him to miss 13 shots. The Pacers defense also forced 19 turnovers and was able to come up with the win. Final score, Indiana 85 and Houston 74.
c. Real life story example’s equation:
• {(31 – 22) * (-5/31)} + {(22 – 5) * 0.001} = -1.435
2. A win over a team ranked higher than you
a. The equation:
• {(31 - ROO) * (-5/31)} + {(ROO - ROS) * 0.04}
b. Real life story example (from the first month of the 05-06 season):
• On November 12th, the 8th ranked Washington Wizards hosted the defending NBA Champions 1st ranked San Antonio. The Wizards thoroughly dominated the Spurs the entire game and forced Tim Duncan to miss 15 consecutive shots. The Wizards shot 55% from the floor and team leader Gilbert Arenas helped the cause with 43 points including a 30-foot jumper to beat the third quarter buzzer. Final score in this one, Washington 110 and San Antonio 95.
c. Real life story example’s equation:
• {(31 – 1) * (-5/31)} + {(1 - 8) * 0.04} = -5.119
3. A loss to a team ranked higher than you.
a. The equation:
• {ROO * (10/31)} + {(ROO – ROS) * 0.001}
b. Real life story example (from the 2005 season):
• On November 23rd the 11th ranked Denver Nuggets, riding a 4-game-win-streak, traveled to 1st ranked Detroit to take on the defending Eastern Conference Champions. The Pistons, coming off of a 37-point-loss in Dallas, were determined from the beginning and had seven players in double figures in scoring by the end of the night. They led by as many as 31 points and had 36 assists on 43 field goal makes. The Nuggets were obviously overmatched and only led in one statistical category, free throw percentage. Final score in this one, Denver 89 and Detroit 114.
c. Real life story example’s equation:
• {1 * (10/31)} + {(1-11) * -0.001} = 0.313
4. A loss to a team ranked lower than you.
a. The equation:
• {ROO * (10/31)} + {(ROO – ROS) * 0.04}
b. Real life story example (from the 2005 season):
• On November 22nd, the 26th ranked Portland Trailblazers traveled to Memphis to take on the 6th ranked Grizzlies. The Trailblazers, led by Zach Randolph and Darius Miles, jumped out to a 13-point-halftime lead. Reserve guard Juan Dixon scored 20 points off the bench and star forward Randolph grabbed 13 rebounds to help the Trailblazers preserve the lead and win. The Grizzlies were held to only 39% shooting and allowed Dixon to score 9 points in the final 47 seconds to kill their late rally. Final score, Memphis, 87 and Portland 95.
c. Real life story example’s equation:
• {26 * (10/31)} + {(26-6) * 0.04} = 9.187
A team’s AGS is then gathered by averaging their Game Scores for the entire season and then subtracting their Average Margin of Victory divided by 100.
Ohio State’s Example:
Averaged Game Scores = -1.234
Average Margin of Victory = 8.6
-1.234 – (8.6/100)
-1.234 - 0.086 = -1.32
• Losses
This is the total amount of losses divided by 2 for the team at this exact point in the season.
Example: Cleveland is 34-28 through the Sunday games and for the ranking to be coming out on Monday they have 28 losses. This total is then divided by 2 and 14 is added to their score.
• Total
Here is the total of my Ranking’s equation. All you do for this one is add them up. Add up Strength of Schedule plus Combined Ranks plus Average Game Score (which could be a negative number because good teams usually have many more good games than bad games) plus losses. For this total the team with the lowest amount is statistically the best team in the NBA. The ranking will come out weekly on Monday’s throughout the season with the final ranking to come out on Thursday, April 20th immediately after the regular seaso