Frequently Asked Questions

clublacrosse.org’s rating method are transparent and based upon collective feedback from all stakeholders and the collective wisdom of our advisory board.

These rankings are computed mathematically, with no subjective weighting or human determined values. clublacrosse.org rates teams based upon how well they play against other teams and how good those teams are. These three factors are the NCAA’s rating percentage index  (“RPI”) are 1) 25% Win Percentage (WP) 2) 50% a team’s Strength of Schedule (“SOS”, which is the average win percentage of the teams they play), and 3) 25% the team’s average Opponents SOS (“oSOS”). This is used throughout sports and answers the questions 1) “Does the team win?” 2) “are they playing good competition?” and 3) “are their opponents playing good competition?”.

In general, as teams start getting 8+ games under their belts, the system tends to be very accurate. there are, however, some occasional exceptions.

If a group of teams (i.e. a league) doesn’t play others outside its group, their placement relative to all other teams cannot be accurately determined, but relative to one another it is accurate.  Groups of teams with limited outside play can be inaccurately skewed by the scores of only a few games, which might not be representative of the group’s overall ability. Accuracy significantly increases with more games and more interplay and it makes sense for there to be a minimum number of games before teams are ranked.

Assuming teams have all played enough games against both league and non-league teams, inaccuracies may still exist. teams results are often different depending upon which goalie is in net for a specific game. In this case, the ratings average out the play and may not completely reflect either scenario. missing players, home vs. away, double rostered players are a few other scenarios that could influence the accuracy of the ratings. It’s not an exact science, but the ratings should be used to determine what teams might be good non-league opponents and which bracket of a tournament may be more appropriate.

There are a couple weaknesses to the current system. The first deficiency is with teams that emphasize development in some games. They are “penalized”. That same team may then focus on winning big tournaments and succeed but may never achieve the rating that they “deserve”. Secondly, teams that “come on” in the second half of the season are “penalized” by early poor performances. All games throughout the season count equally and that may not reflect a team’s performance near the end of the season.

While it seems wrong, a team that you have a winning record against can be ranked ahead of you due their SOS and oSOS. It depends on who else your team has played and how well you did as well as who the other team has played and how well they did. In a season of games, there will be some anomalies.

​​Your rating can go down even though your team wins. This can happen for a couple different reasons. First, if your team plays teams that got beaten by everyone, your Strength of Schedule (50% of the weight) would go down.
​
Another scenario has you doing as expected against your opponent, but a large percentage of the teams you played earlier in the season doing unexpectedly bad. This lowers your strength of schedule and would lower your team’s rating. It is almost impossible to guess how much and in what direction your rating will move each week because of the number of factors and teams in the ranking system.

Two additional notes:
During the entire season, new teams continue to be added to the system. Teams rated in the middle of the pack in march may fall 100 spots by the end of the season while improving, simply because the number of teams added to clublacrosse.org increases over time. It might seem more logical to compare your team to others in your league or geographic area and see if your rating improves relative to theirs.

Win Percentage (“WP”) is the percent of games won that season (Sept 1 start). Strength of Schedule (“SOS”) is the average WP of the teams you have played. the Opponents Strength of Schedule (“oSOS”) is the average WP of the teams your competitors have played.

Teams need 1) to play at least 8 games and 2) be from a Club that has been in existence for more than a year 3) have a website with contact information and 4) have multiple divisions. If a Club can only produce one division of players, we do not consider that to be stable enough, as typically the team dissolves in the future.

Players come and go all the time. Ideally it is the Club that does not change. Player changes does not reset ranking criteria..

All known tournaments are included. Playdays do not count.

Absolutely. They are typically the better games. This is the way division/county/state games are treated in High School and we treat them the same.