LFN's Lambert Power Rankings, 10/4/2008

[Lehigh Football Nation]

http://lehighfootballnation.blogspot.com/2008/10/lambert-power-rankings-1042008.html

Something new: I created my own formula to rank all the FCS East schools. And this is what came out of it.


It's formula-based and it's not something too difficult for my tiny little head to wrap itself around. Rising up the "Lambert Power Rankings" is easy: win games on your schedule, especially conference games and games vs. Eastern teams. Oh yeah, and play good teams, too: there's a "degree of difficulty" to my power rankings: beat up on patsies and it won't count as much as an FBS win.

[JmuSkinsfan]

Umm. Props for coming up with some kind of system. But. Yeah.

[james_lawfirm]

Where's App? Aren't we in the East?

[BigHouseClosedEnd]

Your math lost me when I saw Central Connecticut above Umass. xoopsx

[Lehigh Football Nation]

For clarification, "East" means schools north of Maryland and east to Pennsylvania - the northeast and the mif-Atlantic states if you will. Virginia schools aren't listed.

[carney2]

No Harvard and no Brown, but a Rhode Island and a Northeastern?!! Yuk!

[BeauFoster]

If strength of schedule is factored in, how does that explain UNH? Notice I'm not advocating others be in that place (ahem JMU...ahem) but really?

[Go...gate]

Interesting, but fair, that you find the PL the weakest autobid conference.

[Franks Tanks]

Interesting, but fair, that you find the PL the weakest autobid conference.

On a related front, have the Lambert Trophy (FBS), Lambert Cup (FCS) and Lambert Bowl (D-III) been discontinued?

Lambert Trophy is-- not sure about the others. Of course they now include all Big East schools is that so Louisville won it a few years ago.

[Go...gate]

Lambert Trophy is-- not sure about the others. Of course they now include all Big East schools is that so Louisville won it a few years ago.

Thanks, Franks Tanks. I was curious after that post, so I looked on Wikipedia and they still exist for FBS, FCS, Division II and III.

[Tribe4SF]

I don't believe they've been discontinued, and the Virginia schools are included.

[brownbear]

No Harvard and no Brown, but a Rhode Island and a Northeastern?!! Yuk!

Rhode Island should be above Brown. They are a better team than us.

[danefan]

Interesting how Hofstra ended up above Albany. They have the same record and Albany beat Hofstra.

How does that happen? Some factor must have too much weight, no?

[Lehigh Football Nation]

Interesting how Hofstra ended up above Albany. They have the same record and Albany beat Hofstra.

How does that happen? Some factor must have too much weight, no?

First, margin of victory isn't a factor in my poll. A MOV poll might have given Hosftra more negatives for getting blown out by JMU. Second, URI (who is a top 10 team in this poll) was beaten by Hofstra, gave Hofstra a lot of points, more than Albany's win over Duquesne.

In any event I think this will be a moot point since as folks have correctly pointed out (notably CSN-info) that the Virginia schools need to be included. The whole thing, then, needs to be recalculated. Hofstra will almost certainly drop out of the Top 10 as a result.

[danefan]

First, margin of victory isn't a factor in my poll. A MOV poll might have given Hosftra more negatives for getting blown out by JMU. Second, URI (who is a top 10 team in this poll) was beaten by Hofstra, gave Hofstra a lot of points, more than Albany's win over Duquesne.

In any event I think this will be a moot point since as folks have correctly pointed out (notably CSN-info) that the Virginia schools need to be included. The whole thing, then, needs to be recalculated. Hofstra will almost certainly drop out of the Top 10 as a result.

Margin of victory not being in definitely skews things, IMO. Probably the reason why CCSU is so high. Only considering that their one loss is to NDSU and not considering that they lost by so much is not really an accurate rating system, IMO.

But I understand not using MOV, as the NCAA doesn't like it.

[andy7171]

Where's App? Aren't we in the East?
What Conference are you in? RRRiiiiigggghhhtt.


For clarification, "East" means schools north of Maryland and east to Pennsylvania - the northeast and the mif-Atlantic states if you will. Virginia schools aren't listed.
Don't you mean Maryland and North? Towson has won three Lambert Cup's during thier D.II years in the mid-80's.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

Don't you mean Maryland and North? Towson has won three Lambert Cup's during thier D.II years in the mid-80's.

Actually I mean Virginia and North. I just finished re-jiggering the Lambert Power Index to include the Virginia teams and James Madison and Richmond now finish 1-2... and New Hampshire now finishes #3.

http://lehighfootballnation.blogspot.com/2008/10/lambert-power-rankings-1042008.html

I promise that I didn't change the formula I used originally...

[danefan]

Actually I mean Virginia and North. I just finished re-jiggering the Lambert Power Index to include the Virginia teams and James Madison and Richmond now finish 1-2... and New Hampshire now finishes #3.

http://lehighfootballnation.blogspot.com/2008/10/lambert-power-rankings-1042008.html

I promise that I didn't change the formula I used originally...

still coming up the same for me. I refreshed too.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

I just took a look at the criteria for the Lambert Cup and noticed that my ranking includes seven schools (Liberty, VMI, and the MEAC schools) that are not eligible for voting in the Lambert Cup. The criteria, I found out, is that a school needs to play more than 50% of their schedule against "Northern Teams", and all seven don't qualify under this criteria.

However, I think that they ought to be included - if you're including JMU, how can you exclude Liberty, who has Stony Brook in their conference, who qualifies? - so I'm going to keep them in my power rankings.

On a broader point, Richmond, JMU, and W&M pose a real problem for something like this. If you exclude them, then the best teams of the CAA don't make it in the poll. If you include them, you really ought to take Liberty, who is in the same state and is what, an hour away from Richmond and is in a conference with Stony Brook, who is included? Then comes the MEAC teams, who only play a "majority-southern" schedule since their leaguemates are more south.

[Dukie95]

I just took a look at the criteria for the Lambert Cup and noticed that my ranking includes seven schools (Liberty, VMI, and the MEAC schools) that are not eligible for voting in the Lambert Cup. The criteria, I found out, is that a school needs to play more than 50% of their schedule against "Northern Teams", and all seven don't qualify under this criteria.

However, I think that they ought to be included - if you're including JMU, how can you exclude Liberty, who has Stony Brook in their conference, who qualifies? - so I'm going to keep them in my power rankings.

On a broader point, Richmond, JMU, and W&M pose a real problem for something like this. If you exclude them, then the best teams of the CAA don't make it in the poll. If you include them, you really ought to take Liberty, who is in the same state and is what, an hour away from Richmond and is in a conference with Stony Brook, who is included? Then comes the MEAC teams, who only play a "majority-southern" schedule since their leaguemates are more south.

Membership isn't really permanent for the VA schools. Now, it just so happens that JMU, WM and UR always play enough games within the CAA that they do qualify every year.

If Liberty, VMI, Hampton or NSU don't qualify then leave them out. They'll be in and out from year to year based on their schedule.

[DFW HOYA]

Lambert Trophy is-- not sure about the others. Of course they now include all Big East schools is that so Louisville won it a few years ago.

The Lambert Trophy/Cup/Award was once restricted to ECAC schools, unless Louisville and Cincinnati somehow joined.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

Membership isn't really permanent for the VA schools. Now, it just so happens that JMU, WM and UR always play enough games within the CAA that they do qualify every year.

If Liberty, VMI, Hampton or NSU don't qualify then leave them out. They'll be in and out from year to year based on their schedule.

Which illustrates something very, very interesting: when ODU and Georgia State join, theoretically these CAA schools may NOT be able to qualify for the Lambert Cup year to year - which also opens up the possibility of one school (say, JMU) being CAA champs, and another school (say, UMass) losing to JMU yet still winning the Lambert Cup.

Also, interestingly, Delaware State last year didn't play a "majority-southern" schedule, so they were not in the Lambert Cup voting. Yet they were clearly in the Top 10 schools for the Eastern region which makes no sense (and, of course, Delaware, the closest school to them geographically, was).

I will keep the "southern-tilting seven" in for now. xthumbsupx

[Go...gate]

The Lambert Trophy/Cup/Award was once restricted to ECAC schools, unless Louisville and Cincinnati somehow joined.

They are now members due to their Big East affiliation.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

I think the power rating got overwritten somewhere in Blogger. Meaning the old picks were still in there. UGH. Anyway, I've restored them:

http://lehighfootballnation.blogspot.com/2008/10/lambert-power-rankings-1042008.html

To be clear:


1. James Madison (CAA, 5-1, 59.5 points)
2. Richmond (CAA, 4-2, 52 points)
3. New Hampshire (CAA, 4-0, 45 points)
4. Villanova (CAA, 4-1, 45 points)
5. Cornell (Ivy, 3-0, 34.5 points)