Playoff Rankings by Conference

[Bisonator]

OK...Using your proposed single measure of relative conference strength...first, I think it would be necessary to define 'cumulative.' Over how many years? What if conferences changed teams in any way during the time period you propose? What if the conference rules have changed over the selected time period to allow greater numbers of scholarships over that time? How do you account for those things? As to 'sample size,' using your proposed single measure, the longer you 'reach back,' the larger the sample size would be, BUT also the chances of the issues I raised above coming into the sample size, thereby, possibly, skewing the results, also increase. Also, the further back you 'reach,' the more the analysis becomes a lagging metric - more an indicator of past performance than current strength.

Relying on a single metric or too heavily on historical data will, IMHO, yield rankings which are determined too narrowly and/or too 'dated' to be completely valid. If the CFB Playoff Committee took this approach, we might have Michigan, Notre Dame, Yale, and Texas in this year's playoff... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._teams_by_wins - GO ELI's!!!

You can only go with a single season. By cumulative OOC results I am talking all OOC games played during a season rather then the small sample size of the playoffs.

[PAllen]

How does showing that playoff teams from conference A are clearly better than last place teams from conference B show that conference A is better than conference B? I would say that this year the PL was comparable to the CAA. That said, this was a terrible year for the PL, so that's quite a surprise. In years to come, the PL might surpass the CAA, but I doubt it. All the more reason why you should judge teams by what they do on the field in any given year, not what they or their conference mates have done in previous years.

[UNIFanSince1983]

How does showing that playoff teams from conference A are clearly better than last place teams from conference B show that conference A is better than conference B? I would say that this year the PL was comparable to the CAA. That said, this was a terrible year for the PL, so that's quite a surprise. In years to come, the PL might surpass the CAA, but I doubt it. All the more reason why you should judge teams by what they do on the field in any given year, not what they or their conference mates have done in previous years.

I think that was my point. He was saying that the PL was better than the CAA simply because Colgate beat UNH and JMU. Well that is the same as just comparing the top teams in two conferences. Say JSU were to beat NDSU does that make the OVC better than the MVFC? Or does that just mean that JSU was better than NDSU?

[UNIFanSince1983]

The playoffs are good for determining the best team not necessarily the best conference as a whole.

[PAllen]

The playoffs are good for determining the best team not necessarily the best conference as a whole.

Absolutely. The playoffs can't be the measuring stick used to compare conferences as a whole. Only the best team/teams in a conference are represented. Holy Cross or Lafayette would have been killed by JMU (especially with Lee healthy), but I'd have liked their chances against URI or Elon.

[NDSUtk]

I also looked at your stats and started dividing out how many games each respective conference averaged. So if you had 5 games with 2 teams, you averaged 2.5 games per team from your conference. Is it any better than raw winning percentage? Probably not. Just another way to slice that data.

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[FUBeAR]

He was saying that the PL was better than the CAA simply because Colgate beat UNH and JMU.

I assume by "he" that you meant me. I did nothing of the sort. I asked you (and others) to think about whether or not that is such a ridiculous idea - that maybe the top 2 or 3 teams in the PL are as good or better than the top 4 or 5 in the CAA.

I don't really care which conference we fans 'say' is better than the other. I do care about equity in the selection process for at large playoff berths. I do wonder if the 4th team from the CAA, the 5th team from the MVFC, and the 3rd team from the Big Sky were truly more deserving of those berths than 3rd & 4th place teams from other conferences or was there some historical or relational bias that came into play in those selections. I don't know the answer to those questions because I barely saw any of those teams play. Many members of this board did though & have much better informed opinions than I. I'm just putting 1 set of relative results 'out there' and learning from the discussion around those results.

[Lehigh'98]

Like the Patriot is now better then the CAA and Big Sky?

You are what your record says you are....in the playoffs

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Next year will be interesting between the PL and CAA. The PL finally has four scholarship classes so the transition is complete. There's some big early season games, Colgate-Richmond, HC-UNH and Lehigh-Villanova. Those 3 contests could go a long way towards perception and playoff positioning.