Weighted Wins NCAA Division I Football Standings

In sports, teams with a .500 winning percentage are considered average teams. Therefore, assigning a weight of 1.00 to a .500 team was the starting point for establishing the Initial Weight.

The Initial Weight (IW) is a reflection of a team's own record against all Division 1-A opponents. The Initial Weight (IW) can be computed at any time during the season; it is an indication of its current record. The IW takes into consideration all games played against Division 1-A teams. During the season, the Initial Weight for any team with the same number of wins and losses would be IW = 1.00. (ie. records of 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, or 5-5 ) A team's IW changes each week as it accumulate wins and losses. At the end of a season, a team with a 6-6 record would have an Initial Weight of 1.00.

A team's IW increases by .01 for each win more than the number of losses, and deceases by .01 for each loss more than the number of wins. For example, a team with a 9-3 record would have an IW of 1.06 (six more wins than losses), while a team with a 3-8 record would have an IW of .95 (five more losses than wins). During the season, a team may have a 4-3 record and have an Initial Weight of 1.01, if this team won the following week, its record would be 5-3 with an IW = 1.02. At any time during the season, the Initial Weight is determined by the games it has played up to that point.

The following tables illustrate the Initial Weight for both eleven and twelve game seasons.

RECORD	IW	RECORD	IW
11-0	1.11	12-0	1.12
10-1	1.09	11-1	1.10
9-2	1.07	10-2	1.08
8-3	1.05	9-3	1.06
7-4	1.03	8-4	1.04
6-5	1.01	7-5	1.02
5-6	0.99	6-6	1.00
4-7	0.97	5-7	0.98
3-8	0.95	4-8	0.96
2-9	0.93	3-9	0.94
1-10	0.91	2-10	0.92
0-11	0.89	1-11	0.90
		0-12	0.88

If a team should happen to play 13 or 14 games, the same process is used. If a team has a 9-4 record, the initial weight would be 1.05, since there were 5 more wins than losses. Counting all wins over Division 1-A teams does not directly benefit the team with the 9-4 record. It only helps determine the weight of that team.

FINAL WEIGHT

After the IW has been established, adjustments are made to develop the Final Weight (FW). As with the Initial Weight, the Final Weight can be determined at any time during the season and only considers the games played up to that point. This enables rankings to be computed after games each week. The adjustments are made only for wins against winning teams and losses to losing teams (See Criteria). Defeating a winning team is considered a sign of strength, and losing to a losing team is considered a sign of weakness. For example, a team with a 10-2 record has defeated teams with records of 11-1, 7-5, 9-3, 8-4, and six losing teams. The losses were both to winning teams. Adjustments to the IW are:

	1.08 (IW or initial weight of team with a 10-2 record) 
	+.10 (for win over 11-1 team, 10 more wins than losses)
	+.02 (for win over 7-5 team, 2 more wins than losses)
	+.06 ((for win over 9-3 team, 6 more wins than losses)
	+.04 (for win over 8-4 team, 4 more wins than losses)
	1.30 (Final Weight for this team)

Since defeating a losing team and losing to a winning team does not affect the Final Weight, the only adjustments to the Initial Weight for the team in this example are illustrated above.

Another example may better illustrate how the Initial Weight of a team decreases by losing to a losing team. A team with a 5-6 record loses to three winning teams, a team with a 4-7 record, a team with a 3-8 record, and a Non-Division 1-A team for a total of six losses. Four of the wins were over losing teams and one over a team with a 6-5 record. Adjustments to the IW are:

	 .99 (IW of team with a 5-6 record)
	-.03 (for loss to 4-7 team, 3 more losses than wins)
	-.05 (for loss to 3-8 team, 5 more losses than wins)
       	-.10 (all losses to Non-Division 1-A teams are -.10)
	+.01 (for win over 6-5 team, 1 more win than losses)
	 .82 (Final Weight for this team)

There are no adjustments for the wins over the losing teams or losses to the winning teams. (See criteria)