DIII Men Rankings #1-#243

[admin]

We'll use this list as the platform for the DIII Men's 2019 Rankings. Though not intuitively obvious, where your team falls is less important than where the teams on your schedule fall. Also, just above the list is a broad brush-stroked explanation of how the 2019 Rankings System will work.

PS I have to say, working on this list has made me giddy for the upcoming season.

[FannOLax]

Pre-season D3 rankings are so difficult, and every year the regular season brings surprises. Looking at the rankings just posted, I'd guess that in 2019 the Washington & Lee Generals will prove themselves better than #13. Also, it is VERY ambitious to rank 243 teams! I'd guess that #131 Plattsburgh is considerably better than #129 Heidelberg, but again, very ambitious to rank all D3 teams.

[admin]

Agreed. Not a simple task but, for reasons beyond reason, I feel compelled to do it.

I don't think we should even try to create an accurate 2019 Preseason list. Too subjective. And, by Week Two, possibly even Week One if there are meaningful games, it gets sorted out on it's own. I think just starting where we left off in 2018 makes more sense.

Similarly, for the hair-splitting of whether a team should be at #100 with 673 Points or #103 with 663 Points, it's not worth it. Keep in mind, when a team beats this #100 or #103 team, the Point difference for the winning team is 1 Point. (The #1 team at the end of the season will very likely have close to 2,000 Points. i.e. 1 Point is not a lot.) Plus, that 1 Point is only 1 Point if the team playing this Team #100 or #103 is also #100, 101, 102, etc. Points. Bottomline, the teams need to be about right. Doesn't need to be perfect. then, as the season progresses, the System corrects itself.

[thatsmell]

An interesting take. I have ranked d3 teams before and it’s hard enough doing 30 or so.
I saw a few oddballs that stood out to me outside of the top 20, but I’ll keep those to myself...



For now!

[richard]

C'mon Smelly you can do it. Subjective is good, it creates talk. Gotta like the E8 picks. St JF up there and Wick at 52 right alongside NESCACer Bowdoin. Naz at 176? Oh how the mighty have fallen.

[MrLax2U]

I think CNU is going to make another run this year. The program is on the upswing and they have a serious young coach. I think they run the table except for the Gulls who will be ready for their intermittent zone. York and their ODAC foes are obstacles so we"ll see.

Aurora will be interesting to watch w/o young Berkman at the helm although with his players. Wish them well.

Caravana and rival OWU always in the mix. Predictions?

Expect Tufts in the North unless the PC police derail them. Several years ago I read the Taliban spokesman had enrolled at Yale. Not sure what happened to that gentleman but if he lands at a NESCAC school as AD, expect some fireworks.

[Matnum PI]

The Top 20 is good. And, come 2019, it'll be even better because we'll have numbers to explain why OWU is #7 while Middlebury is #6. We might say, Winning 10% of the opponent Points is too little or losing 20% of your Points for a loss is too much (and, for what it's worth, it's easy to change both though, obviously, doing this mid-season is kind of fishy, maybe, we'll see) but at least we'll know why OWU and M'bury are where they are.

Smell, The Top 100 is unquestionably created with a very dull tool. The point of #21-#243 is to get teams at least close to where they should be. Truth be told, we could use the 10% Ante System, like we use for the Top 20, for every team... as long as someone will type the Ws and Ls into a spreadsheet. For me to do it for 243 teams (and that's just D3 Men) is arduous. For someone to do it for the NECC Conference and post or send it to me is a piece of cake. The NESCACs, Centennials, Liberty, etc. will be easy to cover. Heck, I'll do those. I'm looking them up anyway. It's the rest that I'm hopeful will jump from the mediocre ranking system to the far better one. Hopefully people will step up. I'll be surprised if they don't.

[thatsmell]

Oh, I get it! Rough guess estimate, let the results speak for themselves.
It's a great start. Believe me. I can appreciate how hard it is to throw that first ranking out there.

But the D3 game always favors the experienced programs that get ranked early season based upon nothing but past results. Unfortunately, that's the norm given as many teams and upsets you have in D3.
Power conferences, particularly those with many preseason high ranked teams that ultimately eat eachother alive, will benefit, again because they have a bigger pool of points to start with.
Such is life, I guess. I get the blanket 10% thing. I am just looking for a way to give extra bonuses for the huge upsets and penalize the bad losses.
Would it help/hurt to gIve/take a percent that correlates to the margin betwewen the two team's rankings?

Say you get/give 10% for beating /losing to a team 24 ranking spots above or below you. But you get/give 20% for beating a team 48 spots above or below?
I'm not a math guy, and there may be etter ways to tweak the formula like margin of win/loss. Additionally, this might totally screw up an algorythm, that ISNT't broken to begin with.
Just throwing it out there and pulling a thread...

[PurpleReign]

Admin- can the link in post one be fixed? Looking for a the rankings similar to the old LaxPower. Thanks!