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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 2528732, member: 289"] The + or - numbers are from my "Against Ranked Teams" post which i linked in the above post. Here is the explanation I provided at the beginning of the ART post, (which I've posted once a week for the entire season as the numbers changed): "This year I will be again charting how teams have done “against ranked teams”, which is something that always comes up at the end of the year when the arguments over who should be in the NCAA tournament start. As usual, this is not meant to end those arguments, just to give those making them something to look at in forming their opinions. This is just one thing to look at. But I think it’s a big thing. I’m going to do it a bit differently this year. The old procedure was that I would first grant teams playing ranked teams a certain number of points based on who they are playing. If you played the #1 team, (I use the AP- writer’s poll for continuity), you get 25 points. If you are playing the #2 team, you get 24 points, etc. down to getting 1 point for playing the #25 team. I call these “schedule points”. Here’s a chart to make it simple: 1-25, 2-24, 3-23, 4-22, 5-21, 6-20, 7-19, 8-18, 9-17, 10-16, 11-15, 12-14, 13-13, 14-12, 15-11, 16-10, 17-9, 18-8, 19-7, 20-6, 21-5, 22-4, 23-3, 24-2, 25-1. (Of course you can always just subtract the ranking from 26. That will work every time.) Then I look at the point differential in the actual game. If you defeated the ranked team, you add the number of points you won by to the schedule points. If you lost to that team, you subtract the margin you lost by from the schedule points. (I call these ‘game’ points.) The difference between this year and last year if that I didn’t count any deficit: if you got to zero, you got zero. This year I’m going to try to record negative points, too, so a team can get full ‘credit’ for a really bad performance." Thus the numbers are the cumulative + or - numbers in each team's games against ranked teams. I figure that's as good a measure as any for how they might do in the tournament. I usually sweat out arguments about how one team's strengths, weaknesses and playing style match up against another's but the results over the years have not been impressive so I went with this approach this year. It will probably do just as well, maybe better and it sure was quicker. [/QUOTE]

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