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Originally posted by dparker

Here are some notes for those of you who do not seem to understand how the AHSFHS Power Ratings work.

The Power Ratings are generated by a computer program I wrote many years ago and have worked over the past 30 years to improve upon it.

The program only looks at one thing to determine which teams are rated higher than others. The program does not know anything about the name of the team on a jersey, how nice the stadium looks, who the head coach is, the condition of the football field, how pretty the cheerleaders are tonight, what classification the opponent is in, what color uniforms the teams are wearing or anything else pertaining to the schools involved.

The only thing the program looks at is how well a team did against an opponent compared to how they were expected to perform.

The program actually does not care if a team wins a game of loses it. No points are awarded for a victory.

If Team A is expected to beat Team B by 10 points and they win the game by 20 then their power rating will go up. If Team A only defeats Team B by one point then their power rating will go down.

It is really a very simple concept in thought but much more complicated in reality. There are several variables the program uses to determine how much Team A will go up or down depending upon the actual score of the game. Home field advantage also plays a role in this too.

So the program does not care if a 3A teams beats a 6A team. It only looks at the facts of the game. Did Team A defeat their opponent by more or less than the predicted spread?

Nothing is manipulated by anyone, including myself, once the season begins. It is all up to the program to determine the Power Ratings after that point.

Often teams are separated by a slim margin. Sometimes as many as five or six teams can be within a single point of each other in the top ten so we see these up and down movements in the Top Ten. A single point is nothing and can be the difference of one touchdown scored or not scored in a game.

The point is that all this is for entertainment and conversation. The games are played on the field. Playoff spots are determined by who wins the most games within their region. The Power Ratings decide nothing. It just gives fans something to talk about during the week and and idea about how their favorite team may perform in an upcoming game.

So let's go have some fun this week. I hope all your teams win.

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David Parker
Administrator
AHSFHS.org

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