Sports related sites will often show a team’s last 10 games as a record or simply as “streak”, as in how many games in a row a team has either won or lost. With these images it is easy to see at a glance exactly what that record or streak really means. What if, for example, a team’s streak is “lost 1”? That tells very little about how that team performed before that loss. Were they undefeated? Maybe the team is streaky and they win a game then lose a game. In this case, a blue tick going upwards indicates a win and a red tick going downwards indicates a loss.

The TSR (Team Strength Ratings) is a method of ranking the NCAA Division 1 basketball teams. It was created by Bracketizer.com to as an aid for picking winners of the NCAA Tournament brackets.

The RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) is a method of ranking the NCAA Division 1 basketball teams. It was created by the NCAA as a means to supplement the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee choose which teams receive at-large bids to the tournament after the automatic bids have been filled and to help determine seed numbers in the tournament.

The RPI was originally calculated as a weighted average of a team’s winning percentage (WP), that team’s opponents’ winning percentage (OWP) and that team’s opponents’ opponents’ winning percentage (OOWP). The WP component only includes games played against other division 1 teams. The ratio is weighted as follows:

RPI = (0.25 * WP) + (0.5 * OWP) + (0.25 * OOWP)

The formula was changed for the 2004-2005 season to include adjustments to the WP portion that weights home/neutral/road games differently. That formula looks like this:

Wins = ((1.4 * road wins) + (neutral wins) + (0.6 * home wins))
Losses = ((1.4 * home losses) + (neutral losses) + (0.6 * road losses))

For example, if a team’s overall record is (22-12) their adjusted win percentage would be calculated as follows:

Wins = 17.2 = ((1.4 * 4) + (2) + (0.6 * 16))
Losses = 10.4 = ((1.4 * 2) + (4) + (0.6 * 6))
Adjusted Win Percentage = 0.6232 = Wins / (Wins + Losses)
Adjusted RPI = (0.25 * AWP) + (0.5 * OWP) + (0.25 * OOWP)

Bracketizer.com calculates both methods of the RPI and both methods are shown on the rankings page.

The SOS (Strength of Schedule) is a method of determining the difficulty of a team’s schedule. It was created by the NCAA to supplement the selection and seeding of the NCAA Tournament.

The SOS is calculated similarly to the RPI (see RPI above). It uses only the OWP and OOWP components in a ratio of 2/3 and 1/3 as shown in the example below:

SOS = (((2/3) * OWP) + ((1/3) * OOWP)))

During the early part of the season teams haven’t played enough games to accurately calculate the rankings. Around the tenth game of the season the anomalies go away and the rankings become more accurate.

Bracketizer.com feels that the TSR created here is superior to other rankings. In particular, the TSR rankings give more credit to those teams that play in the so-called “Mid-Major” conferences and not favoring teams that come from the “Power Conferences”. For example, in the 2006-2007 season, Southern Illinois, Virginia Commonwealth, UNLV, Drexel, Creighton, Davidson, Butler, and Old Dominion all show up in the Bracketizer.com TSR top 25. Of those teams only UNLV makes an appearance in the RPI top 25. Seven of those eight teams made it to the NCAA tournament with four making it to the second round and three making it to the Sweet Sixteen.

The rankings are updated daily during the season, usually in the morning. Because of issues beyond my control the rankings sometimes are not updated until later in the morning. If you visit the site during the season and the rankings aren't updated yet please check back later.