FloRating - Team Rankings Release #2

FloRating - Team Rankings Release #2

Oct 5, 2012 by Mitch Kastoff
FloRating - Team Rankings Release #2

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FloRatings previews the Wisconsin adidas Invitational
 

The name on the front of the jersey is more important than the runner who is wearing it. FloRatings has allowed athletes to see their individual ranking among all of the cross country runners in the nation, but there is still more to be analyzed. FloRatings is able to rank every team in the nation based on their performance from the past weekend.

The following links are the rankings and overall FloRatings for all male and female teams that competed during Release #2 of FloRatings.

Imagine if every team competed at the same time on the same course. Since FloRatings is universal, we are able to score the race in respect to the numerical order of an athlete's FloRating. Therefore, if your FloRating from the weekend was higher than anyone else in the country, then you scored one point for your team. We took the top five finishers from each team, compiled the scores, and listed them below.

The list shows both the depth of each squad and where each team ranks on the national scale.

Similar to the USTFCCCA National Cross Country Coaches poll, the team rankings based on the FloRatings are not absolute. The USTFCCCA National poll is calculated from opinion votes from coaches across the nation.

Although a team may have underperformed at a race last weekend, their ranking in the poll may not have dropped as much as expected because that team’s potential outweighs its most recent performance.

The team rankings from FloRatings are impacted by a similar concept. For example, one team may not have run all-out at a meet and their FloRating for that race may be lower. The team ranking is solely based on team’s performance from the last weekend and does not include any other factors such as effort.

The Team Ranking table for both men and women includes six columns. They are labeled Team Rank, Team, Points, Rank (DI), Poll (Adjusted), and Poll. The six categories are explained below:

Team Rank - The place the team would have finished based on the “points” of their top five finishers.

Team - The name of the school (note: This was included after a question was legitimately raised regarding the title of the category).

Points - The “place” the runner would have finished if every team included on the list competed in one meet. FloRatings is based on a universal rating system, so each performance is on the same scale. Therefore, the value of each performance is comparable to one another.

Rank (DI) - Each division one school that competed last weekend was ranked from one to forty.

Poll (Adjusted) - Teams that appeared on the USTFCCCA National poll but did not compete last weekend are omitted in this column. Since there is no available data on teams that did not compete last weekend, they are not included when determining the best DI teams from the weekend.

Poll - The respective USTFCCCA National rankings for DI teams.


Points of interest on the men’s rankings

Most of the change occurs in the middle of the rankings because there is more leeway between runners. There is a general mix of over-performers and underperformers for the teams ranked between ten and twenty in the USTFCCCA National polls.

Division II Adams State had the fifth best team performance of the weekend at the Stanford Invitational. It has been known that this squad has the ability to mix it up with upper echelon division one schools.

Other teams may soon leave obscurity and  emerge as outside contenders for a place at nationals. Most notably is North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who had the 21st best team performance of the weekend, were unranked in the national poll.


Points of interest on the women’s rankings

The women’s team rankings are more haphazard than the men’s rankings. While some schools such as Dartmouth and Yale are closely aligned to their adjusted division one ranking, other schools such as Notre Dame, North Carolina State, and New Mexico, grossly over-performed this past weekend.

Again, there are a number of factors that explain these inconsistencies. Some teams, such as Iowa State, are ranked incredibly low to their respective ranking. That’s because some of their runners did not run all-out. Therefore, their overall team point total was hurt because one or two FloRating points results in a tremendous change in finishing place in the overall results.

One truth of the matter is that the Florida State women had a remarkable weekend. They managed to total 67 points in a field that included 173 teams based on their race at the Notre Dame Invitational.

The men’s side includes 176 teams while the women’s rankings includes 173 team. See where your team ranks based on your performance from last weekend. As championship season soon approaches, remember to keep your teammates close, but keep your competition closer.

 

 

Team Rankings - Women
Team Rankings - Men

Overall Team FloRatings - Women
Overall Team FloRatings - Men