Conference Rankings:
Teams are ranked first by winning percentage, then by goals allowed per game, then
by goals scored per game.
Class Rankings:
Teams are ranked first by winning percentage, then by goals allowed per game, then
by goals scored per game.
Power Ratings:
Power rankings are based on a computerized rating system which analyzes a team's
performance against other teams in the league.
The IHSLA power rating method is similar to the "Margin of Victory" method
used by LaxPower.com. Unlike the LaxPower ratings, the IHSLA method only considers
play within the league and it ignores games played outside of Illinois. The IHSLA
method employs two adjustments to the standard power rating scheme. The first adjustment
adds a weighting factor to each game based on the opposing team's ranking. This
adjustment rewards teams who play against strong opponents and penalizes teams who
play against weaker opponents. The second adjustment limits goal differentials in
lopsided games to prevent coaches from "running up the score" to gain power rating
points.
The power rating system is designed to roughly predict the difference in scores
between two teams. Theoretically, a team with a power rating of 95 is expected to
defeat a team with a power rating of 92 by three goals on a neutral field. The actual
outcome of such a game may be different depending on many circumstances, but, on
average, the power ratings tend to properly rank teams based on how they performed
against one another. The more games which are played within the league, the more
accurate the power ratings reflect the true performance of the teams and the stronger
the prediction mechanism becomes. Teams with less than four games cannot be accurately
ranked using the power rating system.
The IHSLA does not use power ratings to determine conference champions or state
champions. They are provided purely for informational purposes for the coaches,
players and fans. However, starting in 2013, the IHSLA has decided to use the power
rankings for seeding positions in the IHSLA playoff series.