College Rugby Power Index Powered by Silverbacks Elite Rugby

We unveiled these Power Ratings powered by Silverbacks Elite Rugby lst week and they're back for this week, Week 4 of competition.

SIlverbacks Elite Rugby offers year-round programming and skill development for players and coaches in the Upper Midwest who want to be great. The program provides a high-level training environment with personalized plans for every participant. For more go to silverbacksnation.com.

Now, this is an objective, data-driven rating, unlike Goff Rugby Report's own weekly subjective rankings (go here to see all our rankings). How does it all come together? Here's a little FAQ:

How does the Power Index work?

Precedent for the Index: The World Rugby ranking system was the starting point in developing the Power Index.

Closed System: There are a finite amount of Rating Points. When you beat a team (or draw with a higher rated team), you take some of their points. 

Big Wins > Small Wins: A big win is by a 15+ point margin. Big wins earn teams double the Rating Points vs small wins.

Strength of Schedule Matters: The Index calculates a Rating Point difference for each game. If Team A has a difference of -15 Rating Points, a big win earns them 7.2 Rating Points. If the difference is 0, a big winner earns 3.6 Rating Points. 

Beating Overmatched Opponents: If Team A has a difference of 15+ Rating Points, a win of any magnitude earns them 0 Rating Points.

Home/Away is Considered: The home team receives a +3 Rating Point boost in the difference calculation for each match.

Why are current & former D1A teams most prevalent in rankings?

Historical Data: The Power Index program was able to pull D1A data from USA Rugby’s old CMS. Because of our large sample size, we are reasonably confident about where these teams stand. 

D2: We have seen comments asking about whether D2 teams are being tracked. We have been tracking results since the start of the Fall season. With 40 or so D2 matches being played each of the next few weeks, we expect to have an accurate picture of that division soon!

Who’s not in the Top 40 yet? This week, we felt we had enough data to bring four D1AA/NCR1/NCR2 teams into the Top 40: Bowling Green, Adrian College, Mary Washington, & Kentucky. There are six more similar teams that may be worthy of the Top 40 but we still do not have enough data to feel confident ranking them: Dartmouth, Iowa Central, Mount St. Mary’s, Queens, St. Joseph’s, and Tennessee (we list their data below).

Who is producing the Power Index?

Silverbacks Elite Rugby is a new High-Performance organization based in the Midwest. Their goal is that an athlete’s club/school team + Silverbacks will provide a training environment and resources comparable to what same age-grade athletes have access to in Tier 1 Rugby nations.

To fulfill its mission and vision, Silverbacks is putting on a number of clinics this Fall in Chicago, Effingham (IL), Fond du Lac (WI), Waterloo (IA), and Yorkville (IL). If you want to learn more about their upcoming clinics, check out their Events Page.

Silverbacks created their own analytics program to serve their mission. They used D1A data to test the program’s capabilities. From this test, the foundation for the Power Index and collaboration with Goff Rugby Report was born.

Rank	Change	Prev	School	Comp	Group	Week 4	PREV RAT	CURR RAT	Δ RAT
1	0	1	Lindenwood	D1A	ELITE		97.64	97.64	0
2	0	2	California	D1A	ELITE		97.29	97.29	0
3	0	3	Life	D1A	ELITE		96.94	96.94	0
4	0	4	St. Mary's	D1A	ELITE		95.51	95.51	0
5	0	5	Central Washington	D1A	ELITE		91.68	91.68	0
6	0	6	Arkansas State	D1A	ELITE		86.95	86.95	0
7	0	7	Navy	NCR1	ELITE	Close Win vs Queens	86.47	86.47	0
8	0	8	Arizona	D1A	ELITE		85.5	85.5	0
9	0	9	BYU	D1A	ELITE	Big Win vs Utah Valley	85.06	85.06	0
10	1	11	Army	NCR1	ELITE	Big Win vs St. Bonaventure	81.87	83.37	1.5
11	-1	10	Kutztown	NCR1	ELITE	Close Loss vs Penn State	84.79	81.14	-3.65
12	0	12	Grand Canyon	D1A	ELITE		78.41	78.41	0
13	0	13	Davenport	D1A	ELITE		77.38	77.38	0
14	0	14	UCLA	D1A	ELITE		76.25	76.25	0
15	0	15	Penn State	NCR1	ELITE	Close Win vs Kutztown	72.37	76.02	3.65
16	0	16	Iona	NCR1	ELITE		70.92	70.92	0
17	0	17	Indiana	D1A	ELITE	Big Win vs Illinois	70.74	70.9	0.16
18	0	18	Oklahoma	D1A	ELITE		70.66	70.66	0
19	1	20	Northeastern	NCR1	ELITE	Big Win vs Tufts	69.66	69.66	0
20	1	21	Notre Dame College	NCR1	ELITE	Close Win vs Wheeling	68.98	68.98	0
21	-2	19	St. Bonaventure	NCR1	ELITE	Big Loss vs Army	70.11	68.61	-1.5
22	0	22	Boston College	NCR1	ELITE	Big Win vs UConn	62.29	62.35	0.06
23	0	23	Colorado	D1A	ELITE	Big Win vs Wyoming	62.07	62.07	0
24	1	25	Texas A&M	D1A	ELITE		60.64	60.64	0
25	1	26	Utah Valley	D1A	ELITE	Big Loss vs BYU	59.9	59.9	0
26	UR	Unr	Bowling Green	D1AA	D1	Big Win vs WMU	58.23	59.63	1.4
27	1	28	Ohio State	D1A	ELITE	Big Win vs Michigan	58.22	59.46	1.24
28	UR	Unr	Adrian College	NCR2	D2	Big Win vs CMU	59.42	59.42	0
29	UR	Unr	Mary Washington	NCR1	D1	Big Win vs SVU	55.1	59.4	4.3
30	-3	27	Illinois	D1A	ELITE	Big Loss vs Indiana	59.41	59.25	-0.16
31	0	31	Colorado State	D1A	ELITE	Big Win vs Air Force	55.2	58.88	3.68
32	-3	29	Fairfield	NCR1	ELITE	Close Win vs Umass	56.97	58.61	1.64
33	-9	24	American International	NCR1	ELITE	Big Win vs Albany, Close Loss vs Yale	61.82	55.96	-5.86
34	UR	Unr	Kentucky	D1AA	D1	Big Win vs Alabama	55.78	55.78	0
35	-3	32	Baylor	D1A	ELITE		53.62	53.62	0
36	-2	34	Wisconsin	D1A	ELITE		52.61	52.61	0
37	2	39	Fordham	NCR1	ELITE	Close Win vs Colgate	50.28	51.7	1.42
38	-2	36	North Texas	D1A	ELITE		51.55	51.55	0
39	-1	38	Syracuse	NCR1	ELITE	Big Win vs Cortland	50.38	51.33	0.95
40	-7	33	Massachusettes	NCR1	ELITE	Close Loss vs Fairfield	52.64	51	-1.64
On the Cusp
			Dartmouth	NCR1	D1		65	65	0
			Iowa Central CC	NCR1	D1		65	65	0
			Queens University	NCR1	D1	Close Loss vs Navy	60	60	0
			Mount St. Mary's	NCR1	D1	Big Win vs Maryland	58.12	58.12	0
			Tennessee	D1AA	D1		57.89	57.89	0
			St. Joseph's	NCR1	D1	Big Win vs James Madison	55	55	0