NIRA D-I Power Ratings Are Out

09.17.2024

The NIRA Power Ratings are out now and at first glance there aren't too many surprises.

The Power Ratings for the NCAA Women's D-I programs is what replaces straight standings and serves to compensate for the fact that the season isn't a straight round-robin.

The Ratings take into account strength of opponent, give a slight penalty for blowouts by more than 65, and factors in defensive performance, too. As we said in our article explaining all of this a tear ago:

1. Winning teams see their points scored in games capped at 65. So scoring more than that doesn’t help you. In fact, it hurts you, because points allowed is NOT capped, so a massive blowout only serves to undercut your strength of schedule. This is a metric that is fully supported by athletic directors within NIRA.

2. Points Per Game and Point Allowed Per Game are measured against the league, and those ratings combine to make the Team Rating.

3. An adjusted winning percentage takes into account the strength of the team you play. Normally you win a game it’s a win and you lose a game and it’s a loss. In this formula, if you beat a very strong team it’s more than a one win, and if you beat a team that’s struggling it’s less than a single win.

Conversely, if you’re not rated highly, a loss to a leading team won’t hurt you so badly.

4. That adjusted winning percentage and the Team Rating factor into the Power Rating.

Now, if we were to just run the standings based on wins and losses, we'd have a standings like this:

Using Straight Won-Loss	W	L	T	PF	PA	PD	Pts
Harvard	2	0	1	151	40	111	10
Dartmouth	2	0	0	142	5	137	8
Brown	1	0	1	41	38	3	6
Sacred Heart	1	1	0	87	25	62	4
West Point	1	1	0	83	49	34	4
Queens of Charlotte	1	1	0	61	31	30	4
Quinnipiac	0	0	2	37	37	0	4
Navy	0	1	0	7	40	-33	0
Princeton	0	2	0	0	160	-160	0
Mount St. Mary's	0	2	0	0	184	-184	0

If we used the Super Rugby bonus points system we'd have this:

Using Bonus Points	W	L	T	PF	PA	PD	BT	BL	Pts
Harvard	2	0	1	151	40	111	2	0	12
Dartmouth	2	0	0	142	5	137	2	0	10
Sacred Heart	1	1	0	87	25	62	1	1	6
Brown	1	0	1	41	38	3	0	0	6
Queens of Charlotte	1	1	0	61	31	30	1	1	6
West Point	1	1	0	83	49	34	1	0	5
Quinnipiac	0	0	2	37	37	0	0	0	4
Navy	0	1	0	7	40	-33	0	0	0
Princeton	0	2	0	0	160	-160	0	0	0
Mount St. Mary's	0	2	0	0	184	-184	0	0	0

But the Power Ratings take into account all of those things that we mentioned. Dartmouth's offensive numbers and their defensive numbers overwhelm the fact that Harvard has played more games. Harvard's tie with Quinnipiac and close win over Sacred Heart, and the fact their 106-0 win over Mount St. Mary's doesn't count as much as beating, say, Brown, puts Dartmouth in 1st.

The bonus point system rewards tries and close losses. So does the Power Ratings system, although it rewards overall points (upto a limit), which is slightly different. So Brown is rated above Sacred Heart, and Quinnipiac gets a boost for tying two strong teams. Here is how the Power Ratings sit right now.

Official NIRA Power Ratings	W	L	T	PF	PF©PG	AtkRt	PA	PAPG	DefRt	PD	TmRt	wW%	PwrRt
Dartmouth	2	0	0	142	57.0	0.679	5	2.5	0.602	137	1.281	0.888	1.085
Harvard	2	0	1	151	36.7	0.566	40	13.3	0.564	111	1.130	0.775	0.953
Brown	1	0	1	41	20.5	0.476	38	19.0	0.545	3	1.021	0.797	0.909
Sacred Heart	1	1	0	87	42.5	0.599	25	12.5	0.567	62	1.166	0.412	0.789
Quinnipiac	0	0	2	37	18.5	0.465	37	18.5	0.546	0	1.011	0.538	0.775
Queens of Charlotte	1	1	0	61	30.5	0.532	31	15.5	0.557	30	1.089	0.447	0.768
West Point	1	1	0	83	35.0	0.557	49	24.5	0.525	34	1.082	0.326	0.704
Navy	0	1	0	7	7.0	0.401	40	40.0	0.471	-33	0.873	0.089	0.481
Princeton	0	2	0	0	0.0	0.362	160	80.0	0.332	-160	0.694	0.224	0.459
Mount St. Mary's	0	2	0	0	0.0	0.362	184	92.0	0.290	-184	0.653	0.106	0.379

Sacred Heart's 25-20 loss to Harvard gets almost as much value as Quinnipiac's tie. And while Quinnipiac's weighted winning percentage is better than that of SHU, Sacred Heart's stronger attack and defense ratings keep them just barely above Quinnipiac and also Queens.

NIRA D-I Power Ratings Are Out

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