Dolphin Ratings - College Football

Explanation: Each team is listed with its record, overall score differential, and six ratings. Brief explanations of the ratings follow.

Schedule The number in this column is the effective opponent strength of a team. In other words, they would be expected to have the same record had they played all games against an opponent of this predictive rating at a neutral site. Because this calculation depends on the strength of the team in question, it is not possible to rank schedules using these values.
Standard Ranks teams in an order such that a team is "probably better" than all teams ranked lower than it. This calculation uses margin of victory only for computing a team's opponents strengths; the team's rating itself is computed using only wins, losses, and ties relative to its schedule
Median Likelihood Determines the likely ratings for each team, based on its wins, losses, and ties relative to its schedule. This generally produces the same or similar ratings as the standard ranking.
Predictive Both schedule strength and rating vs. schedule strength are determined considering both the wins and losses and the score differentials. This rating contains none of the biases in the standard rating, but does weight recent games slightly more than past games since those are a better indication of the team's current strength. This rating is the best of the first three for seeing how good teams are, and thus is the best for predicting future results.
Improved RPI Rating The improved RPI formula is similar to the standard RPI, except that the schedule strength is carried out to infinite depth instead of ending with opponents' opponents, thus allows for a better comparison of isolated groups of teams than is given by the standard RPI calculation. It is similar to the simple rating, except that all games are given equal weight.
RPI Rating. Included only because of common real-life usage. The RPI rating has many statistical problems. The football RPI rating is based on the BCS formula, and approximates the schedule, loss, and quality win components.
Pseudo-Poll. A blended ranking based on win-loss and predictive ratings, calibrated to match real-life polls as closely as possible. This gives a rough but unbiased estimate of how typical voters value record vs. impressive wins.
Predictive-Scoring. This value indicates how many points a team would be expected to score if it played an identical team.
Predictive-Offense. This combines the predictive and scoring ratings to measure how many points a team scores. The number is the predictive rating of an opponent against whom the team would be expected to score the league average number of points. This does not necessarily rate a team's offensive abilities, as a fast pace in basketball or big-play defense in football can make a team score more points.
Predictive-Defense. This combines the predictive and scoring ratings to measure how many points a team allows. The number is the predictive rating of an opponent against whom the team would be expected to allow the league average number of points. The same caveat in the predictive-offense rating applies here.

Because these ratings contain no prejudices regarding team or conference strengths, they tend to be quite inaccurate early in the seasons. College football appears to take at least 5 games per team before even remotely reasonable ratings are produced; acceptable ratings are produced with 8 games per team; excellent ratings unfortunately require 14 games per team.

Rankings by division: Overall I-A I-AA II III NAIA KCAC GAC NESCAC

Full Ranking

                                                  STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI     RPI         POLL       OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM                     W  L  T  PF  PA  SCHED  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
Friends                 11  1  0 641 173 -0.791    1  0.202    1 -0.038    1  0.007    1 0.0000    1 0.0000    1 10.409    1  0.168    1 -0.155
Evangel                  8  3  0 355 175 -1.620    3 -1.136    4 -1.182    4 -1.312    1 0.0000    1 0.0000    4  8.123    4 -1.847    2 -0.776
McPherson                8  2  0 458 148 -1.493    2 -1.116    2 -1.158    2 -0.786    1 0.0000    1 0.0000    2  8.401    3 -0.740    3 -0.832
Kansas Wesleyan          7  3  0 283 162 -2.043    5 -1.526    5 -1.649    5 -1.658    1 0.0000    1 0.0000    5  7.187    6 -2.116    4 -1.199
Southwestern KS          8  2  0 531 206 -1.541    4 -1.164    3 -1.177    3 -0.862    1 0.0000    1 0.0000    3  8.366    2 -0.131    5 -1.593
Tabor                    5  5  0 241 244 -2.265    7 -2.225    7 -2.316    7 -2.175    1 0.0000    1 0.0000    7  5.745    8 -2.478    6 -1.871
Ottawa KS                5  5  0 281 306 -2.160    6 -2.027    6 -2.111    6 -2.138    1 0.0000    1 0.0000    6  6.140    5 -1.870    7 -2.405
Bethel KS                2  8  0 138 421 -2.809    9 -3.010    9 -3.207   10 -3.553    1 0.0000    1 0.0000   10  4.297   11 -3.794    8 -3.311
Avila                    1  9  0  90 436 -3.012   11 -3.360   11 -3.678   12 -3.939    1 0.0000    1 0.0000   12  3.324   12 -4.486    9 -3.392
Bethany KS               3  7  0 198 410 -2.829    8 -2.925    8 -3.091    9 -3.236    1 0.0000    1 0.0000    8  4.546    9 -2.999   10 -3.474
TEAM                     W  L  T  PF  PA  SCHED  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
St Mary KS               2  8  0 236 439 -2.580   10 -3.047   10 -3.259    8 -2.998    1 0.0000    1 0.0000    9  4.388    7 -2.381   11 -3.616
Sterling                 1  9  0 159 481 -2.969   12 -3.444   12 -3.805   11 -3.611    1 0.0000    1 0.0000   11  3.425   10 -3.390   12 -3.832


Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference: strength=-2.249 (#1)
                                                  STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI     RPI         POLL       OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM                     W  L  T  PF  PA  SCHED  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
Friends                 11  1  0 641 173 -0.791    1  0.202    1 -0.038    1  0.007    1 0.0000    1 0.0000    1 10.409    1  0.168    1 -0.155
Evangel                  8  3  0 355 175 -1.620    3 -1.136    4 -1.182    4 -1.312    1 0.0000    1 0.0000    4  8.123    4 -1.847    2 -0.776
McPherson                8  2  0 458 148 -1.493    2 -1.116    2 -1.158    2 -0.786    1 0.0000    1 0.0000    2  8.401    3 -0.740    3 -0.832
Kansas Wesleyan          7  3  0 283 162 -2.043    5 -1.526    5 -1.649    5 -1.658    1 0.0000    1 0.0000    5  7.187    6 -2.116    4 -1.199
Southwestern KS          8  2  0 531 206 -1.541    4 -1.164    3 -1.177    3 -0.862    1 0.0000    1 0.0000    3  8.366    2 -0.131    5 -1.593
Tabor                    5  5  0 241 244 -2.265    7 -2.225    7 -2.316    7 -2.175    1 0.0000    1 0.0000    7  5.745    8 -2.478    6 -1.871
Ottawa KS                5  5  0 281 306 -2.160    6 -2.027    6 -2.111    6 -2.138    1 0.0000    1 0.0000    6  6.140    5 -1.870    7 -2.405
Bethel KS                2  8  0 138 421 -2.809    9 -3.010    9 -3.207   10 -3.553    1 0.0000    1 0.0000   10  4.297   11 -3.794    8 -3.311
Avila                    1  9  0  90 436 -3.012   11 -3.360   11 -3.678   12 -3.939    1 0.0000    1 0.0000   12  3.324   12 -4.486    9 -3.392
Bethany KS               3  7  0 198 410 -2.829    8 -2.925    8 -3.091    9 -3.236    1 0.0000    1 0.0000    8  4.546    9 -2.999   10 -3.474
St Mary KS               2  8  0 236 439 -2.580   10 -3.047   10 -3.259    8 -2.998    1 0.0000    1 0.0000    9  4.388    7 -2.381   11 -3.616
Sterling                 1  9  0 159 481 -2.969   12 -3.444   12 -3.805   11 -3.611    1 0.0000    1 0.0000   11  3.425   10 -3.390   12 -3.832

Conference Strengths
CONFERENCE                                                W   L   T   PCT  RNK RATING
Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference                    61  62   0 0.496    1 -2.249

Home field advantage amounts to:
     0.131 points in main ratings
     0.025 points in improved RPI
Average of 6.20 points per score

Predict score:






Team Strength vs. Time Plot:





posted: Sat Jan 10 07:36:27 2026

Back to Dolphin rankings main page.