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There are a few things missing, mainly special teams, strength of schedule and actual wins and losses. Keep in mind I do these with pen and paper so I'm trying to keep it simple but still relevant. True that Washington was swept by Baltimore, but the Stars are #3 in the rankings so it's not like they got swept by Pittsburgh or Charlotte who are much lower.

One flaw I see in my rankings is it favors blowout wins, which is probably why Washington is #1. The Federals scored the most points in the league while giving up the 3rd fewest. However, if you take out penalty yards and turnover ratio, Baltimore and Washington are tied for 2nd with 30 points each. Memphis would be #1 with 22 points and Houston 4th with 41 points.

When I first set this up in my head, I was thinking analytics and that's probably the best use of my rankings. Since points and yards per play are so important in my rankings, you could say Washington didn't live up to their potential as the numbers suggest they should be the best team in the league.

I also have non playoff teams ranked 9th, and 2 tied for 11th. New Orleans can be easily explained as the VooDoo were ranked low during Shavar's tenure, then shot up once Smirt took over. Michigan and (NY) Stars would have been ranked even higher (7th and 8th respectively) if penalties/turnovers weren't a factor.

The main thing I wanted to do with posting these is get people talking and it worked. There is only 1 ranking that really matters, and that's how we all rank after the World Bowl, when the Champion will be the real #1, despite what my rankings say (unless of course Washington wins it all).

Rankings don't matter. It's a nice feature and adds an element to the league. If I went after dy over rankings or CJ it was just as a motivational tool to push myself/get the energy to take them on. CJ, because him and I meet for CF and Finals every single day (we're both like "it's you, again") and dy because I felt he didn't respect me. Rankings are dope but no one in of itself cares on the ranking itself when they get upset. It's competitive fire in pushing themselves; things of that nature.

BTW, I should add that I loved tracking each week as I aimed to rise New Orleans up the rankings and I'd click on it fast.

But what I mean is the # we're at in the rankings has nothing to do with the depth chart or the work in the lab (scouting area for games; our offensive/defensive plays) or what goes down when the sim runs.

So, rankings are just there to create debate like you said or a motivational tool.

It's all cool, I do appreciate the effort involved and trust me I get that it's not an exact science. You have to balance how difficult it is to produce and the time needed to figure it out every other day.

I can just imagine the controversy these rankings would have on real life sports talk radio and I can see Skip Bayless defending the rankings vs Shannon Sharpe and another guest on his show.

I had the same issues in the World Football league and eventually added strength of victory to my equation.

I do agree that point differential and turnover margin are huge factors in determining the strength of a team along with yardage for and against.

It's an interesting debate. I'm sure the Baltimore fans are feeling pretty disrespected right about now and hopefully we see a Baltimore/Washington rematch.