NCAA rankings (courtesy of the Wisc. State Journal, 3-10-92) Pts Prev 1. Maine 60 1 2. Minnesota 56 2 3. Michigan 52 3 4. Lake Superior St. 48 6 5. Michigan St. 42 4 6. Wisconsin 41 7 7. Boston University 34 5 8. New Hampshire 32 9 9. Northern Michigan 29 8 10. St. Lawrence 26 10 11. Providence 20 12 12. Alaska-Anchorage 13 15 13. Clarkson 12 14 14. Harvard 7 11 15. Western Michigan 5 13 ---------------------------------------------------------------- It is interesting to compare this ranking with the ranking from the RPICH that Erik Biever was so kind as to post. The RPICH top 15 follows with a few more comments. Opp OppOpp G W L T Win% Win% Win% RPICH 1 Maine 32 27- 3- 2 .8750 .5028 .5066 .5788 2 Minnesota 38 30- 8- 0 .7895 .5339 .5127 .5765 3 Michigan 38 28- 7- 3 .7763 .5270 .5176 .5731 4 Lake Superior 34 21- 9- 4 .6765 .5321 .5223 .5570 5 Michigan State 36 19- 9- 8 .6389 .5385 .5219 .5520 6 Boston University 33 21- 8- 4 .6970 .5039 .5155 .5472 7 Alaska-Anchorage 29 21- 7- 1 .7414 .5086 .4791 .5433 8 Wisconsin 34 21-11- 2 .6471 .5176 .5123 .5414 9 Providence 35 21-12- 2 .6286 .5151 .5151 .5378 10 New Hampshire 34 21-11- 2 .6471 .5214 .4989 .5375 11 Northern Michigan 36 20-13- 3 .5972 .5190 .5142 .5327 12 St Lawrence 29 20- 8- 1 .7069 .4726 .4914 .5270 13 Western Michigan 34 16-12- 6 .5588 .5122 .5183 .5240 14 Harvard 27 14- 7- 6 .6296 .5054 .4865 .5227 15 Clarkson 29 20- 8- 1 .7069 .4552 .4914 .5200 The first 5 teams agree in the NCAA poll and the RPICH ranking. After that things start to differ but the same 15 are in each of the rankings. ------------------------------------------------------------------- I calculated the means and standard deviations for the three components of RPICH for the four leagues and the independents. The standard deviations don't say a lot. They small standard deviations for OppOpp Win% reflect the very small differences within the conferences for this variable. Opp Win% varies much more within the conferences. Two teams with unusually high (compared to other teams) Opp Win% are UMass-Lowell(.5824) and Boston College(.5539) Following them are a number of teams in the .5200-.5385 range. As far as an individual team's strength of schedule goes, there is not much a team can do about OppOpp Win%. All teams in a league are going to have essentially the same percentage. Teams can improve their own Win% (that's pretty obvious, eh) and improve their Opp Win% by scheduling tough nonconference opponents(at the risk of droping their Win%). Variable Win% Opp Win% OppOpp Win% MEAN STD DEV MEAN STD DEV MEAN STD DEV CCHA 0.52253 0.15299 0.52353 0.00989 0.51923 0.00254 WCHA 0.50513 0.15256 0.51384 0.01590 0.51279 0.00227 HE 0.54825 0.19256 0.52207 0.03331 0.50620 0.00626 ECAC 0.48176 0.19216 0.48026 0.01938 0.48277 0.00505 Indep. 0.37120 0.21183 0.43773 0.04169 0.46914 0.00909 ALL 0.48921 0.18133 0.49645 0.03902 0.49811 0.01926 ------- mark grassl [log in to unmask] Lutefisk, Lutefisk, Lefse, Lefse, We're from Wisconsin, Ya'sure ya'betcha. ----modified high school cheer