Re: 2009-2010 DI Rutter Computer Rankings Thread
But Minnesota's two losses are against the number 7 team, while Mercyhurst's only loss is to the number 4 team. But Minnesota beat the number 4 team twice. Arrgh! This is why computer rankings are useful because it is able to keep all these levels of comparisons straight and be impartial using the theory developed by a human, who would be going in circles trying to keep it all straight.
What I think would make an interesting visual for each ranking is to create a 33x33 grid, and for each team plot the wins and losses for each opponent. Let's say you color Wins Blue, Ties Purple, and Losses Red. Then for Mercyhurst you plot one blue, one red in Row 1, Column 4 for the Split with UMD, and so on. This will give you a sense of the kind of variance you have in your estimates.
As a preview of what this might look like, this table lists the top 15 teams in the Rutter rankings, and the best win, best win or tie, worst loss or tie, and worst loss for each opponent (forgive my formatting cluelessness)
Team / Best Win / Best W or T / Worst L or T / Worst L
1 Minnesota 4 UMD 4 UMD 14 MSU 7 Wisco
2 Mercyhurst 4 UMD 4 UMD 10 Niagara 4 UMD
3 UNH 9 Northeastern 6 Harvard 13 SLU 5 Clarkson
4 UMD 2 Mercy 2 Mercy 27 RMU 27 RMU
5 Clarkson 3 UNH 3 UNH 28 Vermont 28 Vermont
6 Harvard 13 SLU 3 UNH 15 Princeton 15 Princeton
7 Wisconsin 1 Minnesota 1 Minnesota 27 RMU 27 RMU
8 Cornell 5 Clarkson 5 Clarkson 25 Quinnipiac 13 SLU
9 Northeastern 20 BC 18 Uconn 30 Maine 30 Maine
10 Niagara 8 Cornell 2 Mercy 27 RMU 24 RPI
11 OSU 7 Wisconsin 7 Wisconsin 23 UND 23 UND
12 BU 15 Princeton 3 UNH 30 Maine 26 Providence
13 SLU 8 Cornell 3 UNH 29 Colgate 18 Uconn
14 MSU 4 UMD 4 UMD 23 UND 22 Bemidji
15 Princeton 6 Harvard 6 Harvard 28 Vermont 28 Vermont
You would expect to see a downward trend in all columns. This gives you a sense of how good or bad each team can be. One thing that does stand out is Northeastern is the worst of the top 15 teams by all four measures, so there has to be a ton of variance surrounding that No. 9 ranking.
