BEVERLY, Mass. – Fans of Endicott College athletics teams may have recently seen a new term floating around "NPI" – short for the NCAA Power Index. The NPI is the NCAA's new model to better determine its postseason tournament field. Here's a breakdown of how the process works.
WHAT IS THE NPI?
The NPI is a system that houses the division's statistical data and objectively applies the selection criteria to the data based on the sport committee's established weighted criteria.
NPI is a combination of the following: winning percentage; strength of schedule; home-away multiplier; quality win bonus; and overtime results (when relevant).
The weight of winning percentage versus strength of schedule is often referred to as one of the "dials" that a sport committee can adjust, placing any subjectivity within the criteria themselves.
For example, a sport committee could set the dials to 30/70; 25/75, etc. Other "dials" a sport committee can also choose to apply are home and away multiplier, quality win bonus (QWB), and overtime win/loss weights. More information and other FAQs about NPI can be found: here.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF THE NPI?
One benefit of the NPI is that all data will be analyzed, and the criteria will be applied objectively to establish the championships field (the at-large berths remaining after AQs are awarded).
Additionally, based on this objective analysis teams will know how they compare against other teams in their region and nationally.
Another benefit of the database is that teams are not penalized for winning a contest that it should win.
For example, in the current system if a strong team plays a weaker team its strength-of-schedule will be negatively impacted even though it won the contest – as it should.
In the selection criteria database, the team that wins a contest against a lesser opponent will not be statistically impacted by winning a contest it should win.
This will greatly benefit stronger teams in weaker conferences.
WHERE CAN I FIND THE RANKINGS?
Data for the NPI can be found: here.
The rankings will update every week based on the previous week's results and other criteria mentioned above.
Current rankings for fall sports include: field hockey (23rd of 164), football (35th of 240), men's soccer (51st of 407), women's soccer (80th of 419), and women's volleyball (40th of 419).
As a reminder, the NPI rankings will better determine at-large bids for teams who do not earn their automatic qualifier for winning their respective conference championship(s).
National rankings from coaches and/or media outlet polls still have no impact on teams' NPI or their being selected to the NCAA Tournament.
Regional rankings will still be published. The top teams from each region will be taken from the database and published by region based on the selection criteria database descending order list.
For example, to establish Region I rankings, the Region I teams will be extracted from the list in the order they appear to fill the established number of ranked teams (i.e., maximum of seven per region).
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