(see Composite Rankings tab for the CS360 rankings page – includes a shorter-version "callout" box of the current CNR top-50)
note: this week's updated Composite National Rankings were delayed a bit due to creating the new formula (also, the new Albyn Jones ratings were posted just as CS360 was about to post the new CNR – so, after another delay, the numbers have been "recrunched" and this CNR is totally up-to-date with the five national polls/ratings now factored into the formula)
WEEK-5 UPDATE – CS360'S UPDATED FORMULA FOR THE CNR (9/23/09) – CollegeSoccer360 introduced Composite National Rankings (CNR) in 2008 and has brought this aggregate poll concept back for 2009. Now that the Albyn Jones statistical ratings have begun, the 2009 formula has been expanded to include five different criteria (each weighted equally): the National Soccer Coaches Association (NSCAA) coaches poll, the Soccer America (SA) rankings, the Soccer Times coaches poll (ST), the top-50 in the Top Drawer Soccer NCAA field projection (TDS), and the Albyn Jones statistical-based ratings (AJ). The composite rankings again will be housed on their own page here at CS360 (also posted on the CS360 blog) and gradually will include even more factors, such as official NCAA RPI, other power rankings (i.e. Massey, if available), NCAA Tournament selection criteria, preseason conference polls, etc.
In the latest update of the CS360 Composite National Rankings, Stanford has unseated North Carolina in the #1 spot – with a near-maximum 99.87 points on the CNR 100-point scale – followed by UNC at 99.1. Portland (#2 last week), UCLA and Florida State occupy spots 3-5, with Boston College, California, Wake Forest, Notre Dame and Virginia rounding out the top-10. UCLA (previously #5) moved up two spots, BC dropped down two and FSU bumped up a spot, while WFU and UVa flipped positions. Notre Dame – boosted by a #6 spot in the Albyn Jones – moved up from #11 to #9 in this week's CNR, while Florida dropped out of the top-10 (#9 to #13).
Teams that made the biggest CNR jumps from the previous week include: Kansas (#28 to #16), Ohio State (#35 to #25), Washington (#35 to #29) and Texas A&M (#18 to #12) – while #28 Oregon State is the most noteworthy newcomer to the CNR. Eight teams dropped five spots or more this week in the CNR: Denver (#28 to #46), West Virginia (#21 to #31), Colorado (#33 to #43), USC (#24 to #33), San Diego (#23 to #32), Purdue (#14 to #22), Georgetown (#28 to #35) and Penn State (#34 to #39).
The current CNR top-10 includes five teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference (UNC-FSU-BC-WFU-UVa) and three from the Pacific-10 (Stanford, UCLA, Cal), plus the West Coast Conference's Portland and the BIG EAST's Notre Dame. Projecting out hypothetical #1 seeds for the NCAAs (16 total teams) based on this week's CNR, there would be five ACC, three Pac-10, three from the Southeastern Conference (SC-FL-GA), two WCC (also SCU), two Big-12 (A&M-KU) and ND form the BIG EAST.
Notes on CS360's updated Composite National Rankings formula (created by Pete LaFleur) – The CNR for CollegeSoccer360.com now closely resembles the composite rankings on CS360's sister site, CollegeBaseball360.com. The CNR currently consists of an average of five polls/ratings: the National Soccer Coaches Association (NSCAA) coaches poll, Soccer America (SA), the Soccer Times coaches poll (ST), the top-25 in the Top Drawer Soccer NCAA field projection (TDS), and the Albyn Jones ratings (AJ). The points total listed below are scaled to a 100-point format, for simplicity's sake.
In the raw formula, a #1-ranked team in any of the five polls/ratings typically receives 60 points, the #2 team gets 59, etc. The Soccer America poll is the most basic in this regard, as it has a top-25 and no "also receiving votes" teams." When two or more teams are tied for one spot, they receive an equal share of the combined points for those spots. Thus, two teams tied for 25th are considered in "25.5th" place, while three teams tied for 25th each are considered as 26th-place (as is the case this week in the SA poll, which has three teams in the #25 spot – they each are considered "#26" and then receive 35 pts for the CNR).
Within the CNR formula, teams in the Top Drawer Soccer projection for the NCAA Tournament receive points if they are among the TDS #1-#50 spots (as spots 51-64 typically are projected automatic qualifiers that likely would not earn at-large bids). The same cutoff is used for the Albyn Jones (#1-#50). In the end, each team can receive a maximum of 60 CNR points from each of the five polls/ratings. That total then is divided by five and 40 is added to yield the final score on a convenient 100-point scale.
One final note: three are three polls/ratings that include voting points (NSCAA and Soccer Times) or "rating points" (AJ). The CNR also takes these "points" into consideration when rating the teams. Essentially, a team's ranking-spot AND its point total receive equal value in the CNR formula – thus allowing for the "voting/point margin" to play a role in comparing the teams. A perfect example showing the value of this criteria can be seen in this week's NSCAA poll, with UNC narrowly holding the top spot (809 voting points, to Stanford's 808). Based solely on ranking-spot in the NSCAA poll, UNC would receive 60 points for the CNR and Stanford 59 ... but, after using the CNR formula, UNC received 59.97 and Stanford 59.45. By comparison, a week earlier UNC was a unanimous #1 in the NSCAA poll (825 pts) and Portland was the #2 team (789) – in the CNR, the Tar Heels would have received the max. 60 points and the Pilots 58.54 (nearly a full point below Stanford's CNR value this week from the NSCAA poll).
The numbers below in parentheses indicate each team's spot in the five polls/ratings, along with the voting or rating points (separated by the slash).
D-1 Women's Soccer Composite National Rankings (#6; 9/22/09)
(compiled by CollegeSoccer360.com)
2. North Carolina ... 99.11 (NSCAA-1/809...SA-2...ST-2/387...TDS-2...AJ-2/2169)
3. Portland ... 96.12 (NSCAA-4/729...SA-4...ST-4/343...TDS-4...AJ-3/2091)
4. UCLA ... 95.30 (NSCAA-3/732...SA-5...ST-3/349...TDS-7...AJ-4/2069)
5. Florida State ... 93.75 (NSCAA-5/702...SA-6...ST-5/340...TDS-5...AJ-5/1961)
6. Boston College ... 93.57 (NSCAA-6/649...SA-3...ST-6/331...TDS-3...AJ-7/1917)
7. California ... 89.80 (NSCAA-8/562...SA-7...ST-7/294...TDS-9...AJ-9/1869)
8. Wake Forest ... 87.22 (NSCAA-7/575...SA-17...ST-9/247...TDS-8...AJ-10/1852)
9. Notre Dame ... 86.32 (NSCAA-14/404...SA-12...ST-14/190...TDS-11...AJ-6/1958)
10. Virginia ... 85.61 (NSCAA-11/463...SA-14...ST-8/276...TDS-6...AJ-22/1763)
11. South Carolina ... 84.02 (NSCAA-12/438...SA-11...ST-13/196...TDS-18...AJ-11/1835)
12. Texas A&M ... 83.99 (NSCAA-13/425...SA-21...ST-10/227...TDS-14...AJ-8/1880)
13. Florida ... 82.69 (NSCAA-10/501...SA-24...ST-11/207...TDS-15...AJ-12/1827)
14. Santa Clara ... 82.06 (NCAAA-9/502...SA-10...ST-12/203...TDS-27...AJ-18/1784)
15. Georgia ... 81.32 (NSCAA-16/338...SA-8...ST-15/148...TDS-20...AJ-14/1812)
16. Kansas ... 77.83 (NSCAA 20/171...SA-18...ST-17/129...TDS-23...AJ-14/1812)
17. Rutgers ... 77.24 (NSCAA-17/329...SA-20...ST-16/142,...TDS-16...AJ-35/1721)
18. Maryland ... 77.00 (NSCAA-18/305...SA-9...ST-19/111...TDS-26...AJ-32/1732)
19. Oklahoma State ... 76.38 (NCAAA-26t/28...ST-31/18...TDS-12...AJ-39/1714)
20. Michigan State ... 73.10 (NSCAA-26t/28...SA-13...ST-24/45...TDS-13...AJ-49/1675)
21. Central Florida ... 72.94 (NSCAA-22/136...SA-25t...ST-20/74...TDS-24...AJ-27/1754)
22. Purdue ... 72.15 (NSCAA-15/347...SA-25t...ST-18/123...TDS-36...AJ-33/1722)
23. Indiana ... 71.98 (NSCAA-19/220...SA-19...ST-28/27...TDS-31...AJ-30/1742)
24. Connecticut ... 71.56 (NSCAA-25/35...SA-16...ST-23/50...TDS-28...AJ-36/1721)
25. Ohio State ... 70.90 (NSCAA-21/147...SA-25t...ST-26t/31...TDS-33...AJ-21/1765)
26. St. John's ... 69.56 (NSCAA-23/111...SA-15...ST-38/5...TDS-40...AJ-24/1761)
27. BYU ... 65.96 (NSCAA-33/16...ST-25/32...TDS-17...AJ-17/1784)
28. Oregon State ... 64.97 (NSCAA 39t/3...SA-22...ST-41t/1...TDS-32...AJ-41/1708)
29. Washington ... 63.85 (NSCAA-34/14...ST-34/11...TDS-25...AJ-13/1818)
30. Illinois ... 63.45 (NSCAA-30/24...ST-21/69...TDS-29...AJ-26/1754)
31. West Virginia ... 61.88 (NSCAA-35t/4...ST-22/66...TDS-19...AJ-47/1684)
32. San Diego ... 61.83 (NSCAA-24/39...ST-24...ST-29/21...TDS-35...AJ-15/1792)
33. USC ... 61.77 (ST-35/9...TDS-10...AJ-36/1719)
34. Marquette ... 61.65 (NCSAA-32/18...ST-33/12...TDS-30...AJ-28/1746
35. Georgetown ... 59.84 (NSCAA-29/24...ST-39/3...TDS-21 ...AJ-48/1680)
36. Arizona State ... 58.85 (NSCAA-31/23...ST-31/17...TDS-41...AJ-25/1749
37. Oregon ... 58.82 (SA-23...ST-32/15...AJ-38/1715)
38. Washington State ... 57.66 (NSCAA-28/25...ST-26/31...AJ-26/1748)
39. Penn State ... 57.45 (ST-36t/8...TDS-22...AJ-35/1720)
40. Charlotte ... 51.52 (NSCAA-35t/4...TDS-42...AJ-42/1707)
42. Auburn ... 48.60 (ST-40/2...TDS-38)
43. Colorado ... 48.23 (ST-41t/1...AJ-34/1721)
44. Nebraska ... 48.05 (NSCAA-42t/1...TDS-39)
45. Pepperdine ... 47.34 (NSCAA-35t/4...AJ-45/1698)
46. Denver ... 47.18 (NSCAA-35t/4...SA-24...AJ-46/1691)
47. Villanova ... 47.03 (NSCAA 41/2...AJ-44/1703)
48. Duke ... 46.61 (ST-36t ... AJ-50/1656)