Elo Rankings

How do you rank or compare teams across multiple decades of seasons? Elo is a simple measure of strength based on game-by-game results in a closed system. A league Elo average will always be 1500 Elo points, representing the most average team within the league. Elo continues rating teams across the entire history of the league, regressing values at the end of the season towards the mean league value. Our Elo calculation considers home-field advantage as well as margin of victory to allow us to rank the relative strength of teams from discontinuous seasons. Elo rankings additionally allow for the calculation of expected game results (game odds) and margin of victory predictions (game lines).

Note: Ratings are set to regress towards the mean at the end of each season to account for roster turnover, progressions, and aging.