Strength of schedule

In

Computation

The strength of schedule can be calculated in many ways. Such calculations are the basis of many of

In the National Football League (NFL), the strength of schedule (SOS) is the combined record of all teams in a schedule, and the strength of victory (SOV) is the combined record of all teams that were beaten in that schedule. For example, opponents of the 2016 New England Patriots had a combined record of 111–142–3 (a win percentage of 0.439, the SOS), and Patriots' wins came against teams with a combined record of 93–129–2 (a win percentage of 0.420, the SOV).

${\displaystyle \mathrm {SOS} ={\frac {\mathrm {2(OR)+(OOR)} }{\mathrm {3} }}}$

Before the 2004 season, in the American college football Bowl Championship Series (BCS)^[1] the SOS was calculated as shown at right, where OR is the opponents' record, while OOR is the opponents' opponents record.^[2]

Other calculations include adding the opponent's power ratings and multiplying them by the number of games, or a modification by assigning weights (higher weights for "stronger" teams).^[3]

Furthermore, several more factors may be added, such as the position of the team in the league, the strength of the team's

The BCS previously used the SOS in its formula to determine which teams will play in BCS Bowls, and more importantly, to the BCS National Championship Game. On the contrary, several leagues do not incorporate SOS directly into team standings. For most leagues, however, the team standings are typically affected by the overall strength of the conference the team plays in. The strength of the conference largely depends on the number of NFL players the conference produces. For instance, from 1992 to 2011, of 1,874 college athletes who entered the NFL, roughly 31% came from the SEC compared to only 0.64% from the MAC-EAST conference.^[4] Therefore, playing a team in the SEC would likely increase a team's SOS as compared to playing a team in the MAC-EAST.

The NFL uses strength of schedule as a secondary tie-breaker for divisional rankings and playoff qualification, and as a primary tie-breaker for the

Major League Baseball (MLB) has a more extreme way of scheduling since interleague games are done rarely^{[needs update]}, and were only introduced in 1997, plus the fact that interleague games do not exactly have concrete rules, save for the number of rest days and doubleheaders.^[6]

In the

In order to resolve differing strengths of schedule among teams, the

The concept of "strength of schedule" is alien to

In inter-European competition, no permanent divisions or groups are instituted although qualifying teams are drawn into different groups, where the top teams per group advance into the "knockout stage" which is almost similar to the concept of "playoffs" in North American sports. In association football, UEFA coefficients are used to determine seedings in tournaments organized by UEFA. Countries that had teams progress deeper into UEFA competitions have a higher coefficient. A higher coefficient means that teams do not have to meet teams that are as strong as them early in the tournament, while weaker teams have to face stronger teams in the early stages.

References