09/20/21 – Initial RPI Rankings Released for Football

September 20, 2021 2021-2022 News Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 20, 2021

The first official KHSAA Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) standings for the 2021 football season have been posted at KHSAA.org for all classes.

Due to the limited number of contests for football compared to the other sports and the application of RPI data on a much more extensive basis, as the office maintains the district standings, there are additional clarifications and operations in football that are not necessary for other sports, as follows:

• At the end of the season, each school will have eleven RPI observations. 
  • With an eleven (11) slot grid, the number of games being considered (and for team record) will be 11 times 11 times 11, or a total of 1,331 games and records. This lessens the overall impact of a specific single game in the OWP and OOWP columns, particularly over the course of the season, and ensures competitive comparative equity while still affording the opportunity for sound health-related decisions.
  • The inclusion of 11 observations also ensures that a team that has several canceled COVID games but wins or loses most or all of the other games isn’t unfairly placed too high or too low.
  • Each week, each team will end up with the same number of observations. For example, after week five, each team will have five observations and after week six, six observations. These will be flexible and able to be changed if other situations occur during the season for teams, particularly around COVID-19.
• Regardless of COVID status cancellations, a team remains eligible to play ten (10) contests on the field during the eleven (11) week season.
• All games played, including 1-0 and 0-1, count as normal with RPI so that all teams have eleven (11) observations.
• Because each COVID cancellation counts as a forfeit as previously announced, scoreboard viewers will see some games with a 1-0 score and a 0-1 score to indicate the forfeiting team, or team that was forced to forfeit.
• Forfeits (non-COVID) will also have a 1-0 score recorded with an explanatory note.
• Double forfeits due to COVID will be recorded as 0-1 for each team against NA with an explanatory note, except for seeded district games canceled due to COVID that are not eventually played.
• Only games played on the field, COVID 1-0 and 0-1 forfeits, and forfeits for other reasons will be included in standings, including those where the opponent is shown as NA or OPEN.
• A seeded district game unable to be played for reasons unrelated to COVID-19 or by double forfeit due to COVID-19 will be decided by comparative RPI following the last regular-season game.
• A seeded district game unable to be played for reasons related to COVID-19 will be recorded as a 1-0 forfeit.
• All games shown as against OPEN will be counted as an out of state tie for RPI purposes (i.e. non-COVID team that does not replace a game or a natural open date)
• Contests marked on a team’s schedule as a COVID cancelation will have a 1-0 or 0-1 score which is factored into the RPI calculations as any other win or loss, based on which team is unable to fulfill the scheduled contest at the time.
• Any calculation involving an out of state team as well as an NA opponent will be assigned a .51060 winning percentage, which is the average value of opponents’ opponents winning percentages for the previous season prior to COVID, a standard that fairly represents odds of winning without having to track the hundreds of out-of-state contests played by schools.

During the last week of the season, the following steps will be taken prior to the final release for the regular season to ensure 11 considerations:

• The RPI calculations will be removed from the website at the start of the Friday night contests.
• Following the receipt of all scores, the schedules for all teams will be reviewed, including COVID forfeits.
• Any team with less than 11 observations, including COVID cancellations and other forfeits, will have OPEN dates added to ensure eleven (11) observations (out of state tie).
• Any team with more than eleven (11) observations will have 0-1 results (other than non-played seeded district games) removed from consideration (based on the 0-1 opponent with the lowest overall RPI) with this step repeated until the team is left with only 11 observations.
• If after the previous step, a team continues to have more than 11 observations, the team will have 1-0 COVID results (other than non-played seeded district games) removed from consideration, with this step repeated until a team is left with only eleven (11) observations.

The RPI rankings are updated on an hourly basis but are not calculated for teams missing one or more scores from the previous day or earlier. 

The RPI (https://khsaa.org/rpi-ratings-percentage-index/) is a tool developed for all team sports by using the official KHSAA/Riherds Scoreboard data. It is provided for a variety of reasons, including district tiebreaking and bracketing in specific sports, as well as a means to increase publicity, interest and promotion. 

RPI measures a team’s strength relative to other teams, based largely on the strength of their schedules (margin of victory is not a factor). RPI is calculated from the team’s Winning Percentage (WP), the Opponent’s Winning Percentage (OWP) and the Opponents’ Opponents’ Winning Percentage (OOWP). These three components are combined to produce the RPI using the following formula: RPI = (WP * WPVAL) + (OWP * OWPVAL) + (OOWP * OOWPVAL).

The RPI uses the following final calculation:

• WPVAL shall be .35 (or 35 percent)
• OWPVAL shall be .35 (or 35 percent)
• OOWPVAL shall be .30 (or 30 percent)

The 2021 RPI rankings for all fall sports can be found at this link – https://khsaa.org/rpi-ratings-percentage-index/

Detailed background on RPI and examples can be found at – https://khsaa.org/rpi-calculation-steps/

Q- Is it possible for a team to have two results in one week? Yes, it is possible that a team will have both a COVID win and an on-field win. But those situations will be rare as they will require the team to remain under 11 observations, not have an “Open Date” on the schedule, and play no more than 10 games on the field. No team will have two losses in one scheduled date (Friday/Saturday) if one is COVID related. It is also possible due to creative scheduling, that a school might be able to not exceed the quarter limitation but still play two games in one week. 

Q- When will the final adjustments be made? As stated above, during the 11th week, the schedules will be reviewed. It could very well be that previously entered “Open Dates” are replaced with COVID forfeit wins as the audit is performed.

Q- How will the data be reviewed? Careful notations have been made in the scoreboard comments each time a cancelation has occurred so that this review can be comprehensive and equity for all is involved.

Q- If my school loses a game due to COVID forfeit and the opponent finds another game, will the forfeit be removed from my record? No. The school that forfeited was unable to play and the forfeit remains. However, the opponent, in that case, may be changed to N/A, which will ensure that the COVID forfeit winning team doesn’t exceed 11 observations.

– KHSAA –

About the Kentucky High School Athletic Association
The Kentucky High School Athletic Association was organized in 1917 and is the agency designated by the Kentucky Department of Education to manage high school athletics in the Commonwealth. The Association is a voluntary nonprofit 501(c)3 organization made up of 285 member schools both public and non-public. The KHSAA awards 215 state championships to 51 teams and 164 individuals in 13 sports and 6 sport-activities, funds catastrophic insurance coverage for its more than 106,000 rostered member school student-athletes, provides coaching education and sports safety programs for more than 12,000 coaches, and licenses and facilitates the distribution of training material for over 4,000 contest officials.