Z-Rating FAQ

WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE THE Z-RATINGS?

Founded by Zach McCrite in 2013, the Z-Ratings are comprised of a formula that takes into account each team's wins and losses as well as the win-loss records of each team's opponents AND each team's opponents' opponents. Moreover, the rating places weight on sets won and loss by each team as well as the teams connected to them. Here's an example: if Team A beats Team B by a score of 2-1 in a Saturday tournament, but then Team B comes back and beats Team A 3-1 in a regular season match on a Wednesday night a couple of weeks later, the computer will likely give more weight to Team B's 3-1 win than Team A's 2-1 win. Long story short, there's a lot of data to comb through, and we combine all of that data to come up with the most comprehensive rating system that volleyball has to offer.

HOW OFTEN ARE THE Z-RATINGS UPDATED?

We strive to update the ratings a minimum of three times per week after our initial ratings are published (usually the first week in September for girls volleyball).

YEAH, BUT CAN'T I JUST GET MY RATINGS FROM MAXPREPS?

You can, but we do feel ours are more accurate (are we bias? Perhaps. 😉). But the cherry on top is that we actually go looking in the local online newspapers and social media to find the most comprehensive list of scores out there. MaxPreps ratings will only spit out what the schools will enter and, sadly, not all schools enter their scores into MaxPreps on a match-by-match basis. So, we go out there and find them and add them to the ratings computer.

Plus, did we mention we believe our ratings are more accurate?

HOW DO THE Z-RATINGS DIFFER FROM RPI?

RPI--or Ratings Percentage Index--is a very simple tool used to rate teams using wins and losses of each team as well as the wins and losses from each team's opponents and opponent's opponents. Our ratings offer a more complete look at the total picture. We take into account match scores as well, whereas RPI will just take into account who won and who lost.

MY TEAM'S RECORD IS WRONG... WHAT DO I DO?

Send an email to scores@indianaprepvolleyball.com and shoot us a link to your current results online OR send us the results your team has to date. We'll get it updated.