Guest Blog by: Brian Bolitho, Director of Business Media, AIA

A lot of articles have been written lately, specifically in the East Valley Tribune, regarding the current AIA Power Rankings System and its validity.  The AIA Power Rankings System is working under the context of which the schools created it.

To say the AIA is “ignoring” an error is incorrect.  The current system does not present an error as the formula is working as created by the committee that represented the member schools.  The AIA values feedback from its member schools, and even outside observers.  The AIA is paying close attention to the rankings throughout the sectional basketball tournaments to see if there are in fact concerns that need to be addressed based on the rankings pre and post sectional tournaments, and will bring those findings to the committee.

The Power Rankings Committee, comprised of Athletic Directors representing each conference, met prior to the start of the 2010-2011 school year to create a formula that put emphasis on both a schools victories and victories of their opponents, i.e. strength of schedule.  Before that time, the formula was heavily weighted to wins, and the committee convened to discuss how to implement a system that would put an emphasis on opponent wins (OPVP) and opponent opponents wins (OPOPVP).

Looking at basketball, under the prior power ranking system, all schools were ranked based on playing 18 games.  So if a school scheduled a 19^th game, that school could mark a game non-counting.  The committee voiced concerns that this allowed schools to not count the game that would be the weakest on their schedule, or what may be a potential loss to not miss out on victory points.  Therefore, it was determined that all games an AIA member school plays vs. a member school should count in the rankings.

Furthermore, if a team played 19 games and their opponent played 18, then the team that played 19 games should have their OPVP as if their opponent had also played 19 games, and the team that played 18 games should have their OPVP reflect as if that opponent played 18 games.

The complete outline of the current formula is here: AIA Power Rankings System.

The AIA Power Rankings System is fluid, meaning, if better ideas are brought forward, the committee can be brought back together to address the ideas and look at samples of potential formula modifications.  This will be the case when the board meets on Feb. 21 to begin the process of formulating a new power rankings committee to take a look at new ideas starting the end of March/early April for the 2012-2013 school year.  The current formula will have been in place for two years, and that is ample data to analyze the current system vs. any new idea for a modified system.

Regarding the effect on sectional basketball tournaments, there are two sides of the fence regarding teams that qualify for sectional tournaments vs. teams that do not qualify for sectional tournaments.  One side is that schools that make sectional tournaments should be the teams that advance to state.  The other side is that schools that do not make a sectional tournament, because they reside in a stronger section, should still qualify for state.  That is one of the reasons why the top four teams, those that advance to their section semi-finals, are guaranteed a spot at state for a total of 12 teams per division, and the remaining 12 teams qualify based on power ranking.