UWA up to No. 2 in Massey Ratings

LIVINGSTON — The West Alabama football team is ranked No. 2 in this week’s Massey Ratings for NCAA Division II football programs, trailing only Northwest Missouri (6-0).

“It is good to see us rated so high in the Massey ratings,” UWA head coach Will Hall said. “This is a rating system that employs several pertinent variables.”

The overall team rating is a merit-based quantity, and is the result of applying a Bayesian win-loss correction to the power rating. The Massey Ratings are designed to measure past performance, not necessarily to predict future outcomes.

“There is a lot of math involved, criteria that takes the guesswork out of it for coaches and media,” Hall said. “As much criteria as is involved makes it an honor to be rated that high.”

The Massey ratings assess a team’s performance to this point in the season, the team’s estimated strength moving forward, its ability to score points and prevent opponents from scoring, estimated home advantage, strength of schedule for both games already played and games left to play. The final variable is expected wins and losses for the remaining schedule.

The Tigers (5-1) travel to Wichita Falls, Texas to meet Midwestern State (4-1) Saturday. Kickoff is at 8 p.m. Midwestern is rated No. 18 in the Massey Ratings.

To access the entire Massey Ratings click on:

http://masseyratings.com/rate.php?s=cf2013&sub=11606&c=1&c=0