Quality Sports Journalism
Power Rankings are like a dull needle: POINTLESS.
I’ll give ya’ll a moment to appreciate how good that line was.
Okay. Power Rankings are stupid. I hate them. They are the definition of pointless.
Problemo numero uno: They are subjective. The folks who do power rankings may have their own system of stats or whatever, but when it ultimately comes down to it, they are a subjective ranking by the author. So really, they are only applicable to the author. Power Rankings are basically an opinion piece. It’s the author going “I THINK THIS TEAM IS BETTER THAN THAT TEAM BECAUSE OF REASONS THAT I PERSONALLY VALUE MORE THAN OTHERS”. It’s about as in depth and useful as a bar conversation, but it’s hidden under the pretext of NFL “experts”.
Problemo numero dos: They just change every week. During the offseason, okay. I can see that a bit, it’s a prediction thing. You think Denver is the strongest team before the season starts? Okay whatever, I’m fine with that. But during the season? When we have games every week? What’s the point? All you’re doing is seeing who won, putting them up a few slots, and downgrading the teams that lost. So Denver lost a tough matchup and is now ranked #3, at week whatever. Don’t try to pass this off as some big insight.
Problemo numero tres: They ultimately impact nothing. Ranking Denver and Seattle in the top two slots means jack, because those teams aren’t going to play each other very frequently. Teams go down all the time to freakish unforseen luck, it’s part of the game. Saying Seattle is the best team right now means nothing because they could drop two spots with one unlucky bounce costing them a win. But saying they are the best also doesn’t mean they will win the superbowl or anything. Ranking Seattle first is just you going “I think Seattle is currently the best team in the league!”. Okay, woo for you I guess?
I think power rankings stemmed from the BCS. In college ball, power rankings actually matter, because they determine the best teams in the country and who will play each other. The BCS is basically power rankings. The entire sport is determined by power rankings. But the NFL doesn’t work the same way. The NFL uses a playoff system, a system of “Send the best 6 teams from each conference to a tournament and let them duke it out for victory”. That playoff system renders power rankings moot, because playoffs don’t care who the better team is, luck and good play do.
problemo numero quatro: They are essentially lazy click-bait. Power Rankings can get farted out by a sportswriter in about 15 minutes, go to the front page of any sports site, and then tons of stupid people will debate in the comments about where their personal favorite teams should be ranked because for some reason they need validation of their fandom from some guy on the internet. The authors don’t care about the rankings, in fact they can probably get more hits by deliberately making a few controversial picks, just to make the dummies argue some more. Power Rankings exist because they are easy to make and generate hits. It’s far easier to do that then quality journalism or even mildly deeper analysis. Lazy sportswriting isn’t a new thing, and not even all that bad, but Power Rankings are the epitome of it.
Power Rankings are pointless dribble and if you argue about someone else’s subjective ranking of teams on the internet you should sit down, look at yourself, and figure out if this is at all worth it.
Those last few panels – my sides.
I’m excited to see what Johnny pulls out of his brown genius hole about the BCS Championship rankings.
Did you just Power Rank your issues with Power Rankings?
SHIT, THEY’RE ON TO ME. ABORT ABORT ABORT
And that’s exactly why I hate power rankings. I don’t need some random sportswriter telling me my Patriots are somewhere in the middle of the power ranking (or wherever) when they’re 9 and 3. Power rankings are stupid, useless and a waste of time, mostly to the person that’s writing them. Save it for the bar!
I will say that the vast majority blow monkey balls. The only exception I see is Luke Winn’s College Basketball power rankings. Now, I know this is the wrong audience for them, but Luke’s extensive analysis he adds with his rankings are AWESOME. I read his power rankings not for the actual rankings (cause they don’t mean diddly squat), but for the analysis
Am I alone in feeling like the articles that rank positions are just as bad? Unless it’s a longtime NFL Films analyst or a hall of fame coach or someone like that, I don’t see why I should trust one retired WR over one retired TE on who the fourth-best quarterback in the NFL today is.
With how many variables go into how well a player performs (System, surrounding cast, coaching, innate ability) I agree with you completely. People just to rank things and for the most part I do my best to avoid arguing over who is better.
A touching piece about Luck and his neckbeard.
Jay Cutty certainly doesn’t care about power rankings, but this…this is PURE GOLD. My sides still ache…
I know I’m way late on this but how do you feel about in-depth statistical rankings like on Football Outsiders? I imagine those would be more okay since they’ve put a lot of genuine effort into refining their system and continue to tweak it.
FO is great but I find it hard pressed to call it sports journalism really, more sports analysis. I appreciate what both FO and PFF do. They have a certain system, and they base their analysis off that system instead of arbitrary stuff like most mainstream analysts.
The problem I find is that football is basically built around small sample sizes so despite FO’s depth, they still miss a lot of context and dumb luck could alter their formula rankings in ways they shouldn’t be. The system isn’t perfect, it’s never going to be, so it’s best to use it as a way to get a little deeper into a team and not treat it as the end all be all. PFF has the same issue. Their grades and rankings are in depth, but also essentially in a subjective system, so it’s a good way to get a better idea from people who know but not trust it completely.
Essentially, they are good sites and I like them and put a lot of faith in what they say, but treat them as a supplement to formulating my own opinions on how players/teams are.
Meh, I always found them as decent water cooler lunch break talk.
Manziel’s future?
I know I’m a few years late, but I hate Power Rankings. Nothing ticks me off more than when some smug asshole posts a screenshot of their team being number 1 or top 5 in some Power Rankings. The mentality these people have are why Power Rankings are still going strong to this day. Any criticism of them is met with “Well muh team iz number one so I’m good.” But if, in that same Power Rankings article, they have the Jets in the top 10, it’s still okay? Doesn’t that make your team being at number 1 less credible?
I just don’t get it and I can’t stand anyone who takes Power Rankings seriously.