VIII: POWER & STRENGTH

The schedule is a fickle goddess, generated at the outset of the season, long before any players have been drafted. And yet, every year the schedule decides who is worthy of the playoffs, and who shall be denied. On the left we have power rankings- sheer output, total points accumulated through thirteen weeks. Most points for at the top, descending to least. On the right we have the strength of schedule- the sheer volume of points against through thirteen weeks; Up top, the teams that faced the strongest opposition, down to the most meager. These are obviously absolutes- the variance of a weekly schedule means sometimes you score 215 and lose, and sometimes you score 150 and win.

SO IT GOES:

The biggest takeaway from the chart is that HCM City got screwed. Not by much- they were only 17.33 points better than Manitoba over the course of the season. But in conjunction with the strength of their schedule, where they faced the stiffest opposition, they just couldn't get any breaks in 2016.

A good indicator of the somewhat marginal impact these factor have on results is the case of South Park and New York. Both teams (somewhat ironically, the past two Larkspur Bowl champions) were at the bottom of the Power Rankings. Both teams finished 5-8. South Park seemed to overcome a tough schedule to do so, while New York couldn't get out of their own way, turning the third easiest slate into the second worst record with the worst point total in the league, an astounding 383.61 less than league leader Pawnee. Both won one more game than Oakwood, who had the fourth easiest schedule but not a scrap of good fortune.

Somehow the top two teams in overall points, Pawnee and Hill Valley, also had the easiest path to prominence, facing the fewest points against. Is there evidence that teams, faced with the option to optimize their lineup for a matchup against the league's juggernauts, instead prioritized long term gains, instead of playing to win? I dunno, I didn't research the moves on a weekly basis. MAYBE!

Five of the six playoff teams actually had an easy go of things, with all but Phoenix placing among the bottom half of schedule strength, among the seven easiest in the league. Phoenix faced far more opposition than any of the other playoff teams- 107.4 more than Deputy, 108.96 more than the Islanders, 153.09 more than Manitoba, 248.47 more than Hill Valley, and a whopping 345.52 more than Pawnee. Phoenix actually had a negative point differential of 31.46, with four wins by single digits and two more by margins of less than twenty.

The only blowout victories for Phoenix came in their two highest scoring weeks, against Malibu and Saskatoon; Those two teams were both slightly below average in overall output, with slightly tougher than average schedules. Both had a shot at the playoffs, but finished a couple of games out. Saskatoon had two single digit losses (one to Manitoba) and Malibu one (to the Islanders), and the entire playoff picture could be altered with one different transaction, resulting in a different result in those games. So it goes.