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For the full List, go to our GFL Pulldown under Strength of Schedule.
That’s it, with the Home/Away schedule added in, the 2010 GFL Strength of Schedule is complete, and not without a few surprises. Overall, the average final tally was 62.7, and in that tradition, there are 8 teams above that number, and 6 below it. To be fair, 62.7 is pretty darn close to 63, and there are three teams who are at that number.
Compared to the December Strength, which I did with no home/away sched, the final tally was close, yet the numbers, instead of growing further apart as expected, grouped together instead. This was due to a key factors:
All teams except for four clubs had a home/away quotient of either 6, 7 or 8. Two teams had 11 (Sabers and Scorpions), due to having 4 away games in a row. The Premier has 5, since they had a true Home/Away/Home/Away type schedule, and the Gladiators drew a 4, being the only team to have less than 5 away games.
The overall findings, are as thus:
Hardest schedule (67): Premier, Cougars, Desperados
The Premier had a whoping 62 before the home/away schedule. As noted before, that part of the formula was kind to the Premier. If the Premier would have had a more average home/away number (7), they would have broke 70. The Cougars had a 60 in December, and had a moderate H/A of 7. They have no longer away stretch than two in a row. The Desperados, who had a 59 (and in a tie for 3rd hardest) in December. The desperados don’t have a long absence from home, yet have 6 away games, the most in the league.
Tied for 4th hardest (65): Phoenix, Heat
The Phoenix and the Heat were tied at 59 in December (tied for 3rd), and a below average away schedule made their schedules a bit easier.
Tied for 6th hardest (63): Sabers, Lynx, Scorpions
The Sabers and Scorpions were in the lower third in hardness of schedule in December (both had a 52, respectively). Both teams have a killer 4 game road trip in their schedules which really ratcheted up the difficulty, and brought them both to the upper half of the league in terms of strength of schedule. The Lynx had a 56 in December, they have an average difficulty in away games.
9th hardest (62): Nighthawks
The first team to have a spot all to themselves is just under our average schedule difficulty. Their spot really didn’t move due to an above average away schedule
Tied for 10th hardest (61): Rage, Gladiators
The Gladiators went from having the 6th hardest sched in December (57), to having the 10th (or 11th, based on what you want to say). That’s a far drop, and it’s due to their 4 away games, none in a row. The Rage, conversely, have an above average away schedule, with a difficulty of 8, moving them up slightly.
12th hardest(59): Wolves
The Wolves were at 10th in December, and a away difficulty of 6 dropped them a few spots.
13th hardest(58): Gators
The Gators, who looked to have the easiest schedule in December, escaped the bottom spot by having a road stretch in the center of their schedule consisting of 3 games.
14th hardest (57): Cowboys
The Cowboys were only one point away from being the 14th team in December, yet a difficulty rating of 6 for the away schedule drops them to the final spot.
Observations:
Despite the positionings, the top team (67) and the last team (57) are only separated by 10 points. Some may point to how the formula was done and state that 10 points is a huge margin (indeed, the drop in 10 points is essentially 15% easier of a schedule). However, with 5 different variables to consider in the formula, it’s somewhat surprising one team doesn’t have a drastically harder schedule than everyone else, or one team isn’t way easier than the rest. It really is a testament to the efforts taken to keep the schedule as fair as possible. With no computer, 14 teams and a 10 game schedule, a 15% difference is commendable.
At the end of the season, I will redo the categories to resemble the 2010 final standings and find out what the true strength of schedule is, after all is said, and done.
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