How the Salas 64 Rankings Work

Inputs we use

• Final score and point margin
• Site (home, away, neutral)
• Opponent’s Salas rank at tip
• Each team’s current record
• Optional context you include (OT, back-to-back, etc.)

Weighting (100% total)

• Results & Résumé Value — 55%
• Consistency & Form (last 2–4) — 20%
• Schedule Strength to Date — 15%
• March Readiness Proxies — 5%
• Mid-Major Adjustment — 5%

Results & Résumé Value (55%)

Opponent tier by Salas rank at tip (multiplier)

• #1–5 = 1.40
• #6–10 = 1.25
• #11–25 = 1.10
• #26–40 = 1.00
• #41–64 = 0.85
• Unranked (65+) = 0.70

Site multiplier

• True road ×1.30
• Neutral ×1.15
• Home ×1.00

Margin with diminishing returns

• Use min(22, margin) for value; blowouts past 22 are capped.
• OT wins count as +2.
• One-possession losses (≤3) to a higher-ranked team are softened.

Single-game Résumé Score

Score = OpponentTier × Site × MarginFactor

• MarginFactor is built from the capped margin and OT/close-game rules above.

Additional penalty

• Home losses to lower-ranked teams receive a −25% penalty on that game.

Season Résumé Sum with light recency

• Last 2 games ×1.20
• Previous 3 ×1.00
• Older ×0.90

Consistency & Form (20%)

• Consistency (10%): lower spread of normalized margins across games is better.
• Form (10%): average normalized margin over last 3 games; road/neutral weighted slightly higher.

Schedule Strength to Date (15%)

• Average opponent tier faced plus site mix bonus.
• Road/neutral share ≥40%: +10% to this subscore.
• Road/neutral share ≤20%: −10% to this subscore.
• If no games vs top-25, this subscore is capped at 60% of max.

March Readiness Proxies (5%)

• Close-game record (decided by ≤5 or OT), road/neutral emphasized.
• Neutral-court log bonus.
• If provided, positive second-half differential adds a small bump.

Mid-Major Adjustment (5%)

• Mid-majors with multiple road/neutral wins vs #1–50 can gain about +3 to +8 rank places relative to similar power-conference profiles.
• A true road top-40 win can offset one “bad” home slip more than it would for power teams.

Tie-Breakers (in order)

• Head-to-head (in reasonably comparable contexts).
• Better road/neutral résumé.
• Higher total Résumé Value (section 1).
• Better short-term form (last 3).
• Fewer bad losses (home loss to #41+ or any loss to 65+).

What moves teams

• Big jumps: road/neutral wins vs higher-ranked opponents by multiple possessions; stacking two quality results in a week.
• Small climbs: clean home wins while peers stumble; balanced road/neutral mix.
• Drops: home losses to lower-ranked teams; non-competitive losses vs peers; repeated narrow escapes vs low opponents.