About These Rankings

Our ranking system evaluates team performance using a modified PageRank algorithm, which takes into account the following factors:

• Margin of victory
• Strength of opponents

A team's strength of schedule is calculated as the average rating of all opponents they have played, meaning it is not an input in the rating calculation but rather a product of it.

Why the Rankings?

MCLAIndex provides an unbiased ranking based purely on performance. While other rankings, like the official Coaches Poll (voted on by 27 coaches) and the Varsity Club Lacrosse x ULAX rankings offer valuable perspectives, they naturally include personal biases. MCLAIndex removes that subjectivity by evaluating teams solely by their results.

These rankings are meant to complement rather than replace existing polls, serving as an objective reference point to evaluate team performance. At the end of the day, no ranking model is perfect, which is why across all major sports, humans have the final decision on rankings and tournament seedings.