u/lucyssweatersleeves

Hi r/NWSL fam, you might recognize my username as the person who (annoyingly or helpfully depending on your perspective) posts live league standings in the match threads whenever a change in scoreline impacts the standings!

During the KC/Portland game just now, I finally came up with a formula I like for getting a list of “weighted” team rankings that helps correct for the discrepancy in games played (for example, at the time of this posting Portland has played 12 games and Bay has played 9, which throws the standard points system of ranking into a bit of a tizzy — or does it?).

Basically I created a spreadsheet where I can update games won/drawn/lost and the formula will update win/draw/loss percentages. I then multiply the win percentage x3 since a win nets you three points. Then I add the draw percentage x1 since a draw nets one point. Finally, I add or subtract each team’s goal differential x0.01 since it’s only meant to serve as a tiebreaker and not have a meaningful impact on the points otherwise (this was necessary because Spirit and Gotham currently have identical win/draw/loss percentages).

REVISED AFTER POSTING: Here are the weighted league standings as of the end of the SD/Orlando game on 5/24! I may not update them in the match threads very often, we’ll have to see, but I thought it was interesting enough to share.

1 Utah Royals FC

2 Portland Thorns FC

3 San Diego Wave FC

4 Washington Spirit

5 Gotham FC

6 Kansas City Current

7 North Carolina Courage

8 Seattle Reign

9 Angel City FC

10 Orlando Pride

11 Houston Dash

12 Denver Summit FC

13 Bay FC

14 Boston Legacy FC

15 Chicago Stars FC

16 Racing Louisville FC

Currently the only difference between these standings and the standard table is 8th-11th shuffling around amongst themselves, everything else holds!