v2 becomes YARDS; v1 archived
The site now runs v2. Everything v1 is kept under /v1/, same layout, marked as superseded and frozen through week 3 of 2026; it does not update again. Three rule changes separate v2 from v1, listed below.
Every change to the rules, with the date and the reason. Newest first.
The site now runs v2. Everything v1 is kept under /v1/, same layout, marked as superseded and frozen through week 3 of 2026; it does not update again. Three rule changes separate v2 from v1, listed below.
A team ranks above every team it beat in the bracket and everyone those teams beat, as an ordering rule applied after the ledgers are built; points are unchanged and the affected ledgers say why. It orders playoff teams only; teams outside the playoff stay wherever their ledger puts them. Reason: no bonus can guarantee that a champion ranks above the team it beat in the final. Flipping the 2025 final to a Miami win left Indiana, 15-1, a point ahead of the 14-2 champion. A system that measures accomplishment cannot rank a champion below a team it beat for the title. On the real 2023 to 2025 seasons the rule changes nothing, because the ledger already agreed with the bracket.
Both teams in a conference championship game get +1.0 for reaching it, and every team in the playoff field gets +1.0 for making it. The loss itself is unchanged. Reason: a reader pointed out that v1 punished the extra game; a title-game loser sat behind an equal team that stayed home (2025 Alabama, 11-4, three spots behind a 10-2 team with no title game). Discounting the loss instead was rejected because it could rank a title-game loser above the team that beat them in it; a line both teams receive cannot.
v1 judged an opponent by their record in their other games, one level deep, which was never the intent. v2 judges them by their own ledger points per game in their other games, which depend on their opponents' ledgers, all the way down; the formula reads as 1.5 plus a quarter of the opponent's figure for a win and 1.5 minus it for a loss, solved for every team at once. The game against you is never counted directly when judging that opponent. FCS becomes a fixed worst-possible opponent instead of a pooled team. On the 2023 to 2025 seasons v1 and v2 agree on the top ten in order, apart from one swap at 7 and 8 in 2025; they differ early in a season, when the depth has more to say.
Added before the first public post. A playoff win adds a bonus line: 0.5 first round (a bye counts), 1.0 quarterfinal, 1.5 semifinal, 2.0 title. Reason: the 2025 backtest had the national runner-up fourth, behind two teams it had beaten or outlasted in the bracket, and a system that measures accomplishment cannot rank a title-game team below teams it eliminated. Set on 2025, checked against 2023 and 2024 where it held.
First public version. Every game is a ledger line worth 1 plus the opponent's quality for a win, or 1 plus (1 minus the opponent's quality) subtracted for a loss, where quality is the opponent's win percentage in their other games. FCS opponents pooled into one team. Six tiebreakers, residual ties shared.