How the Earth Sports College Ranking System Works

When we at Earth Sports came together last fall and set out to create the college fishing ranking system that was unveiled at the Bassmaster Classic Expo in New Orleans, our main goal was to come up with a method that was the most fair, most complete, and most comprehensive system possible.  We wanted to make sure that there was no bias of any kind towards any particular size of school or any particular part of the country.  There were 204 different colleges and universities that participated in one or more collegiate bass tournaments in 2010, and this system allows any one of them to have the same opportunity to be number one as any other school.

There have been a few ranking systems that have come and gone over the past few years, and a couple more have popped up just recently, but they have all been based only on certain tournaments and usually only one of the three main college trails (the FLW National Guard College Fishing, Under Armour College Bass, and the Boat U.S. Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship Series).  This system takes all three into account.

We broke things down into these categories:

• FLW National Guard College Fishing qualifiers
• FLW National Guard College Fishing Regional Championship
• FLW National Guard College Fishing National Championship
• Under Armour College Bass Super Regionals
• Under Armour College Bass National Championship
• Boat U.S. Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship Series televised event, other than the National Championship
• Boat U.S. Collegiate Bass Fishing National Championship

By breaking everything down in this way it allows for a much better picture of how your school has performed during a given season, instead of just including only one or two of the three trails, or only taking the national championship tournaments into account.  For categories in which a school may fish more than one tournament within that category, the one best tournament finish for that school within that category for the year is used.  This helps keep things on an even playing field with regard to different parts of the country.  For example, it is common for the schools in some divisions of FLW National Guard College Fishing to be able to send multiple teams to tournaments, because there are not as many schools competing for those 40 available slots.  In other divisions, such as the central division, having more than one team from a single school at a tournament, especially a qualifier, simply never happens because there are so many more schools with fishing teams that sign up to be a part of the 40-boat field.

Another very important aspect of how we score our ranking system is that we go by percentiles.  I am sure that you will agree that placing third in a field of 100 should be rewarded more than placing third in a field of 24.  Using percentiles accounts for the size of the field by rewarding you for the percentage of the field that you beat.

The Earth Sports rankings will be updated anytime that any one of the categories is completed for the year.  So, the next time that the rankings will be updated will be after the BoatU.S. Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship in May.   

I truly believe this is the most fair and complete ranking system possible.  If you would like to talk with me (tdmbass11@gmail.com) more or ask me any questions about it, I invite you to ask be by email or in person when you see me at a tournament.