Skip to main content

Explaining the Patsy Ratings



In this post, I figured I'd create the complete definition of the Patsy Ratings, which are scheduled to be released any minute now.

What are the Patsy Ratings, you ask?
The Patsy Ratings are the methodology Lafayette superfan Carney once created in an attempt to determine who had the "best" incoming class.

In his words:

"At the outset let me say that this is one big heap of crapola. If anyone thinks that he or she can rate 18 and 19 year old high school football players or declare one group of these kids superior to another is delusional. This, however, is an attempt to do just that, so what does it say about me? Many of you will take issue with the methodology or will rail against the outcome because you “know” that [fill in the name of your favorite school] had its best recruiting year ever. I invite you to post your criticism. Even more, I invite you to give us something better. It’s easy to say “you’re wrong.” It is much more difficult to find a better way and actually create the results."

It was Carney that first got the mysterious Committee together, to agree on the common system that is the Patsy Ratings.  In my reading of it, the Committee came up with this rules in an old, walnut wood-adorned conference room.  You could smell the cigar smoke as you take the original rules out of the desk in the corner.

The paper is very difficult to read, with many sentences crossed out and redacted with black ink.  Scrawls saying "Scout?  Yes" and "Long snapper doesn't count" and "Schollies!!!!" appear, sometimes with little star stickers on the parts that were particularly contentious.

Deciphering these scrolls of (some might say) wisdom resulted in this definition below of what the Patsy Ratings are.  The best part of this system is that it is reproducible - though there are a few subjective pieces, most of the Rating can be recalculated at home.


Here's the way it's done:

Quality: Points given by a recruit's presence in the commonly known ratings agencies and their star ratings (if any).  Four ratings websites are used, 247sports, Rivals, Scout, and ESPN.  All four are distinct and use different, mysterious methods to come up with their own ratings, the key here being distinct.  More stars are better, and multiple agencies awarding stars mean more Quality points.

Class Size: The larger an incoming class, the more points this generates.  A recruiting class of 18 is considered enough to replace the considered "minimum" football roster size of 72.  Anything less, and fielding a team is a challenge.  Two points are awarded for having an incoming class of 18, plus 1 additional point for up to every three recruits after that.

Example:  Horse Feathers U. has an incoming class of 22 recruits.  They would receive 2 points for the first 18 recruits, 1 for the next 3 recruits, plus 1 for the last recruit.  2+1+1 = 4.

Distribution: The more positions covered by the class, the more Distribution points a class will get.  Every year, a broad number of positions will almost certainly need to be replenished.  One point if awarded for each position "covered", up to a maximum of 9.  (Fullbacks are counted as running backs, and long snappers and "athletes" don't count here.)

Example: Horse Feathers U. has a QB, OL, RB, TE, WR, DB and LB in their incoming class.  They would get 7 distribution points (and they'd be missing out on 1 point for DL, and 1 point for a kicker).

Speed: "Speed in an incoming class, for lack of a better word. is good," are words that Gordon Gekko may or may not have uttered.  Using the meager data that is out there, players meeting a certain speed threshold posted on an official recruiting website get Speed points awarded.  It's not enough to go to a recruit's MySpace page where he brags of running a 4.1 40 yard dash: it needs to be verified from a trusted source (or, at least, as "trusted" a source we can get on the internet).

Example: Horse Feathers U. has one recruit that has a posted 40 yard dash time of 4.67.  That posted time is good for 2 Patsy Points.

Trigger:  Acknowledging that the most important position on the field in college football - and especially in the Patriot League - is almost always the quarterback, more Patsy points are offered for more Patsy point quarterbacks in the incoming class, and even more points if they are star rated.

Example: Horse Feathers U. has one QB in the incoming class that is a ** recruit from Saskatchewan High School.  They receive 1 trigger point for him being listed on a scouting website, plus one point for each star of his ranking, making a grand total of 3.

No Jumbo Points for You
Jumbo: Like recruiting players with speed, one of the measurable attributes for linemen is size.  Players, more specifically offensive and defensive linemen, meeting a certain "size requirement" give extra points.  250 lbs for defensive linemen, 275 lbs for offensive linemen.

Needs: Needs for each recruiting class have been determined by a cherry-picked panel of school "superfans" who have a long-term view of the overall needs of a particular year's recruiting class.  These are ranked first (max of 5 points), second (max of four points) and third (max of 3 points).

Committee Adjustment:  an adjustment to the Patsy ratings which could be a minor adjustment if the "look and smell" test seems to misrepresent the actual overall quality of the class.  (This is intended to be done sparingly - but it seems to often turn out that multiple schools require at least some small adjustment every year.  The hope is eventually the need for such adjustments is zero.)

Comments

bison137 said…
Two Bucknell names whose info may not show up:

1. Simeon Page (LB) - has several two star ratings BUT in the Class of 2016. He went to Air Force Academy Prep School and then joined the Bucknell recruiting class.

2. Simon Behr (DE) - joined the Bucknell recruiting class late in the spring. He is listed as a freshman on the roster but was not in the press release. Had several two star ratings and originally committed to Army. Bucknell roster: http://www.bucknellbison.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPID=137613&SPSID=810328&DB_OEM_ID=32100

Popular posts from this blog

How The Ivy League Is Able To Break the NCAA's Scholarship Limits and Still Consider Themselves FCS

By now you've seen the results.  In 2018, the Ivy League has taken the FCS by storm. Perhaps it was Penn's 30-10 defeat of Lehigh a couple of weeks ago .  Or maybe it was Princeton's 50-9 drubbing of another team that made the FCS Playoffs last year, Monmouth.  Or maybe it was Yale's shockingly dominant 35-14 win over nationally-ranked Maine last weekend. The Ivy League has gone an astounding 12-4 so far in out-of-conference play, many of those wins coming against the Patriot League. But it's not just against the Patriot League where the Ivy League has excelled.  Every Ivy League school has at least one out-of-conference victory, which is remarkable since it is only three games into their football season.  The four losses - Rhode Island over Harvard, Holy Cross over Yale, Delaware over Cornell, and Cal Poly over Brown - were either close losses that could have gone either way or expected blowouts of teams picked to be at the bottom of the Ivy League. W

Made-Up Midseason Grades for Lehigh Football

 We are now officially midway through the 2023 Lehigh football season.  The Mountain Hawks sit at 1-5 overall, and 0-1 in the Patriot League. I thought I'd go ahead and make up some midseason grades, and set some "fan goals" for the second half. The 2023 Mountain Hawks were picked to finish fifth in the seven team Patriot League.  In order to meet or exceed that expectation, they'll probably have to go at least 3-2 the rest of the way in conference play.  Their remaining games are vs. Georgetown, at Bucknell, vs. Holy Cross, at Colgate, and vs. Lafayette in The Rivalry. Can they do it? Culture Changing: B+ .  I was there in the Bronx last week after the tough 38-35 defeat to Fordham, and there wasn't a single player emerging from the locker room that looked like they didn't care.  Every face was glum.  They didn't even seem sad.  More frustrated and angry. That may seem normal, considering the agonizing way the Mountain Hawks lost, but it was a marked chan

Fifteen Guys Who Might be Lehigh's Next Football Coach (and Five More)

If you've been following my Twitter account, you might have caught some "possibilities" as Lehigh's next head football coach like Lou Holtz, Brett Favre and Bo Pelini .  The chance that any of those three guys actually are offered and accept the Lehigh head coaching position are somewhere between zero and zero.  (The full list of my Twitter "possibilities" are all on this thread on the Lehigh Sports Forum .) However the actual Lehigh head football coaching search is well underway, with real names and real possibilities. I've come up with a list of fifteen possible names, some which I've heard whispered as candidates, others which might be good fits at Lehigh for a variety of reasons. UPDATE: I have found five more names of possible head coaches that I am adding to this list below. Who are the twenty people?  Here they are, in alphabetical order.