Soccer Coach
Well-Known Member
- Thread starter
- #301
This reasoning is delicious, so if Team A beats Team B then Team A is better than every team that Team B has beaten, tied, or even not beaten by as big a margin (as is every team that is 'similar strength' to Team A). We could all find examples of this to suit us, so let's get to the cold hard stats of it all...
Strange how both divisions have the same average points, what forces could be at work here? Barring an inordinate amount of tied games I would say both leagues are destined to have approximately the same average points per team. I ran an in depth study and found that premier average around 29pts/team also, so they are about as good as Div 2? I also found that if you add up the average pts/team of both divisions, then divide that by the number of leagues in division 2 you get 29 as well, spooky.
As for using range to assess quality, you may want to throw out GFC as an 'outlier' on 5pts, and reign in that 2B range. Now the comparison is 29 to 34... so, ehm, well yeah, the meaningless stat is slightly closer now.
But you got me, the standard deviations don't equate. Did you come up with this on your own, or have you had help from the Football Manager algorithm coding team at Sports Interactive?
Dude, you are deflecting... You and Dezza can tell us why you are so obsessed in creating this myth that Division 2B is more competitive than division 2A when the data and anecdotal evidence suggests that this is not the case?
Just in case you might be open to expand your horizons:
a) It might be surprise to you but transitive comparisons are the cornerstone of sports ranking systems. I am glad that you find them delicious.
b) The average points in the EPL is not 29, not even after only 22 games.
c) GFC is a usual situation. Five/six teams fighting to avoid promotion is unusual. Three teams fighting for promotion in the last week of games is unusual. Division 2A is very hard at the bottom and top. Division 2B is more regular.
c) With respect to the use of standard deviations and other measures of dispersion. Please be my guest:
http://www.ncer.edu.au/papers/documents/WP92v2.pdf