How the Rankings Work

Power Points

What are Power Points?

Power Points are Virginia's official ranking system for high school football. Teams earn points for every game they play, with more points for wins against stronger opponents. Only games against VHSL teams with known classifications count toward power points.

Each game gives you points based on two things:

1. Game Points: Win or lose, you get points based on the highest class level of the two teams:
   • Class 6: 26 points (win) / 14 points (loss)
   • Class 5: 24 points (win) / 12 points (loss)
   • Class 4: 22 points (win) / 10 points (loss)
   • Class 3: 20 points (win) / 8 points (loss)
   • Class 2: 18 points (win) / 6 points (loss)
   • Class 1: 16 points (win) / 4 points (loss)
2. Opponent Win Bonus: Extra points based on how many games your opponent has won:
   • If you beat them: 2 points × their total wins
   • If you lose to them: 1 point × their total wins

Note: Historically, Virginia awarded bonus points to higher class teams when playing lower class opponents. The math works out identically — it's just easier to understand as "points are based on the higher class team."

Example

Central High (Class 6) beats Grove High (Class 4)
This is scored as a class 6 game (highest rank of either team).
Central has won 5 games this season. Grove High has won 7 games this season.

Central High gets:
26 game points (class 6 win) + 14 opponent win bonus (2 x Grove's 7 wins) = 40 total points

Grove High gets:
14 game points (class 6 loss) + 5 opponent win bonus (1 x Central's 5 wins) = 19 total points

Per Game Average

Since teams play different numbers of games, power points are shown as an average per game. This makes rankings fair across all teams.

RPI: Rating Percentage Index

RPI (Rating Percentage Index) is the other ranking system used in VHSL football, in place of Power Points. RPI is a strength-of-schedule formula borrowed from college sports — it rewards teams that not only win, but win against tough competition.

How RPI is calculated

RPI is a weighted average of three things:

• 40% — Your winning percentage (WP): How many games you've won out of your total games played.
• 40% — Your opponents' winning percentage (OWP): The average win rate of every team you've faced (not counting games against you).
• 20% — Your opponents' opponents' winning percentage (OOWP): The average win rate of the teams your opponents have played (not counting games against the common opponent).

Formula: RPI = (0.40 × WP) + (0.40 × OWP) + (0.20 × OOWP)

Early in the season: OWP and OOWP need your opponents to have played somebody other than you, so neither exists after week 1. Until then we count the missing pieces as zero, which makes RPI simply 0.40 × your own winning percentage. Expect the numbers to move a lot once a second week of results is in.

RPI vs Power Points

Power Points reward you based on the class of your opponents and how many wins they have. RPI cares only about winning percentage — yours and your opponents'. A team with a great record against a soft schedule will score lower on RPI than a team with the same record against tough competition.

Example

Team A goes 8–2 against a strong schedule. Their opponents won 65% of their games on average.
Team B also goes 8–2 but played weaker teams. Their opponents won only 40% of their games on average.

Both teams have the same record, but Team A will have a higher RPI because their wins came against tougher competition.

Tiebreakers

When teams tie on Power Points or RPI, VHSL works down a set list. The first step that separates them settles it.

Region 6D runs the same list with one step in front of it: district record first, then Power Points, then everything below. Most of the season every 6D team is 0-0 in district, so Power Points is what actually orders the region.

1. Head-to-head. The winner of the game between them. If three or more are tied, a team that beat all the others.
2. Common opponents. The better record against teams they both played.
3. Nine-game schedules. We add up the total games played by all of a team's opponents. The lower total is seeded ahead - opponents with fewer games gave that team fewer chances at win bonuses.
4. Record against rated opponents. The best winning percentage against teams the rating scale counts.
5. Opponents' average rating. The higher average rating across all opponents.
6. VHSL opponents' average rating. The same average, VHSL opponents only.
7. A draw by lot. The region draws to settle it.

VHSL rule 68-4-8. Nobody draws a lot until a tie decides a real playoff spot, so teams still tied at that point are listed alphabetically here. That is not a tiebreaker - they are tied.