Any way you slice it its just a great job.

Props.

There is no strength of schedule factor written into the ratings algorithm. The strength of schedule "boost" that the EHF teams get comes from playing (on average) teams with higher rankings (or put another way, playing a more difficult schedule).

The rankings are all about head-to-head goal differential. If there were no interaction between leagues, they would be meaningless (OK, I could make an argument that they are meaningless anyway, but bear with me), since there would be no way to compare performance across leagues. But it just so happens that EHF teams fare extremely well in competition against other leagues, so their ratings relative to teams in these other leagues are higher.

Where the system breaks down a little (in my opinion), is at the lower fringes of the league, where teams are "blessed" with a relatively high strength of schedule rating because they play in a division with several stronger teams. These teams may "compete" with their division mates and stay within 3-4 goals (hardly a competitive game), but still maintain a rating higher than a first place team playing in a division with weaker foes. There is also the artificial 7 goal differential limit that could assign higher rankings to bottom-dweller teams in relatively strong divisions.

Disclaimer: This is all for fun. I'm not trying to say anyone should or should not play somewhere because of this nonsense. Hopefully this spurns some interesting and entertaining discussion.

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This guy above knows what he is talking about. (cough) Bottom line is the top teams need to play each other, anytime, anywhere regardless of what league a team is in and let the final score determine who is better. And we all know the rankings of the EHF teams are influenced by Gallant of the Islanders and whoever the current owner of the Flames org is. It's a fact, Jack! I'm gonna drink myself stupid and watch the D board explode. Nighty night kids!

I do not need algorithms, statistical data or computer generated rankings to verify what I have seen, and that is BHL teams that were better than EHF Elite teams this past year.

granted, looking at the entire leagues, the EHF Elite is a better group of teams overall. But there is no doubt that a few "bad" BHL teams were better than a few "bad" EHF Elite teams.

so - the above is nonsense - go watch some games. For the most part you will be asking if you are watching Elite or Tier 1, and there is not much difference between some town A teams and some "elite" teams.

Thx bandits dad