What Is Strength Of Victory in the NFL?
Contents
A look at what the Strength of Victory metric is and how it’s used to help determine which NFL teams are the best.
Introduction
In the National Football League (NFL), the strength of victory (SOV) is a measure of the combined won-lost records of all the teams a particular team has beaten. It is one method used by the NFL to determine which teams will make the playoffs if there is a tiebreaker situation.
The NFL calculates SOV by taking the combined record of all opponents that a team has defeated and dividing it by the total number of games those opponents have played. The result is then expressed as a percentage. For example, if a team has beaten five opponents with a combined record of 20-15, that team’s SOV would be .571 ((20-15)/35).
What is SOS?
SOS stands for Strength of Schedule. The NFL uses a formula to calculate the SOS for each team based on the opponents they have faced and will face during the season. The higher the number, the more difficult the team’s schedule is.
How is SOS calculated?
The Strength of Schedule (SOS) is a ranking of all NFL teams based on their opponents’ combined win/loss records. The higher the SOS, the tougher the schedule. The lower the SOS, the easier the schedule. The SOS is used by many NFL fans and pundits to help make predictions for the upcoming season.
The SOS is calculated by taking each team’s opponents’ combined win/loss record and dividing it by 16 (the number of games in an NFL regular season). This gives each team a “strength of schedule” number between 0 and 1. The higher the number, the tougher the schedule.
Here is how SOS works in practice. Let’s say Team A has played 10 games and their opponents have a combined record of 80-81-1 (.497). Team B has also played 10 games, but their opponents have a combined record of 77-84-1 (.478). Based on these records, Team A has a strength of schedule (SOS) of .497 and Team B has an SOS of .478. This means that, on average, Team A’s opponents have been slightly better than Team B’s opponents.
The SOS is not a perfect way to assess a team’s strength of schedule, but it is a helpful tool. It should be used in conjunction with other measures, such as point differential and recent performance, to make informed predictions about how teams will fare in the future.
What are the benefits of SOS?
The main benefit of SOS is that it gives a more accurate representation of a team’s true strength. For example, if a team has beaten several good teams and lost to several bad teams, its record may not accurately reflect its true strength. In this case, SOS would be a better indicator of the team’s strength.
SOS can also be used to compare teams with similar records. For example, if two teams have identical records but one has played a much tougher schedule than the other, the team with the tougher schedule would be considered stronger.
How can SOS be used in the NFL?
There are a number of different ways that SOS can be used in the NFL. Perhaps the most common is using it as a tiebreaker in the standings. If two teams have the same record at the end of the season, the team with the better SOS will usually win the division or make the playoffs.
SOS can also be used to help predict how a team will do in future seasons. If a team has a strong SOS, it’s likely that they had a lot of close games and their record could have been much worse. This means that they are probably a better team than their record indicates and they could be poised for a breakout season next year. On the other hand, if a team has a weak SOS, they were probably blowing out most of their opponents and their record may not be as good next year.
Finally, SOS can be used to help bettors decide which side to take in certain games. If two teams have identical records but one has a much weaker SOS, that may be an indication that the better team is being undervalued by oddsmakers.
Conclusion
Strength of victory (SOV) is a football statistic used to determine strength of schedule. It is one of numerous factors used by the National Football League (NFL) to determine which teams will make the playoffs.
In very simple terms, strength of victory is calculated by adding up the win-loss record of each team’s opponents and dividing by the number of games played. The higher the number, the more difficult the schedule.
For example, if a team has played 13 games and their opponents have a combined record of 65-60, their SOV would be 0.500. If another team has played 13 games and their opponents have a combined record of 70-55, their SOV would be 0.552 – meaning they’ve had a slightly tougher schedule.
SOV is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to making the playoffs in the NFL – but it can be an important one. In some cases, it can be the tiebreaker between two teams with identical records.
If you’re a fan of a team on the fringe of playoff contention, pay close attention to their remaining opponents’ records. If they have a lot of winnable games on their schedule, their playoff hopes are still alive!
