AF Top 25: Saints Alive!
The Super 16‘s Who Dat Saints (7-1-0) remain AF#1 for the second consecutive week after extinguishing the Arizona Firebirds (4-3-0), 230-188 in Week 8, and improving their Power Rank to 26 from last week’s record high mark of 32. This sets a new bar for the highest PR an Associaition team has ever reached in the three years of the current ranking formula and is inching closer to the statistically perfect mark of 15. The Saints will be mightily tested in Week 9 though, facing arch rival and ever dangerous division foe Birds of Prey (5-3-0) in a double-bye week match-up. The Birds are just outside of the Top 25 right now, coming in at AF#30.
Last week’s AF#2 London Falling (6-2-0) of the World League, held onto their Week 8 position as well, despite losing in a barnburner 148-154 to the then-ranked AF#10 City of Champions (5-3-0). Even with the loss, thanks to the high score and a fantastic efficiency rating, the 3-time Coach of the Year managed Falling actually improved their Power Ranking from 93 to 79. They’re featured again this week in the World League’s Premier match of the Week (Battle of Britain) in another brutal match-up, this time against defending World Champion and long time rival AF#17 Old England Patriots (6-2-0).
With their highest ranking yet of 2019, Fantasy Addicts‘ 99 Bortles of Beer on the Wall (6-2-0) moves up a spot to AF#3 after slaughtering the Mighty Pats (5-3-0), 377-250 last week. 99 Bortles has been leading the Addicts league from right out of the gate this season, managing to distinguish themselves in what the AF Stats Department has noted, is seeing an extraordinary degree of parity this year. The per game scoring average for all teams in the league falls between a low of 238 and a high of 303 through 8 games and for the 2nd through 5th place teams that range is 277 to 303, while 99 Bortles’ per game average is currently sitting all the way up at 325.
Bortles’ move into AF#3 displaces the World League‘s Milan Wild Boars (7-1-0) who suffered an upset loss, 76-103 to the unranked Toronto Bandits (2-6-0) – their first of the season – and tumble all the way down to AF#6 this week. But in the League’s Western Conference, 2018 League Runner-Up, City of Champions, leapfrogged the Boars, jumping all the way to AF#4 after their victory over London. The City of Champions Oilers join the AF#24 Sleeper Agent (5-3-0) and AF#25 monkeys on ecstasy (5-3-0) as 2019 Pro Bowl Tournament teams making it into the Top 25 this week.
Rounding out the Top 5 is AF Rookie AF#5 Central City Flash (6-2-0) from the brand new Justice League who have been on every edition of the Top 25 this season, and have been in the top 10 for 3 weeks straight. Not only does the Flash lead the league in total scoring, but also in Passing Yards, Receiving Yards, and Total Yards.
The AF Top 25 and League Team Rankings are compiled weekly by the AF Stats Department, analyzing multiple points of data including record, scoring, consistency and efficiency to draw comparisons for all Association League teams against each other. When all data sets are tabulated and combined, they produce a Power Ranking for each team, ranging from a high of 15 (perfect score) to a low of 1635 (worst possible score). The rankings are cumulative, and run through all the way to the end of the season. You can see full details on our ranking methodology at the AF Top 25 FAQ Page. You can find an updating scoreboard for all matches involving Top 25 teams on the right sidebar of the Top 25 Page (accessible by clicking the tab on right if you’re viewin on a mobile device)so that teams on the Top 25 can keep an eye on how the competition is doing. On the Full Rankings Page you can view the complete scoring metrics in all categories for all 109 ranked AF Teams.