Statman

As a professional statistician, I can't help but criticize the use of such systems because for the most part - they are nothing more than bogus. In this case and according to ESPN's own definition: "The Football Power Index (FPI) is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of a team's performance going forward for the rest of the season." Well then . . . that's the problem. If the statistic derived does NOT consistently predict "the team's performance going forward" - than it is not a "valid" statistic. Prediction is the strength of most uses of parametric and nonparametric statistics.