What D3 Football Fans Should Know About NPI – Episode 89

October 23, 2024

It’s the time of the year when more and more focus shifts onto the national scene as Division III football fans try to make sense of the developing playoff picture. In the past that meant trying to filter through weekly regional rankings but that system is gone, replaced by the NCAA Power Index, also known as NPI.

We have been digging into the details of NPI going back to last summer and while we may not be equipped to break down the teams on the field we are equipped to break down the teams in the data. Sport committees had three seasons of data they looked through in their process to set the initial dials for NPI. By replicating NPI and applying it to those years we can get a historical look at NPI to build in some expectations and a framework as we watch the actual first year of NPI play out.

While we can’t say for certain which teams will finish as top 8 seeds or make the tournament as an at-large selection, we can get a pretty good idea of what the teams that ultimately do will look like.

Related Links:
D3 Datacast Football NPI