LaxNumbers was created by Larry Feldman, and the old Laxpower team, and Ranking Technologies, the leader in youth sports rankings, to continue the tradition of 'For the Fan, For the Sport'. Our mission is to provide the lacrosse community with a centralized database of lacrosse information, rankings, historical data, stats/records and more. We started LaxNumbers because we love the game of lacrosse and want to continue to help the sport grow around the country.

LaxNumbers' ratings are computed mathematically, with no subjective weighting or human determined values. LaxNumbers' algorithm computes an overall average performance rating for teams based upon how well they play against other teams and how good those teams are. A team's overall rating then determines a team's ranking position based on the national, regional, state, and/or sub-state ranking categories a team is placed in. The two main factors in the algorithm are "AGD" or "average goal differential" and "SCHED" or "strength of schedule". AGD is currently calculated by accumulating the goal differential of each game, to a maximum of 10, and divided it by the number of games played. The strength of schedule is computed by averaging the rating of each game opponent. AGD and SCHED are added together to compute a team's rating. A team's overall rating is typically not reflective of the team's best or worst games, but a mathematically computed average performance rating that translates game scores into a numeric representation of team performance.

Yes, LaxNumbers uses a maximum goal differential of 10 just like Laxpower. There is one small caveat. Intrastate games where two teams are more than 10 goals apart AND the higher ranked team wins by at least 10 goals will be considered "non-counting" in LaxNumbers to avoid negatively impacting the winning team in that scenario. If the teams are more than 10 goals apart AND the higher ranked team does not win by 10 or more goals, the game will count towards the rankings like normal. Games between teams less than 10 goals apart and games between teams from different states will always be considered a counting game in LaxNumbers.

LaxNumbers does not give preferential treatment to any specific teams, states, or geographic areas. All teams are assumed to be equal and having a rating of zero before the system mathematically calculates your SCHED and AGD based entirely upon game performance. A team's SCHED is not only determined by the teams it plays, but by the teams its opponents play, and its opponents' opponents play, etc. All teams in a given age level and gender (i.e. Boys High School) are ranked in one statistical pool. The algorithm does not know what state or area a team is from or any of the team's historical ratings. It simply uses current season game results to compute an average performance rating based upon who a team has played (SCHED) and how well they have done (AGD) for the games recorded in the system.

In general, as teams start getting 8-10+ games under their belts, the system tends to be extremely accurate. There are, however, some occasional exceptions.

If a group of teams (i.e. state or conference/division) doesn't play teams outside its initial subset, their overall rating and ranking placement relative to all other teams cannot be accurately be determined. Their rating and ranking placement relative to one another is still accurate, however. Groups of teams with limited outside play can be inaccurately skewed by the few game results connecting them to all other teams, which might not be representative of the group's overall ability. Accuracy significantly increases with more games and more interplay and it makes sense for there to be a minimum number of games before teams are ranked.

Assuming teams have all played enough games against conference and non-conference teams, inaccuracies may still exist. Some teams play differently (a lot differently) depending upon which goalie is in net for a specific game. In this case, the ratings average out the play and may not completely reflect either scenario. Missing players, home vs. away, double rostered players are a few other scenarios that could influence the accuracy of the ratings. It is not an exact science. The ratings should be used to determine what teams might be good non-league opponents and which bracket of a tournament may be more appropriate, they are not meant to be the AP Poll or the definitive end all be all of high school lacrosse.

There are a couple weaknesses to the current system. The first deficiency is with teams that emphasize development in some games. Teams that focus on development can be "penalized" because their performance tends to be lower in some games than their true playing capability if they played to their full potential. That same team may then focus on winning conference, league, district, and state tournaments, and succeed in their goal because they have fostered player development over the course of the season but may never achieve the high rating and ranking placement that they truly "deserve". Secondly, teams that are hot in the second half of the season are still negatively impacted by poor performances early in the season. All games throughout the season count equally and that may not reflect a team's true playing ability near the end of the season.

A matchup between two teams that are more than 10 goals (1 goal=1 point) apart AND the higher ranked team wins by at least 10 goals will be considered "non-counting" in Laxnumbers. Non-counting games will include a sportsmanship differential (SD) on the team's rating math tab. Laxnumbers wants to encourage and promote good sportsmanship as well as player development by not forcing higher ranked teams to win by X amount to make up the math in the rankings. If the teams are more than 10 goals apart AND the higher ranked team does not win by 10 or more goals, the game will count towards the rankings like normal. It is important the lower ranked team is rewarded if they outperform expectations.

Yes, it seems wrong, but a team that you have a winning record against can be ranked ahead of you. It is all in the mathematics. It depends on who else your team has played and how well you did as well as who the other team has played and how well they did. In a season of games, there will be some anomalies. Sometimes a team simply matches up well against an opponent but is not necessarily better than them over a whole season's body of work.

A team's overall performance rating can go down even though a team wins. This can happen for a couple different reasons. First, if your team is rated 3.0 points (1 point = 1 goal) better than your opponent and you win a game by 1 goal, your average goal differential (AGD) for the game is +1.0 against a team that it was expected to be +3.0. This would likely have a negative impact on your rating. Another scenario has you doing as expected against your opponent, but a large percentage of the teams you played earlier in the season doing unexpectedly bad. This lowers your strength of schedule and would lower your team's rating. It is almost impossible to guess how much and in what direction your rating will move each week because of the complexity of the math. LaxNumbers has a "Rating Math" tab on each team's info page that explains the math behind each game result and if it positively or negatively impacted a team.

Everything is relative. The number specifically means nothing, but it is used to understand the relative competitiveness of two different teams. A 1.0 point differential between two teams equates to a theoretical goal 1.0 goal advantage by the team with the higher point value.

"Record" is represented by wins-loses-ties. As described above, the "Rating" is simply the sum of the "AGD" and "SCHED". "AGD" is average goal differential. This can be a positive or negative number that equals goals for (GF) minus goals against (GA) divided by games played (GP). One caveat, the system currently has a maximum goal differential of ten (10) for any single game played. This means that if a team plays a number of games decided by more than ten goals, it's not quite as simple as GF-GA/GP. "SCHED" is the average strength of schedule of all opponents. "SCHED" can be calculated by adding the "RATING" for all opponents together and dividing it by total number of games played. Click any team's team name to view their team info page and game results.

Here are a couple hints to give you the full power of LaxNumbers. Any team name is clickable and will take you to that team's team info page and game results. Clicking on the team name will open an additional window to this team's web site. When viewing scores, each opponent's schedule is just a click away. For example, if you are viewing the game scores of Team X and they played Team Y, you can view Team Y's game scores by simply clicking on Team Y's name. Teams with websites or social media accounts linked in LaxNumbers will have a corresponding icon in the last column of the rankings. Simply click the corresponding icon to view their team website or social media pages.

LaxNumbers ranks all Boy's and Girl's high school lacrosse teams in the United States as well as virtually all levels of Men's and Women's college lacrosse. Teams recognized as JV, Freshmen or middle school teams are not included in the rankings.

Team officials can fix an incorrect game result or scheduled game through their team official portal. Non-team officials can click the red check mark in the "Fix" column next to the game result or scheduled game to submit a game score correction request if a game result or scheduled game is listed incorrectly. Please provide documentation (a team website, twitter account or MaxPreps that has the correct score posted is preferable) and tell us specifically how to fix the score. If the score is a duplicate, especially an incorrect duplicate, make sure you request that we delete the duplicate score.

Interested in helping out? Click here to find out how. You can also send LaxNumbers an email to info at laxnumbers dot com or fill out our form.