The CzarPI Explained

The CzarPI, rhymes with RPI, short for The Czar's Power Index, is an advanced RPI calculation used to evaluate teams across the state of Minnesota.  A team's CzarPI value represents the percentage of their season performance compared to a perfect season.  This allows the CzarPI to be a consistent barometer across seasons for historical comparison.

Some fundamental principles of The CzarPI

• A winless team has a CzarPI of 0.  Wins are ultimately what determines if team A is better than team B so if a team loses, their value cannot be determined.
• Wins against non-MSHSL teams are not counted as the quality of the win cannot be quantified and this is a comparison of teams playing in the state tournament series.  However, based on the first principle, losses are counted.
  Note: Starting with the 2014-15 season, losses against non-MSHSL teams are no longer counted.  This means that all non-MSHSL games are ignored.
• Teams with equal records are ordered by the quality of their wins vs their schedule results.
• The CzarPI is based only on the games played, not games to be played in the future. 
• The CzarPI will not wash your dog, find the lost city of Atlantis, cure world hunger or fix my morbid obesity.  Like all computerized rankings that do not include a human factor, this ranking should only used be as 1 tool of many to evaluate a team.

Some fundamental differences between The CzarPI and the QRF

• The QRF only takes into account wins and doesn't account for losses when determining the value for a specific game (iQRF).  The full QRF is an average across all games played so losses do count there.  The CzarPI takes into account wins and losses for an individual game and also averages per game results.
• The QRF only counts opponents wins.  That means a team with 22 wins against a great schedule is treated the same as a team with 22 wins against a weak schedule.  (Note: In 2013-14, it appears the QRF now includes opponent's opponent's wins with a class value).  The CzarPI takes into account the opponents record, the opponents opponents record and the opponents opponents opponents record.
• The QRF uses class differential.  I agree that class differential can be a valuable criteria when evaluating any game.  However it is my opinion that is not equal statewide.  For example, a class AA team in the metro where there are many private schools with kids from a large area vs a AA public school in the outstate is a major difference.  Therefore, I do not include it in the CzarPI.  
• Margin of Victory was included in the QRF until the 2011-12 season but is no longer in use.  I also feel that criteria was far too subjective to be used blindly by a calculation so I have never included it in the CzarPI.