What I am doing here is very much in the nature of an experiment, and this first version of it will have many, many flaws. The most visible of those flaws is that at this point I am working with data for only ten teams—the top 10 teams in the country—and thus am able to consider only players from those teams as eligible for these power ratings.

The end point here. . .the last step on the thousand-mile journey, of which this is the first step. . .is to have daily ratings of the top college basketball players in the country, by position. . .the top point guards, the top shooting guards, etc. Well, I said the “top” players, but why stop there; why not rate all the point guards in the country, or all the centers?

At this point I am sorting players by position based on a statistical formula, and it is reasonably likely that I have some players sorted into the wrong positions. We’ll get those things corrected, but. . .we have to start somewhere, and this is the beginning of this effort.

Thanks... Bill James