I agree, it would be a ridiculous amount of work to start defining that some games are worth less than others.
Because parents will complain if they don't post scores
I could care less now
If you can’t afford to, just say that is the reason. The logic of weighing showcase games differently is solid and it woul make the system better. At least at the ECNL level, it wouldn’t be that hard (at least on the surface) because the showcases are clearly known. I am not saying your system isn’t good, I just am saying it would be better. Your system is the best out there currently and that is why I pay for it.
Why does it matter? Does it make a difference if your team is ranked higher or lower? Rankings is fun, but it's 100% parent ego.
It is a form of measurement. As a competitor, it is a “non” or “less“ subjective way of measuring performance. Not sure what you mean by “matter”. A lot of things you find important to you doesn’t “matter” to me. What matters is subjective. Everything I do that has importance to me matters, and I want to continually improve upon and that is way measuring is important. Until soccer becomes professional, this is all fun and games. So yes, it is fun, but there are a lot more than just parents that look at the rankings. Highly competitive people will understand this. If you are not, you won’t. It may just be different strokes for different folks.
The advantage of the ranking app is it does one thing pretty well. If you start weighting results it wont be as good (depending on your perspective) at the one thing it does well. Also how do you define the weight of certain games? How would you place equivalent levels of weight to the same type of event run by different leagues? What if the results of the same type of event is used in one league for results and not used in others to do the same? What if one league does a certain type of event more than another? You want certain events (showvases) to have less weight in defining ranking. Other people will want other events (playoffs) to have more weight. What about adding a "power" ranking to certain regional leagues like what college does? Maybe certain tournaments should have more weight then others. As you can see you might get a "better" result by weighting results but the problem is you add in subjectivity and perspective. Subjectivity will open the door to exploitation. On top of everything else it would be a massive amount of work to maintain an event weight definition. Also the definition of weight will change over time. What this means is that the value of data will be low because the definition of weight added will be inconsistent.
Nobody other than parents are looking at the rankings. College coaches don't care about nuanced rankings...they generally know what clubs and leagues produce the best players.
I think college coaches look at the rankings app for a general understanding of a club or teams ability. Its free and easy to use so why not? However they likely dont care if teams are 1st or 50th its more to understand the level of play players on XYZ team are used to and capable of.
unfortunately some coaches have not caught onto this yet and are still trying to win these games or using the games to try new formations or lineups instead of using them to showcase the players in their strongest positions to help them get recruited.
That is funny but true
Is anyone honestly looking at team rankings anymore at this age? There's no way anyone cares about this anymore right?
No, rankings no longer matter.
I'm not sure this is accurate for everybody. Nobody admits to caring much at all, sure. But in the instance they believe that their kid's team rating is unfairly incorrect, or a competing team has an "unfairly higher rating", just by looking at posts complaining about it here it seems there is in fact some care involved.
