Power Ranking The NFL Power Rankings
Sports fans love to argue, and there’s no better way to start an argument than a systematic ranking of the teams. You can find these rankings for nearly every sport. There’s NASCAR power rankings, Tennis power rankings, WNBA power rankings, and why the heck not, even reality television power rankings.
But what’s so powerful about them? Aren’t they just an ordered ranking of the teams followed by little blurbs? Why hasn’t anyone put a different word in front of rankings before, like “Virility Rankings” or “Moxie rankings. It’s always power rankings … but some are more powerful than others.
There’s never been a thorough examination of this power ranking phenomenon, so we here at SportScape took it upon ourselves to officially power-rank which site has the most powerful power rankings.
Pretty meta, huh?
Quality power rankings really only boil down to four things:
- Some little writeup before the rankings that either mentions a trend or something interesting about several teams.
- An accurate and thoughtful ranking of all the teams, in order of their power.
- Some sort of additional writeup on each team, possibly detailing their ranking of power.
- Putting it all together in a visual package that’s not painful to the eyes.
With that, we have ranked 10 of the Internet’s most widely-read Power rankings. They’re charted 1 through 10, according to – what else – their power.
Sports Illustrated NFL Power Rankings by Don Banks
It’s exactly what you’re looking for in a power ranking. There’s always a solid writeup to lead into the rankings, followed by a paragraph on each team. And with a nice layout, it’s probably the easiest to read among its power ranking brethren. Granted, it’s not the same without Dr. Z’s voice, but it still stands as the gold standard of power rankings.
ESPN NFL Power Rankings by a panel of experts
ESPN mixes the power ranking structure up a little. Instead of one writer giving one voice, the rankings are decided by a panel, who then contribute thoughts on the various teams. Their voice is noble, but there’s not consistently good insight on each of the team’s comment.
CBS Sports Power Rankings by Pete Prisco
This is what we’re talking about when it comes to power rankings. There’s an excellent lead-in to the rankings, followed by good analysis on each team. And if you click on the “trends” button, you can see exactly what was said about each team on various weeks. This is an excellent take on the power rankings phenomenon, and should be applauded.
Yahoo! 32 Questions with Mike Silver
Mike Silver’s writeup isn’t technically a power ranking, in fact you won’t find those words anywhere in his column. But following his intro is a veritable ranking of the teams, followed by one pertinent question per club. So should it count in these rankings? Well, since it performs the same function, we say yes. And Yahoo gets credit for managing to avoid calling it what every other site in the world calls it.
AOL Fanhouse NFL Power Rankings
Solid.
Not fancy or outlandish. Just a good intro and per-team analysis, nothing more or less.
NFL.com Power Rankings by Jason La Canfora
This is probably the most stripped-down rendition of power rankings out there. It’s simply a one-sentence intro followed by one-sentence write-ups on each team. No logos, table or measure of where a team stacked up last week. The writing is great, but where’s the production value?
USA Today Power Ranks (fans chime in against experts)
USA Today melds a couple of approaches, as both fans and a panel of experts vote on the rankings. But again, there’s no real intro to the rankings and no more than a sentence of analysis on each team. I guess that’s what we should have expected from the fast food of newspapers.
NBC Sports Power Rankings presented by Pro Football Talk.com
There’s nothing technically wrong with these rankings. But there’s no pre-ranking writeup and very little analysis on each team. I know Mike Florio runs the entire site from his basement, but he can do better.
Bleacher Report NFL Power Rankings by Jordan Schwartz
This is only one of about 5,293,583 NFL power rankings you can find on Bleacher Report, but that doesn’t make it any less solid. Nice intro, fine write-ups on each team. Could do more in the way of packaging, but at least he didn’t opt for a slideshow like other BR writers.
Fox Sports Power Rankings
Nice layout and good commentary on each team, but it lacks a good intro that introduces any sort of theme or trend. And while the piece is penned by an author, it seems like it was spat out of a machine.
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1 Response for “Power Ranking The NFL Power Rankings”
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How can you claim to have any expertise on this subject and then leave out the SideLines Power Rankings? It fits your own criteria to a T. Nice intro, check. Nice packaging,check. Good commentary on each ranked entity, check..
You know the only reason you left it out is because it’s not ESPN or SI. I’m really tired of the East Coast bias around here.