True Champion Sports uses the following abbreviations, terms and concepts within the ‘Team Pages’. Many of these are unique to TCS.
Abbreviations
WTB: Win tie-breaker
LTB: Lose tie-breaker
F.P.E: Franchise Points Earned
B2B: ‘Back-to-Back’ Championship/ Conference Titles
B3B: ‘Back-to-Back-to-Back’= (3 consecutive Championships/ Conf. Titles)
B4B: ‘Back-to-Back-to-Back- to-Back’= (4 consecutive Championships/ Conf. Titles)
Expansion L & B
Leniency and/or Bonus points produced by TCS' Franchise Performance Algorithm that are applied during the team's expansion phase/ infancy.
* (Asterisk)
a) Normally used to denote a ‘lucky’ Division Championship. Calls attention to a result in the final standings that is rare given the team’s performance.
Example: The 2010 Seattle Seahawks who win the NFC West Division with a record of 7-9.
b) On the TCS Team Pages the asterisk is also used to denote NFL Playoff Games that concluded in OT.
A double asterisk denotes double-overtime playoff games.
Pennant Race Points (Baseball)
These are positive franchise performance points earned. They are assigned under the category of the Team Pages which is normally used for ‘Notable Regular Season Results’; typically recorded at the end of the regular season.
Prior to the expanded playoff format in 1995, Major League Baseball had a very small postseason structure. During the Divisional Era, (1969-1993), in order to qualify for the postseason a team had to win their 6 or 7 team division. This was most commonly referred to as ‘winning the Pennant’.
During the majority of baseball’s history, playing meaningful games deep in the regular season essentially functioned like being part of the playoffs. When a team still had a chance of winning the Pennant as of September 1st, this created the type of excitement for players and fans, that would be generated from qualifying for the playoffs in modern times.
In terms of awarding franchise performance points, TCS recognizes that playing meaningful games in September for most of baseball’s history was in essence, like qualifying for the playoffs nowadays.
‘Snubbed’
I use this term to highlight unlucky seasons- in which a team’s regular season performance is unlucky not to have achieved a better result at the conclusion of the regular season. Examples:
TCS’ Win % (Hockey)
Winning Percentage has always been one of the most basic and fundamental statistics in understanding a team’s regular season performance in Major League Baseball, the NFL, and the NBA.
However in hockey leagues, winning percentage has never been used because the NHL has always used a point system to produce their standings; which always has accurately reflected winning percentage – that is until the major changes in 1999.
Beginning with the introduction of the OTL result in 1999/00, the accurate correlation between NHL Points and winning percentage was undone. No longer would the NHL Points also order the teams according to their winning percentage.
For the last 16 years, it’s become important to track teams’ winning percentages because their point totals can be misleading. Tracking winning percentage for hockey teams is a creation of True Champion Sports.
*For more Information read the article “Explaining the Fundamental Flaw in the NHL’s Standings”
OTW (Hockey)
This abbreviation represents Overtime + Shootout Wins.
In order to calculate winning percentage for hockey teams over the past 16 seasons, it must be known how many total games a team won in Overtime + Shootout.
These are games where the team receives a full win in the standings, yet concedes a point to their opponent. From a winning percentage standpoint, an OTW is worth 66.66% of a full win, because the team receives only 66.66% of the points awarded for that game.
In addition, an OTL which the NHL does track, is worth 33.33% of a full win from a winning percentage standpoint. The losing team still receives 33.33% of the points awarded for that game.
