Our game score metric is an attempt to quantify the entertainment factor of a given game. There are many ways for a game to be exciting, but the two scores that we calculate include a tension score and a comeback score.

  • The tension score describes how far the game was from a “tense” state which is roughly defined as each team with a 50% chance to win. The farther away the game is from this state, the higher the score, hence lower scores are more exciting. A game that is tied 0-0 throughout and then is decided by a goal in the last second would have the lowest possible score here. Also, this is a quarter-weighted metric, so a close game at the end is weighted more heavily than a close score at the beginning of the game.
  • The comeback score (not published yet) describes how much the game shifted from one team toward another. Lower scores here mean that there was a significant amount of swing within the game, which is usually going to happen if one team comes back from a significant deficit. Cutting a lead from 7 to 3 isn’t going to have a large impact on the win probabilities, so it would not factor. But going from +2 to -2 would cause a huge swing in the win odds, and as a result, would be highly rated in this metric.
Last Updated: Feb 20, 2019 11:38 CT
Home Away Date Tension Game Score (lower=closer, more tense game)
Bellarmine 6 Wagner 7 Feb 02 47
Providence 7 Boston U 8 Feb 03 48
Georgetown 14 Robert Morris 11 Feb 16 50
Lehigh 3 Hofstra 4 Feb 09 54
Rutgers 9 Army 10 Feb 16 59
Massachusetts 11 Army 12 Feb 09 60
Bucknell 11 Richmond 13 Feb 16 62
Duke 10 Denver 9 Feb 16 62
Manhattan 11 Wagner 10 Feb 09 67
Penn 12 Maryland 13 Feb 16 67
Virginia 11 Lehigh 8 Feb 15 69
Virginia 13 High Point 14 Feb 18 71
St. John’s 15 Rutgers 19 Feb 09 72
VMI 11 Manhattan 10 Feb 16 75
Mercer 10 Canisius 13 Feb 16 76
Wagner 10 Lafayette 13 Feb 15 82
Drexel 14 High Point 15 Feb 16 86
Detroit 9 Jacksonville 8 Feb 02 88
Duke 9 High Point 13 Feb 06 88
Massachusetts 7 Ohio State 11 Feb 16 88
Cleveland State 8 Michigan 10 Feb 09 91
Yale 10 Villanova 11 Feb 16 93
Furman 12 Canisius 10 Feb 19 96
Bryant 11 Providence 8 Feb 16 101
Syracuse 9 Colgate 12 Feb 08 102
Vermont 9 Holy Cross 7 Feb 16 102
Utah 13 Mercer 9 Feb 09 106
Ohio State 12 Cleveland State 9 Feb 02 107
Furman 9 Duke 17 Feb 02 107
Georgetown 13 Sacred Heart 10 Feb 09 109
Bucknell 9 Bryant 6 Feb 10 109
Jacksonville 8 Duke 15 Feb 09 110
Maryland 11 Bucknell 6 Feb 02 113
Mount St Marys 8 Delaware 11 Feb 09 114
Manhattan 5 Lafayette 13 Feb 19 114
Cleveland State 17 Bellarmine 8 Feb 16 117
Hofstra 14 Utah 10 Feb 16 117
North Carolina 16 Harvard 11 Feb 16 119
Notre Dame 19 Detroit 6 Feb 16 120
NJIT 4 Delaware 12 Feb 16 121
Binghamton 10 Colgate 16 Feb 16 123
Holy Cross 5 Providence 12 Feb 09 126
Maryland 10 Richmond 9 Feb 09 129
Towson 17 Johns Hopkins 8 Feb 09 131
Jacksonville 12 Marquette 14 Feb 15 131
Maryland 11 Colgate 6 Feb 19 132
Hartford 10 St. John’s 18 Feb 16 133
Army 10 Marist 4 Feb 19 133
Michigan 16 Drexel 17 Feb 19 134
Massachusetts-Lowell 12 Quinnipiac 10 Feb 09 135
Stony Brook 4 Penn State 17 Feb 16 135
Marquette 15 Bellarmine 9 Feb 09 137
Rutgers 14 Lafayette 8 Feb 02 138
Air Force 12 Marist 6 Feb 16 140
Johns Hopkins 12 Loyola MD 18 Feb 16 140
Navy 11 UMBC 6 Feb 15 143
Navy 13 Vermont 8 Feb 09 144
Fairfield 10 Saint Joseph’s 21 Feb 16 144
North Carolina 14 Furman 10 Feb 09 146
Lafayette 14 NJIT 10 Feb 09 146
Denver 11 Air Force 4 Feb 09 147
Penn State 17 Villanova 7 Feb 02 149
High Point 13 St. Bonaventure 0 Feb 02 150
Saint Joseph’s 15 St. Bonaventure 7 Feb 09 151
Syracuse 13 Albany 5 Feb 16 151
Boston U 15 Dartmouth 8 Feb 16 153
Loyola MD 17 Virginia 9 Feb 09 154
Mount St Marys 7 Towson 12 Feb 15 156
Utah 6 Vermont 21 Feb 01 162
Ohio State 17 Boston U 10 Feb 09 162
Mercer 9 North Carolina 20 Feb 02 166
Penn State 27 Robert Morris 10 Feb 09 169
Hobart and William 21 Canisius 12 Feb 09 169
Sacred Heart 18 Furman 11 Feb 16 170
Lehigh 15 NJIT 8 Feb 02 171
Massachusetts-Lowell 7 Holy Cross 12 Feb 19 172
Sacred Heart 11 Boston U 16 Feb 19 174
Siena 12 Hobart and William 22 Feb 16 192
Brown 20 Quinnipiac 7 Feb 16 193
Monmouth 7 Princeton 23 Feb 16 197