I’ve been working on a sports analytics project that takes a deeper, data-driven look at the 2025-26 NCAA Division III Men’s Hockey season. Instead of just looking at standard wins and losses, or relying on conference reputation, I wanted to build a true power ranking system. To do this, I tracked down where every single player in D3 hockey played their junior or previous college hockey, assigning a talent weight to each roster. I then combined this recruiting data with an ELO-based strength of schedule metric to see how roster talent and tough competition actually translate to winning.