So here is my 4 season window + a 5th season to show what my last season is replacing in D2 in Phelan. As you can see the difference between season 26 and 22 is minimal, a few wins and being ranked in season 22 but having the slighlty better RPI in season 26.

26	kmasonbx	23-8	10-2	10-4	3-2	15-1		19	A	Conf Champion NT At-large Bid NT (Sweet 16)
25	kmasonbx	21-10	8-2	10-6	3-2	13-3		17	A+	NT At-large Bid NT (2nd Round)
24	kmasonbx	25-8	10-1	10-5	5-2	15-1	7	7	A+	Conf Champion NT At-large Bid NT (Elite 8)
23	kmasonbx	27-6	10-2	11-3	6-1	16-0	5	2	A+	Conf Champion CT Champion NT (Elite 8)
22	kmasonbx	27-5	12-1	11-2	4-2	15-1	13	20	A+	Conf Champion NT At-large Bid NT (Sweet 16)

Now compare this with seasons 14-17 where my prestige climbed from A- to A+ season 13 is also included to show what season 17 replaced.

17	kmasonbx	26-5	11-1	11-3	4-1	14-2	16	4	A+	CT Champion NT (2nd Round)
16	kmasonbx	24-7	10-3	10-3	4-1	16-0	19	16	A	Conf Champion CT Champion NT (2nd Round)
15	kmasonbx	24-6	12-1	10-3	2-2	14-2		28	A-	Conf Champion NT At-large Bid NT (1st Round)
14	kmasonbx	17-12	9-2	7-8	1-2	12-4		41	A-	NT At-large Bid NT (1st Round)
13	kmasonbx	22-8	10-2	10-4	2-2	12-4		32	A	NT At-large Bid NT (2nd Round)

Now can anybody explain why my prestige just dropped to A when it was an A+ after season 17? I sent in a ticket and was told by CS that there has been no logic change to prestige in the engine, so I'm really baffled.

The last two seasons are weighted more heavily. Focus on that window and you replaced a better season with a weaker one.

But I agree it's not that much worse. Depends on how far above your baseline you are at A+.

kmason, I think RPI is the reason - the last two seasons you have been high with 17 and 19 RPIs, whereas in season 17 you had an RPI of 4 (your first single digit RPI).  Prestige is closely tied to RPI.  Also, when you were an A+ in season 25, you could have just been over that A+ line and when your RPI got worse the next year (even with a longer NT run) to 19, it swung you just over the other side of the line to A prestige.

You need to understand that you are not replacing season 22 with season 26. The 4 year window is weighted differently. The most recent season is weighted more heavily.

As a simple example, just considering RPI and nothing else. Suppose the weights were: 40% for most recent, 30% for next one back, then 20% and 10% for the 3rd and 4th back.
 
So weighting your RPI gives (0.4 * 19) + (0.3 * 17) + (0.2 * 7) + (0.1 * 2) = 14.3
Looking at the same thing for last season gives (0.4 * 17) + (0.3 * 7) + (0.2 * 2) + (0.1 * 20) = 11.3

So, last season would give a lower RPI.

Now there are other things that get weighted in also, plus the weights that I gave are just as an example, but this shows that it is clearly reasonable for it to happen.

Actually it seems we are all calculating prestige incorrectly at the D2 level. Apparently the 4 year window only applies to D1, D2/D3 are calculated differently and are based more on a season by season basis.

Here is how the knowledgebase states prestige is calculated in D2/D3 according to CS:

In DII and DIII, prestige is updated at the end of each season based on the following items:

* Current prestige
* Team winning percentage
* Strength of schedule (SOS)
* Postseason bids/wins (National Tournament worth more than PIT)

So it seems RPI is ignored, but that's made up for by SOS. If these things are listed in order of importance it seems odd to me postseason wins would be the 4th most important factor rather than at worse the 2nd most important factor behind current prestige.

The biggest part of prestige is the postseason success. An average of a s16 for the last two seasons gets you an A+ prestige. The reason your back to back 2nd rounders got you an A+ was because that year you were clearly a top team (1 seed that got upset?) and your regular season success was enough to get you up to an A+. In your last two seasons, you were not a top team in the regular season and the two seasons before didn't have a f4 or better, so you needed two s16's and you didn't quite get that. I see no problem with this. Wouldn't be surprised if you're almost to the borderline so a lot of wins + a s16 will probably get you to an A+ and an e8 with 20+ wins would get you there for sure.

Posted by kmasonbx on 6/20/2010 1:05:00 PM (view original):
Actually it seems we are all calculating prestige incorrectly at the D2 level. Apparently the 4 year window only applies to D1, D2/D3 are calculated differently and are based more on a season by season basis.

Here is how the knowledgebase states prestige is calculated in D2/D3 according to CS:

In DII and DIII, prestige is updated at the end of each season based on the following items:

* Current prestige
* Team winning percentage
* Strength of schedule (SOS)
* Postseason bids/wins (National Tournament worth more than PIT)

So it seems RPI is ignored, but that's made up for by SOS. If these things are listed in order of importance it seems odd to me postseason wins would be the 4th most important factor rather than at worse the 2nd most important factor behind current prestige.

These are most of the factors that make up RPI - so in essense - it is tied to RPI

Well in D1 RPI is specifically listed as a factor for prestige. RPI can be gamed easily by playing a bunch of road games, so a team with only an OK SOS can still have a great RPI by playing all road games. This is easier to take advantage of at the D2 and D3 levels since HCA is not as drastic as it is in D1.