SBNhanced Power Rankings: Major League Soccer, Week 9
Once a week, the Major League Soccer minds at SB Nation get together and talk about inappropriate uses of football icons, the virtues of Rachel McAdams in Sherlock Holmes, and cumbersome ways to get people to buy shoes.
I’ll admit to leading the discussion of topic #2.
When those issues are settled, Major League Soccer’s results are congregated, aggregated, agitated and debated. The product: a nice ordered list with graphical elements that seems to correspond to how the seven of us see MLS’s power structure.
This week’s top tier is the same, with Real Salt Lake and San Jose approaching Los Angeles, Columbus perfection. Toronto jumps from pretenders to contenders, but aside from Preki getting his team on-tracked, there is little movement in the order. If anything, there’s calcification, as seen in the point-gaps between the tiers.
You and me could write some SBNhanced Power Rankings:
| The Cup Contenders | ||
|---|---|---|
 | Los Angeles Galaxy |  100% (21 out of 21 points) |
 | Columbus Crew | 100% (21 out of 21 points) |
 | Real Salt Lake | 95% (20 out of 21 points) |
 | San Jose Earthquakes | 95% (20 out of 21 points) |
| Postseason, But Little More | ||
 | Houston Dynamo | 67% (14 out of 21 points) |
 | Colorado Rapids | 67% (14 out of 21 points) |
 | Red Bull New York | 62% (13 out of 21 points) |
 | Toronto FC | 57% (12 out of 21 points) |
| "Playoffs? Playoffs?" | ||
 | FC Dallas | 33% (7 out of 21 points) |
 | Chicago Fire | 33% (7 out of 21 points) |
 | Seattle Sounders | 29% (6 out of 21 points) |
 | Kansas City Wizards | 19% (4 out of 21 points) |
 | Chivas USA | 19% (4 out of 21 points) |
| And with the third pick in the 2011 MLS Superdraft ... | ||
 | New England Revolution | 5% (1 out of 21 points) |
 | Philadelphia Union | 0% (0 out of 21 points) |
 | DC United | 0% (0 out of 21 points) |
How It Works: Each of the seven participants puts Major League Soccer’s clubs into one of the four tiers. Teams in the top tier get three points. Next tier, two points, then one, then zilch. Voters can put as many teams into each tier as they would like. Though the vote total orders the teams, the clubs are intended to be grouped, not sorted.
