Ratings are based on:

That's all. The calculation uses the Sonas formula (proposed to replace the Elo formula for ranking chess players). The DKC Rankings is the only football ranking system to use the Sonas formula. Elements of the Billingsley, Wrathell, Sagarin, and Howell ranking systems are utilized in this system.

Rank is carried over from last season, but each team's score is reset to a fixed rating dependent on the team's rank. New for 2009, a strength of schedule component has been added, which will factor in to the calculations after week 2. This factor is essentially 3/4 of the SOS rank for a team for that week.

Bonus points are awarded for winning a conference and for being undefeated at the end of the regular season.

In terms of non-region games vs. non-conference opponents (for example, a 5A team vs. a 4A team), wins over such opponents are not counted toward calculations of conference strength. Bonus points are awarded to the team, though, for beating upper division teams (3A vs 4A) but not for beating lower division teams (2A vs 1A). Losses to upper division teams are not penalized as much as losses to lower division teams. Regardless of win or loss vs. a non-region opponent however, the game will be reflected in the win/loss columns.

Teams not a member of the AIA are assigned a rating of 120.675. Since this system does not rank non-AIA members, the average rating over the past three years was calculated and ratings were assigned and adjusted to factor in additions / removals of schools.

Juniors or JV teams are assigned a rating of 100.035 using the same methodology as above.

All idle teams gain a fixed number of points based on the average rating of all the teams in the prior week.

All points are added together and ranks assigned.

Adjustments are then made by comparing win percentage and total losses - more losses means less points are gained per win. A calculated head-to-head adjustment is also added should two teams be ranked "closely" and the loser is ranked higher than the winner, but by no means does this ensure that the winner will end up ranked higher than the loser - it simply gives credit to the winner for playing, and beating, a higher ranked team. Another way to explain it is thus: say Team A is ranked #2 and loses to Team B ranked #20. After the initial calculations are completed, Team A drops to #10 and Team B rises to #14. Just because Team B beat Team A does not give Team B the ability to jump to #9; conversely, it would not be prudent to drop Team A to #15 either based on that one game.

After these final adjustments, teams are re-ranked, and the final output is available.

Ratings are usually updated on Monday mornings (assuming the weekend scores have all been reported).