After completing my 467th sack this season, I began to wonder if there was anyone keeping track of my stellar performance from game to game. In fact, there are. IM statisticians keep detailed records of the wins and losses of the colleges throughout the year. I was fortunate enough to get access to these numbers, through the help of Peter Jasinski, DC ’12. This article highlights some of the interesting things one can find in our little world of sports.

Highest Win Percentage = .630, Silliman

This is actually rather surprising. Silliman came in third place for the Tyng, behind Timothy Dwight (.619) and Jonathan Edwards (.607). If the standings were calculated on the basis of win percentage, and not Tyng Points, the 2008–2009 season would have ended up like this: 1) Silliman (.630); 2) Timothy Dwight (.619); 3) Jonathan Edwards (.607); 4) Ezra Stiles (.574); 5) Berkeley (.565); 6) Saybrook (.541); 7) Davenport (.454); 8) Branford (.447); 9)Morse (.439); 10) Trumbull (.394); 11) Calhohn (.359); and 12) Pierson (.258). Silliman is actually the only college that would have been aided by this scheme. Every other college would have ended up in the same relative position.

So how did the biggest winner still lose? Remember that Tyng Cup standings are not solely based on wins and losses—different sports have different weights based on the number of people who participate. The Salamanders were dominant in many sports that had lower point distributions such as Coed Football, Women’s Squash, and Volleyball (all with win percentages over .900, but values below six points per win) but were not as strong in the sports with higher point values. (Not as strong being a relative term, because a 7-4 Men’s Soccer team is nothing to laugh at.)

While Silliman was building dynasties, JE and TD were making coalitions. These two colleges had fewer teams with extraordinarily high win rates, but had a lot of teams with pretty good ones. This demonstrates an interesting quirk of IMs. Individual talent is helpful, because everyone loves a strong team, but it’s the strength of the organization that counts the most. TD and JE were better able to mobilize the whole college, and that’s what matters at the end of the year.

Number of Undefeated Teams = 15

Out of all 360 Intramural Teams across all 12 colleges, only 15 teams managed to complete a season without a loss. Silliman had the most undefeated teams: Women’s Cross Country, Women’s Squash, Men’s Volleyball, and Spring Golf. In contrast, there were 27 winless teams, and eight of them hailed from the Fighting Walruses of Morse College. This number is a bit misleading though. Usually, we would assume that a loss means that you showed up and got beat. Often, in IMs, losses are the results of forfeits. Unfortunately, the data on forfeits is not available as of press time.

Most Points gained in a single season = 474

Timothy Dwight put up 474 points in the Fall season out of a possible 696. This put them out front, and winning the fall season is one of the best predictors of a strong year, because it has the highest point values due to several high roster sports (Ping-Pong, Tennis, and Soccer are all over ten points) and the length of the season. Trumbull College had the least in a season, scoring a lowly 36.5 points in the spring. As a whole, total scores for the spring season are particularly low because of the shortness of the season—only five games are played per sport.

Unfortunately, I could not find information about sacks, tackles, receiving yards, points per game, or other individual records. It’s probably for the best though—not only because we’re just playing around with our friends, but also because intramurals aren’t about a single player or team. It’s supposed to be the sum total of a college’s spirit and teamwork. The winners are those that can find a way to bring in as many people as possible and use their skills to the benefit of the wider community. In order to bring home some hardware, you’ve gotta bring everybody out to play.