New BBSM developments for 2026, and the first highlights of the Western Ultimate League season.
March 27, 2026 by Paul Würtztack in Analysis
Welcome to Better Box Score Metrics, our analytics column focused primarily on semi-pro statistics and discovering new ways to use data to explore ultimate. It is anchored by EDGE, which we can summarize as converting goals, assists, blocks, turnovers, and yards gained into one metric, while accounting for the scoring and turnover environment.
BBSM generally doesn’t get out of its winter slumber until the spring equinox. But with the WUL opening a week earlier than last year, we’re already behind, so let’s get to it.
The New EDGE Metrics Reference Page
Since we started in 2020, BBSM has introduced new metrics as “works in progress,” tweaking methodologies and parameters along the way, such that even if you were interested in a quick introduction to the EDGE and related metrics, there was no one place to find it. No more. We’re posting an EDGE Metrics Reference Page, which offers the rationale and methodologies for our suite of metrics, including EDGE, E100, E16, CP+, and the latest, most-tweaked of the bunch, Player Efficiency Ratings (PER). This reference page will be updated as needed, and will be linked in every BBSM article. [Editor’s Note: In keeping with the spirit of “works in progress”, we are currently posting the Reference page as a Google doc, though it will likely be transitioned to the site.]
In addition to the PER changes described below, the other main tweak is to our use of possessions. There’s nothing like a game with 136 turnovers (the Brown-Michigan wind-tunnel game at this year’s Florida Warm-Up) to put your methodologies to the test. EDGE was fine—it was designed precisely to deal with such issues—but it occurred to us that our per-possession E100 and E16 metrics was still left exposed to such distortive wind effects. The fix is the same as it for EDGE: adjust possession values based on the game scoring efficiency, relative to the league-average scoring efficiency. By doing so, possession counts in gale winds (and the productivity metrics based on them) are more in line with a normal game.
Our Revised Player Efficiency Ratings
The quest for a fair efficiency rating started two years ago, and with one last set of tweaks, it is now set to go. In the spirit of efficiency, I will introduce it by simply offering an excerpt from the new Reference Page, which highlights how an “efficiency” measure offers a different perspective than a production measure such as EDGE. Here’s how the Reference Page puts it:
Efficiency
Better Box Score Metrics: WUL Weeks 1 & 2, and What’s New in BBSM is only available to Ultiworld Subscribers
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