The Bass Rankings World Rankings are the most comprehensive and accurate multi-year rankings of the world’s tournament bass anglers, from the professionals to the amateurs. Why? Bass Rankings’ goal since its inception has been two-fold. First, while there is no denying that professional anglers on the major tournament circuits are the faces of the sport, there are far greater numbers of skilled tournament anglers that are neglected by only ranking top-level pros. Many of these anglers are extremely talented, yet for various reasons they are unable to compete full-time. We wanted to give this vast population a way to compare itself against one another, or against the top-level professionals.
Second, previous ranking systems were designed to create singular rankings that were limited to how they ranked anglers. While they accomplished their goals of ranking anglers over a set and current period of time, we wanted to know more. We wanted to see how current anglers compared to past, who was the hottest angler on a given tour’s history, or who was the best angler on a given lake. While our ranking formula would stay the same, we wanted to be able to alter the parameters to show not one set ranking, but an infinite number of rankings based of varying time periods, tournament circuits, states or even individual lakes. This adaptability allows, for the first time, anglers and users to see how they stack up any way they want and finally give an answer to any debate about who is the best.
Categorizing Anglers
In order to accurately rank anglers of all tournament levels, Bass Rankings first had to categorize them. By that, we mean figuring what exactly constitutes a “professional” tournament angler versus an “amateur” tournament angler. Here is a breakdown of the six current categories of tournament anglers on this site, along with explanations. Note: Individual anglers can change categories season to season based on the level of tournaments he or she fishes in a given season.
Major: Anglers who fish as boaters in a minimum of eight tournaments in a 2-year span on the following tours/events: BASS Elites, Bassmaster Classics, FLW Tour Majors and Opens (formerly the FLW Series), Forrest Wood Cups, PAA Series, and PAA TTBC events.
Major Co-angler: Anglers who fish as non-boaters in a minimum of six tournaments in a 2-year span on the following tours/events: FLW Tour Majors and Opens (formerly the FLW Series), and Forrest Wood Cups.
Minor: Anglers who fish as boaters in a minimum of six tournaments in a 2-year span on the following tours/events: BASS Opens, FLW EverStarts and corresponding championships.
Minor Co-angler: Anglers who fish as non-boaters in a minimum of six tournaments in a 2-year span on the following tours/events: BASS Opens, FLW EverStarts and corresponding championships.
Women: Anglers who fish as boaters in a minimum of three tournaments in a 2-year span on the following tours/events: BASS WBT, LBAA Women’s Tour and corresponding championships.
Women Co-Angler: Anglers who fish as non-boaters in a minimum of three tournaments in a 2-year span on the following tours/events: BASS WBT, LBAA Women’s Tour and corresponding championships.
How
Here’s a brief overview of what’s involved in calculating the Bass Rankings World Rankings.
- The rankings are based on angler performance in his or her respective level.
- Events and point distribution are weighted based on size of field. Points are on a 1000-point scale per event and will be awarded based on the percentage of the field that the angler beat. For example, if an angler beat 99.4% of the field he will have earned 994 points for the event.
- There are no bonus points.
- Championships are treated equal to regular-season tournaments.
- The Bass Rankings World Rankings methodology ensures that anglers who fish only one tour or series are not at a disadvantage versus anglers who fish more than one.
- The rankings use data from the current and immediately prior years only (a rolling 2 calendar years), and are updated after each tournament in the angler’s respective level.
- The rankings are not an indication of who is/was the best bass angler ever. They simply state who currently is the best angler in the world. However, using Bass Ranking’s Custom Search (see below) allows the opportunity to compare pros over time, allowing users to make their own conclusions.
– See more at: http://bassrankings.com/about.php#sthash.BshMB5Dp.dpuf