From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A league table is a chart or list which compares sports teams, institutions or companies by ranking them in order of ability or achievement. In the United Kingdom, many public-sector industries, including hospitals, compete in league tables.

In North America, a league table is often referred to as a standings or ranking chart.

In sport, league tables group teams of similar abilities in a chart generally published in newspapers, to show the current standing of the participants (teams or individuals) in a sports league or competition.

• Football League First Division
• Football League Second Division
• Football League Third Division
• Football League Fourth Division

In education league tables compare the academic achievements of different institutions:

• College and university rankings
• League tables of British universities
• In England, tables of schools performance.

In business, league tables list the leaders in investment banking activity. Companies which collect this kind of data include Dealogic and Thomson Financial (see Thomson Financial league tables).

Contents 1 Statistics included in sports league tables 2 Sample sport league table 3 Statistics included in business league tables 4 Sample business league table 5 External links 6 Notes

At the very least, a league table will show the names of the teams and their points total or winning percentage (depending on the sport), sorted in order of points or percentage. However, many league tables show further statistics; these may include:

• wins
• losses
• ties (draws)
• goal differential (Goals scored minus goals conceded)
  • goals scored
  • goals allowed (conceded)
• home/away win/loss records
• etc.

Usually, if a league is divided into conferences and divisions, the league table will also be. Often, a less specific table is also included. For example, National Hockey League tables will normally have a detailed table for each division, plus a table for each conference showing just the points totals.

As an example, below is the league table for the National Hockey League's Northeast Division, as of March 31, 2004:

Team         GP   W   L   T  OL   GF   GA  Pts
x-Boston     79  40  18  14   7  201  179  101
x-Toronto    80  43  24  10   3  234  204   99
x-Ottawa     79  41  22  10   6  254  178   98
x-Montreal   79  40  28   7   4  201  182   91
Buffalo      79  36  32   7   4  213  210   83

x - clinched playoff spot
y - clinched division championship

In the above table, an "x" placed before a team's name shows that the team has qualified for playoff position; other letters may be used to show that a team is guaranteed first place, has been eliminated from contention and so forth. From this table, we can see that Boston, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal are all guaranteed playoff positions; the absence of a "y" shows that the division championship is still to play for. Meanwhile, because Buffalo has no symbol at all, they are not out of playoff contention, but have yet to clinch a playoff position. The following day, a new league table would appear in newspapers, updated based on the previous night's games. Of course, the above table would also be accompanied by those of the other 5 divisions in the league.

Financial League tables list the top financers in a particular industry. Dealogic's league tables are rankings of Investment Banks in terms of the dollar volume of deals that investment banks work on. They provide real-time league table rankings. ^[1]

As an example, below is the league table for International DCM Bookrunners - End of Q3 2006. ^[2]

    Bookrunner         Value$m Deals  %Share 
   1 Citigroup         320,257  978     7.0 
   2 Deutsche Bank     296,516 1121     6.5 
   3 JP Morgan         292,816  899     6.4 
   4 Lehman Brothers   265,773  730     5.8 
   5 Merrill Lynch     249,698 1303     5.5 
   6 Morgan Stanley    241,896  804     5.3 
   7 Goldman Sachs     226,922  493     5.0 
   8 Credit Suisse     217,618  748     4.8 
   9 RBS               216,569  557     4.8 
  10 Barclays Capital  212,892  971     4.7 
     Total           4,554,410 14,958   100

• National Hockey League table
• Major League Baseball table
• National Football League table
• Canadian Football League table
• National Basketball Association table
• Football league tables: England, Scotland, France, Spain, Germany, Italy

1. ^ http://www.dealogic.com Dealogic real-time league tables
2. ^ http://www.euromoney.com/article.asp?PositionID=bonds&ArticleID=1080516&Reference=bonds Dealogic tables on euromoney.com. DCM figures exclude Money Market instruments (CDs, Bank Notes, securities with tenor less than 18 months). Amounts are based on bookrunner-apportioned Global Proceeds ($m). Only transactions with Bookrunners are eligible for rankings. Credit is allocated on a tranche by tranche basis