university rankings – The Concordian

Where do the Concordia Stingers rank at this point in the season?

With the second half of the 2021 RSEQ football season underway, the Stingers (3-2) are in third place situated behind the powerhouse first place Montreal Carabins (4-1) and the second place Laval Rouge et Or (4-2), with the Sherbrooke Vert et Or (2-4) and McGill Redbirds (1-5) in the fourth and fifth place spots respectively.

Right now, the standings are an honest indication of the overall power rankings for the league. With the Carabins, the Rouge et Or, and the Stingers holding the top three spots, it is without a doubt that these three teams will be battling it out for the top seed. While the power rankings may label these teams in first, second, and third, the statistics suggest the rankings are much closer than they appear.

The Montreal Carabins are the team to beat and top the list coming off a bye-week. The team’s only loss was against the Stingers 31-28 in a dramatic come-from-behind win. The other close game for the Carabins came against Laval, where Montreal squeaked by with a one-point victory 18-17. Otherwise, the Carabins have balled out with three double-digit wins: two against Sherbrooke and one against McGill. The Carabins also rank third in total offence and first in total defence. With impressive numbers on both sides of the ball, this multi-dimensional team has been successful for now but is being chased down by two teams who are breathing down their necks.

The Laval Rouge et Or officially find themselves in second place, but arguably one could make the case that they are still the best team in the RSEQ. Besides their narrow defeat to Montreal, Laval suffered an upset loss against Sherbrooke 23-17, giving up 20 points to the Vert et Or in the second quarter alone. Otherwise, Laval tends to dominate; they’re used to double-digit victories, with the most significant being the 55-2 smackdown they laid on McGill in week five of the season.

Laval is the contemporary juggernaut of the RSEQ: their defence is sound, ranking second in total defence, and most notably, ranking first in interceptions and passing defensive efficiency. If the Montreal Carabins are a multi-dimensional team, the Rouge et Or are no slouches either: Laval ranks second in total offence, first in rushing offence, and first in first downs with 140. It’s fair to say, Laval can find ways to win on both sides of the ball.

If there’s any team muscling their way in this playoff race, it’s the Concordia Stingers. This team seems to be improving with each week — ever-evolving and generating momentum, which has garnered them success. Despite a disappointing 36-10 loss to Laval on Sunday, Stingers starting quarterback Olivier Roy went from his first attempted pass of the season being intercepted, to breaking the single-game RSEQ passing yards record in the span of a month. The Stingers tout a stellar offence that tends to do its best work in the second half, which has granted them their dramatic come-from-behind victories.

One area Concordia needs to improve on to obtain the top seed, it would be their defence. Ranked fourth in total defence, fifth in rushing defence, and fourth in passing defence, the Stingers have given up an average of 445 yards per game. If the Stingers want to carry their momentum into the second half of the season, they’ll need to resolve their defensive issues.

This leaves the Sherbrooke Vert et Or and the McGill Redbirds in the fourth and fifth place slots, respectively. Sherbrooke has doled out a few upsets in an otherwise less-than-stellar first half of the season. With a win against Laval, and having gone toe-to-toe in a shootout with Concordia in week four, Sherbrooke can play heartbreaker for whichever playoff contender is yearning for that top seed.

As for the McGill Redbirds, the team’s losing record doesn’t reflect how solid their defensive core truly is. The Redbirds rank high in many defensive categories, including second in pass defence and first in sacks with 17. If it weren’t for their shaky offence, which could only register 22 points in their last three games — including a 21-13 loss to Sherbrooke on Saturday — the Redbirds would be sitting in a better position standings-wise.

After a lengthy hiatus between seasons due to the pandemic, it has been quite an eventful season, and fans can expect many more thrilling games to come.

Photograph by Catherine Reynolds

Rankings don’t necessarily show the whole picture, says Concordia spokesperson

The university marketing firm Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) announced on Feb. 28 that Concordia had risen in the ranks in several subjects in its 2018 World University Rankings list. Notably, QS placed Concordia among the top 51-100 universities in the world at which to study art and design. As of June, Concordia was ranked by QS as one of the top 431-440 universities in the world overall.

“Good news,” according to university spokesperson Mary-Jo Barr. But what do those numbers really mean?

University rankings are based on several criteria, but QS’s most weighted category for the overall ranking is “academic reputation.” According to the firm’s website, academic reputation is determined by surveying 70,000 scholars about which universities are the best for conducting research in their field of expertise.

Barr said that moving up the list is important for Concordia, adding that in the past decade, these rankings have become crucial to establishing a university’s reputation.

“Students, university administrators, board members and donors are paying increasingly close attention to the results [of these rankings],” Barr said. “As are fundraisers, communications and marketing personnel, recruitment officers and others.”

Other criteria used to measure a university’s overall score include “employer reputation,” which is also based on a survey, in this case of 30,000 employers who were asked to identify the universities from which they source the most competent graduates.

Finally, the decision to rank a university higher or lower on the list is based on the amount of useful research that comes out of the institution in a given field. This is measured by analyzing the number of times research from a certain university or college is cited in other researchers’ work. These numbers are sourced from Scopus, an online database of peer-reviewed literature.

However, Barr is critical of the ranking process. She said some of the “experts” who were surveyed may not have been able to judge all universities accurately.

“It is disputable whether the surveyed academic faculty have sufficient knowledge of what is taking place at all universities around the world to objectively and/or accurately judge which ones are doing ‘the best work’ in their field,” she said.

McGill University is frequently listed as one of the top universities in Canada; it is ranked second, behind the University of Toronto, on QS’s Canadian university rankings. Concordia is ranked 16th on the same list.

However, a university’s rank on the QS list is not always representative of student experiences. Maisy Roach-Krajewski, a life sciences student at McGill, was disappointed to learn that despite attending one of the highest-ranked schools in the nation, several of her first-year classes were over-capacity.

“The room legitimately didn’t hold the amount of students that were taking the class, so quite often when I showed up only five minutes early, there would be no seats. So I would just sit on the ground,” she said. “At any time, there would be like five to 10 people sitting on the ground.”

Barr said some older universities might be ranked higher because of their long-standing reputations, and a university’s rank doesn’t mean it will be the right fit for every student.

“No two institutions are equal, and each has its unique history with specific particularities, strengths and weaknesses,” Barr said. “Imperfect as they are, comparative rankings are widely followed and publicized, and represent an opportunity for Concordia in the areas they measure.”

Quacquarelli Symonds did not respond to The Concordian’s request for comment.

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin