How Are Heal Points Calculated?

The math that powers Maine high school sports

Heal Points are the official ranking system used to seed Maine high school basketball tournament brackets. But how do they work?

The Heal Points system has been around since 1947 when it was developed by Durwood Heal, principal at Schenck High School. The rationale behind it is simple: Maine is too big, geographically, for every team in a region to reasonably play every other team in a region. Fort Kent does not need to drive to Mount View for a regular season game. So the Heal Points were devised as an early ranking system that ranked teams based on strength of schedule. It's been in place ever since and it's one of those things that if it didn't have the history behind it, we'd never adopt it now because it's too ingenious to get through a committee.

But how does it work?

First you have to calculate each team's Preliminary Index, which is determined based on the classification of the teams you beat. If you beat a class A team, that's worth 40 points. Class B is worth 38. Class C is worth 36. Class D is worth 34. And Class S is worth 32. The weight used to be in 5-point increments until recently. You add up all of a team's wins and divide by the games on the schedule (NOT games played). So if a team beats 6 Class A teams and 1 Class B team on an 18-game schedule, their Preliminary Index would be 15.444. The Preliminary Index is carried out to 10 decimal places and reported to 3 places, because of 1947. This is important and can break ties. If a team wins zero games, their Preliminary Index is 1.000.

Once you have the Preliminary Indexes, you can calculate the Tournament Index, more commonly known as the Heal Points. You simply add all the Preliminary Indexes of the teams you beat and divide that number by the games on your schedule and then multiple that number by 10.

In 2026 Boys Basketball, Oxford Hills beat the following teams [Preliminary Index in brackets]:

Lewiston [22.0000000000]
Mt. Ararat [4.2222220000]
Messalonskee [10.8888880000]
Bangor [22.1111110000]

Add those all together and you get 59.222221. Divide that by 18: 3.2901233889.

Multiply by 10 and you get 32.901233889. The Tournament Index is carried out to 12 decimal places and reported to 4. The gap between the 10 decimal places for the PI and the 12 places for the Heal Points can create a tie-breaker that would not otherwise exist if you did the calculations on your calculator. So it's always important to double-check a tie.

If there is a tie in a game, you get half of the team's numbers.

As always, if you want the most up-to-date Heal Points possible, we've got you covered.