How to Calculate the Games Back Number for a Sports Teams Standings

First, you need to divide your number of wins by the total number of games you've played. So, if you have played 10 games and have won 5 of these, then your win-loss ratio would be 5/10, which reduces to 1/2. This shows that out of all the games you played, half were won by you. Multiply the fraction by 100 to get a percent. In this case, 1/2 x 100 = 50%, so you have won 50% of your games.

It is the "winning percentage" that determines who's ahead in the standings. A team with an 8-5 record has a winning percentage of .615. A team with a 7-4 record has a winning percentage of .636. The 7-4 team would be listed higher in the standings, even though they would be tied in terms of "games back" or "games behind" and thus considered tied for whatever place they occupy in the standings. Ultimately the question of who has the better record can be answered only if the teams have played the same number of games, in which case a question such as this would not arise.

It depends on the sport in question. In many sports, in terms of both winning percentage and "games back," ties don't count, and those records would be considered identical. However, in sports such as ice hockey and soccer/football where ties are common, wins are worth two points in the standings, and ties are worth one point. In such a sport, the case you cite would have the team with the tie holding the better record.