How The Lineup Is scores every game
The Lineup score is a single number that The Lineup Is assigns to every game, every day, across about 60 leagues. This page explains exactly how it is built.
On a busy Saturday there are two hundred games. Most of them are not worth your evening. The hard part isn't finding a game to watch — it's finding the right one before you've spent three hours on a blowout.
The Lineup Is scores every game on a single question: how much does this deserve your attention? The score isn't a gut call or an editor's pick. It's an 11-factor model, and every game shows the three factors that moved its number most; Pro shows all eleven. Here's what goes into it.
The 11 factors
1. Rankings
Are these two good teams, or two bad ones? A top-five matchup starts from a higher floor than a pair of also-rans. We weigh each side's quality and how evenly they're matched — a great team stomping a weak one is worth less than two great teams colliding.
2. Playoff race
A game in March means more than the same matchup in November. As the season tightens, games that decide seeding, clinch a berth, or knock a team out gain weight. Late-season stakes are where watchability compounds.
3. Rivalry
Some matchups carry history the standings can't capture. Rivalry games are tighter, meaner, and more watchable than their records suggest, so they get a real boost.
4. Close game
The single best predictor of a good watch is a close game. Before it starts we weigh how tight it projects to be — spreads, form, the matchup itself — because a coin-flip finish beats a foregone conclusion every time. Once it's on, we weigh how close it actually is, and the number moves with the game.
5. Star power
Some players are appointment viewing on their own. When the game features stars worth tuning in for regardless of the score, that counts.
6. Championship
Finals, title deciders, and games with a trophy on the line sit at the top of the scale. These are the games people remember.
7. Elimination
Win or go home changes everything. Single-elimination pressure — a Game 7, a knockout tie, a do-or-die — sharpens every possession and earns a significant boost.
8. Momentum
A team on a heater, a streak on the line, a chance to make history — momentum stories give a game a reason to matter beyond the standings.
9. History
Records within reach, milestones, rematches of famous games. When a game is playing out against a bigger backdrop, that context adds weight.
10. National TV
The league's own scheduling is a signal. When a game is picked for national television, the people who make those calls have already decided it's worth watching — we factor that in, without letting it dominate.
11. Tournament
Tournament games carry their own weight: a cup tie, a conference tournament, a knockout bracket. The deeper the round, the bigger the boost.
How the factors combine
The factors aren't simply added up. The base is team quality times closeness times stakes, so a close game between two good teams with something on the line towers over a blowout instead of edging it by a few points. The rest are bonuses on top of that base. Rivalry is a capped bonus, so it lifts a big game more than it rescues a dull one, and star power only counts for much when the base is already strong. The score has no ceiling: a huge game scores past 100.
Open any game and you'll see the three factors that moved it most, with the number for each. Pro shows all eleven. No black box, no "trust us."
The score moves with the game
The score is not fixed at tip-off. While a game is on we rescore it as it goes: a lead change, a comeback, an upset in the making or a big performance pushes it up the list, and a blowout slides down. The read is rewritten the same way.
You set the bar
The score is only half the job. Casual, Balanced, and Hardcore presets set how high a game has to score before it makes your lineup, and they're free. With Pro you set the bar exactly where you want it and weight each league. Your teams always make the list. Some nights that leaves ten games. Some nights two. Some nights zero, and that's the point: not every night is worth your time, and we'd rather tell you than pad the list.
When a game clears your bar
We tell you, with a notification and a Live Activity that starts itself on the lock screen for tonight's top game. Alerts for your teams (starting, close, overtime, final) are free; alerts for every game above your bar come with Pro, as does starting a Live Activity for any game by hand.
Then it explains itself
Every game gets a two-sentence read, written from the actual state of the season and rewritten as the game changes — the standings, the stakes, the storyline. Not "tune in tonight." Real context, so you know why a game matters before you commit an evening to it. Free includes a handful of reads a day, always with the top game; Pro opens every one.
Get The Lineup Is on iOS — free — and see tonight's slate scored and ranked. Or browse tonight's best games on the web, by league: NBA, NFL, MLB, Premier League.