Not all Super Bowl losses feel the same.

Sure, they’re all horrible to deal with. The players and coaches start in July at training camp and work until February for a goal, and come up one step short. The fanbase wonders if they’ll ever get a chance to make it back. But some losses are more painful than others, to the point that they stick to a franchise forever.

I’m here to find the worst of the worst.

As I type that, I know there are fans in the great cities of Buffalo and Atlanta who immediately thought “I already know what the worst was!” and instantly scrolled down to the rankings.

But for those of you still with me here, let’s introduce the scoring system for how I’m judging this. This system was developed through extensive trial and error with David Howell as we tried to apply mathematical reasoning to emotional moments. After a few hours in the lab, we came up with a system or grading the pain of a loss that breaks down into three sections.

– Was the team expected to win?

One of the ways a game can be painful is if it’s an upset. If a team went into the Super Bowl thinking it had a great chance to win, and then lost a game where the other team probably had less talent.

I will take the final point spread of the game at kickoff for the first number. This will take on a x2 multiplier if it goes past a touchdown, and x3 if it’s past 14 points. The bigger the favorite, the more painful the loss. Then I will multiply that number by the regular-season win differential, and that will determine the score for this category, unless the teams finished with the same regular-season win total or the team favored in the Super Bowl actually had fewer wins, in which case the number from the point spread will stand alone.

For example, if a team was favored by eight points, that score becomes 16. Then if the team won two more games than their Super Bowl opponent, the score becomes 32. This can also go into negatives if a team was a heavy underdog in the game, which is the idea. If the other team is way better, there wasn’t as much of a chance to win, and the loss is a little bit less painful.

The only exceptions come with the first four Super Bowls, where the NFL and AFL were separate leagues that sent their champions to face each other in the Super Bowl. It’s unfair to use a regular-season win differential multiplier for two teams who were not even in the same league, so this part of the equation will kick in with Super Bowl V.

Betting line history is courtesy of Vegas Insider’s Super Bowl history.

– How long has it been since the team won?

If you won the Super Bowl last year, it’s infinitely easier to handle the loss than it is if you haven’t won one in 30 years. The idea here is to add points to teams with fan bases that have suffered a long time with a factor that steadily increases the further it goes.

If a team’s drought is under 20 years, the score will just be a flat 0. Starting at 20 years without a championship is one point, then it will add 0.5 points for every year without a title up until it reaches 40 years, where it will add a full point for every year. And in the one instance on this list where a team had a 60+ year championship drought, that will be two points for every year past 60.

For example, if a team’s championship drought is 35 years when you lose the Super Bowl, that’s 8.5 points.

Droughts will be taken from the year of the season, not the game played. So a team who was founded in 1966 would get 50 points for playing in the Super Bowl of the 2016 season, not 51 because the game was played in February of the following year.

And for these purposes, championships before the Super Bowl era will count for both the NFL and the AFL.

– What happened in the game itself?

The nature of the game itself is ultimately what makes a loss painful, so this is the most valuable category and also the most complicated. Bear with me for a minute.

The first factor is a blown lead. I will take whatever a team’s largest lead was at any point in the game, and find the last clean minute when they had that lead. For example, if their largest lead was 10 points, and then it was cut to seven with 8:42 to go in the game, the minute taken will be 9:00 left in the fourth. Minutes will be given a number 1-60, based on how many have elapsed, so in this case the number would be 51.

That minute number will be divided by 10, and then squared. That total will be multiplied by the margin of the lead. So 51/10 is 5.1, which squared is 26.01; multiply that by 10, you get 260.1. You can see how this could get out of hand.

Then if you had the ball in the fourth quarter with a chance to tie the game or take the lead, further bonuses will be added for whichever of the following came at the latest point:

Had the ball down one possession or tied in the 4th quarter: 10 points

Had the ball down one possession or tied with under 10 minutes to go: 25 points

Had the ball down one possession or tied with under five minutes to go: 50 points

Had the ball down one possession or tied after the two-minute warning: 100 points

Then within those drives, even more bonuses can be added based on how close the team was to scoring:

Had the ball past midfield in that drive: one point for each yard past midfield.

Double the above if a field goal would tie the game or give the team the lead

Missed a field goal: One extra point for each yard inside 60, an extra two points for each yard inside 50, double if the kick was to win.

And last but not least, for the two Super Bowls where the losing team scored on its last possession and then lost without receiving the ball again, they will both be given 100 points.

It’s a lot, but you’ll get the idea as we go along, starting right now with #53 and working all the way up to the most painful Super Bowl loss of all-time.