[NU Sports] LOL

[Arthur Miller]

Stephen, say what you will about Sagarin's algorithms, at least it's a 
methodology that evaluates a team's performance consistently over the course of 
the season.  This is much more that can be said for the mental mechanisms of the 
poll voters.

You talk about a system on "life support", "fan uproar", and an impending 
"collapse"...as if righting this injustice was something of tremendous 
importance to our civilization.  Well, it's not.  I would bet a lot of college 
football fans feel the same way I do: win a bunch of games, beat your rivals, 
win a bowl game--that's a successful season.  The annual hullaballoo over a 
Mythical National Champion is essentially a beauty pageant, like the Heisman 
Trophy, and only a handful of people every year (outside of media types, who of 
course need a story) really give a whit about it.

One more thing: playoffs suck.  They are no better at determining the best team 
over the course of an entire season than a poll system.  


Art Miller

P.S. You said, "if we get to the end of the season and OSU's computer rankings 
keep them from the title game, you can bet there will be an uproar".  Yes, an 
uproar of LAUGHTER!


 
----- Original Message ----
From: SjT (Stephen J. Truog) <sjtruog at yahoo.com>
To: Jonathan Hodges <jonathanwhodges at gmail.com>
Cc: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Sent: Wed, October 13, 2010 2:18:27 PM
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] LOL

I was merely pointing out the ridiculousness (hence the LOL thread I added to) 
of the computer rankings. You can throw those off by what you include and don't 
include, and it's been pretty clear that the formula Sagarin uses is about as 
unfavorable to the Big Ten as possible.
And the original point missed was how Ohio State would be at #15 behind a 2-loss 
Cal or 2-loss Oregon State team. It's much easier to explain how a 1-loss 
Alabama team who just beat Florida and Arkansas and is coming off a title can be 
a couple spots ahead of a USC team they just lost to on the road than the OSU 
situation.
It may seem like a trivial issue now, but if we get to the end of the season and 
OSU's computer rankings keep them from the title game, you can bet there will be 
an uproar. And TCU and Boise sure aren't going to lose, so it will be 
interesting to see how those spots could be made up with half the season left.
But the overall point is the absurdity of the B(C)S itself. And while some may 
prefer to just continue to watch their favorite sport go from awesome 
entertainment to laughing stock every December as the B(C)S pairings are 
announced, some actually prefer to point out where a great product can improve 
and where it NEEDS to improve.
It won't take 20 years. The plus-one format is coming pretty soon - a 12-0 Ohio 
State left out of the title game by computers or a 12-1 SEC team like Alabama 
passed over might speed that up.
The system is on life support. Thousands of seats are empty. They have 
contingency plans for 5-win teams to fill the glut of bowl games. And fan uproar 
is increasing and you can see the collision coming this year ... unbeaten Boise 
or 12-1 Alabama? 12-0 TCU or 12-0 OSU? Oregon or Oklahoma?
We could wait for it all to collapse and keep getting that kick to the groin 
every bowl season ... or we could think more than five minutes ahead and try and 
make college football better. And what better way to do that than mocking the 
absurdity of the present!
The bowl system nostalgia is nice but not realistic - the bowl system days of 
old have gone the way of baseball relevancy in mid markets. Cling to those 
memories of both, because that's all there is left. The current system is truly 
the "worst of both worlds" for college football - no tradition of the bowls and 
no sensible playoff system (and yes, the NFL did get that right!). Change won't 
come from acceptance but from the fans/viewers demanding it! So you can keep 
your B(C)S bliss ... I want something better from the best sport around and will 
continue to voice my opinion. Ditto for how much computer rankings suck! :)
GO CATS!!!-SjT


      
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