03EBZ06
Need2Speed
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The BCS formula is an exercise in nonsense.
It always has been; it’s just more obvious this season, when there is a heated debate over the second-best team, the one that would meet LSU for the title.
Alabama, Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech and others are making their pitches, pointing out this strength and that argument to get a crack at the Tigers. The campaigns will only pick up this weekend.
Understand this, though: No matter what it says, the BCS is not a system designed to choose a championship matchup. It is merely a tool to stave off the inevitable playoff bowl directors fear will cut into their millions in tax-free profits, a casino-style distraction to placate the masses.
It is what it is, and until it collapses (even a four-teamer is a major, positive step), college football is stuck.
That said, if the BCS somehow survives in its current incarnation, the formula to determine 1-2 must be scrapped.
It currently consists of two-thirds human opinion polls that are ripe for political foolishness, full of oft-uneducated voters and subject to groupthink.
The other third features an average of six computer formulas, which quantitative analysts have declared mathematically unsound and their own proprietors admit are not as accurate as they could be. Five of the computer formulas are secret, even kept from the BCS, which means no one, absolutely no one, knows if they are accurate or honest.
It is a total disaster of a system. No one who cares about the game would ever invent such a thing. Just because ESPN does a fine job dressing it up each week like it’s a legitimate process doesn’t mean it is.
There are two obvious solutions to this problem.
1) A single public and reputable computer formula that would allow every team to know what it is dealing with from the first snap of the season. Whether such a formula could be created is the chief question. If it’s possible, you might not like it but you’d at least know the rules of the game.
Or:
2) A small selection committee of five or seven people. Much like the NCAA basketball tournament, that group could meet and knowledgably assess the contenders using pre-set criteria and common statistics in a calm, rational and unhurried process that doesn’t begin until the season is actually over.
The former is unlikely in a sport run by people with an obvious distaste for math. If they won’t allow the current formulas to operate honestly, it doesn’t seem likely they’d turn the entire process over to a computer.
The latter is potentially even more problematic. It would require actual individuals to stand up and defend the decision and, by proxy, the entire system. It’s much easier for the suits to shrug their shoulders at the matchup and blame faceless “computers” or a throng of “voters.”
For the rest ---> http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/footba...tzel_football_hostage_illegitimate_bcs_112911
It always has been; it’s just more obvious this season, when there is a heated debate over the second-best team, the one that would meet LSU for the title.
Alabama, Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech and others are making their pitches, pointing out this strength and that argument to get a crack at the Tigers. The campaigns will only pick up this weekend.
Understand this, though: No matter what it says, the BCS is not a system designed to choose a championship matchup. It is merely a tool to stave off the inevitable playoff bowl directors fear will cut into their millions in tax-free profits, a casino-style distraction to placate the masses.
It is what it is, and until it collapses (even a four-teamer is a major, positive step), college football is stuck.
That said, if the BCS somehow survives in its current incarnation, the formula to determine 1-2 must be scrapped.
It currently consists of two-thirds human opinion polls that are ripe for political foolishness, full of oft-uneducated voters and subject to groupthink.
The other third features an average of six computer formulas, which quantitative analysts have declared mathematically unsound and their own proprietors admit are not as accurate as they could be. Five of the computer formulas are secret, even kept from the BCS, which means no one, absolutely no one, knows if they are accurate or honest.
It is a total disaster of a system. No one who cares about the game would ever invent such a thing. Just because ESPN does a fine job dressing it up each week like it’s a legitimate process doesn’t mean it is.
There are two obvious solutions to this problem.
1) A single public and reputable computer formula that would allow every team to know what it is dealing with from the first snap of the season. Whether such a formula could be created is the chief question. If it’s possible, you might not like it but you’d at least know the rules of the game.
Or:
2) A small selection committee of five or seven people. Much like the NCAA basketball tournament, that group could meet and knowledgably assess the contenders using pre-set criteria and common statistics in a calm, rational and unhurried process that doesn’t begin until the season is actually over.
The former is unlikely in a sport run by people with an obvious distaste for math. If they won’t allow the current formulas to operate honestly, it doesn’t seem likely they’d turn the entire process over to a computer.
The latter is potentially even more problematic. It would require actual individuals to stand up and defend the decision and, by proxy, the entire system. It’s much easier for the suits to shrug their shoulders at the matchup and blame faceless “computers” or a throng of “voters.”
For the rest ---> http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/footba...tzel_football_hostage_illegitimate_bcs_112911
