This week's ridiculous college football polls

[NLSoldier]

This kind of crap is probably the biggest reason why I have never become much of a college football fan.

[SinCityGuy]

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It's just such a pathetic system.

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No more pathetic than the BCS forcing the computers to use the ELO method instead of the true predictor method.

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Predictors have no place in deciding what teams play in the post-season. It should be entirely based on what has been done, not what's likely to happen. (Otherwise there's no point in playing the regular season games.)

FWIW, I don't know what the ELO method is.

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I think that Jeff Sagarin summed it up best:

In ELO-CHESS, only winning and losing matters; the score margin is of no consequence, which makes it very "politically correct". However it is less accurate in its predictions for upcoming games than is the PURE POINTS, in which the score margin is the only thing that matters.
PURE POINTS is also known as PREDICTOR, BALLANTINE, RHEINGOLD, WHITE OWL and is the best single PREDICTOR of future games. The ELO-CHESS will be utilized by the Bowl Championship Series(BCS).

In Sagarin’s predictor formula, USC is ranked 1st. In the BCS mandated ELO system, they are ranked 7th, which is absurd.

[Jack of Arcades]

The polls are a ranking of the tops teams from first to 25th. The games played on the field are not the ultimate determination of these rankings, but just more data that gets weighed in the process.

If team A goes 11-1, and loses to team B, who goes 1-11... should team B be ranked ahead of team A?

[Vince Young]

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The polls are a ranking of the tops teams from first to 25th. The games played on the field are not the ultimate determination of these rankings, but just more data that gets weighed in the process.

If team A goes 11-1, and loses to team B, who goes 1-11... should team B be ranked ahead of team A?

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Your example still shows team A being better because of what happened on the field. Nobody's saying the teams' head-to-head game is all that should matter(at least I hope that's not what they're saying).

[jstnrgrs]

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It's just such a pathetic system.

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No more pathetic than the BCS forcing the computers to use the ELO method instead of the true predictor method.

[/ QUOTE ]

Predictors have no place in deciding what teams play in the post-season. It should be entirely based on what has been done, not what's likely to happen. (Otherwise there's no point in playing the regular season games.)

FWIW, I don't know what the ELO method is.

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I think that Jeff Sagarin summed it up best:

In ELO-CHESS, only winning and losing matters; the score margin is of no consequence, which makes it very "politically correct". However it is less accurate in its predictions for upcoming games than is the PURE POINTS, in which the score margin is the only thing that matters.
PURE POINTS is also known as PREDICTOR, BALLANTINE, RHEINGOLD, WHITE OWL and is the best single PREDICTOR of future games. The ELO-CHESS will be utilized by the Bowl Championship Series(BCS).

In Sagarin’s predictor formula, USC is ranked 1st. In the BCS mandated ELO system, they are ranked 7th, which is absurd.

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Thank's for the info. I think that ELO-chess is a better formula to use to determine who makes the post season, because the idea is not to predict who will win, but who has earned it. If USC keeps winning, their ranking will get sufficently high before the end of the season. Ranking the seventh now is not so absurd, because they really haven't beaten anyone.

[jstnrgrs]

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The polls are a ranking of the tops teams from first to 25th. The games played on the field are not the ultimate determination of these rankings, but just more data that gets weighed in the process.

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This is obviously absurd.

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If team A goes 11-1, and loses to team B, who goes 1-11... should team B be ranked ahead of team A?

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Well that would kind of be ignoring games that have actually been played. (That is the 11 games that team B lost).

All games that have been played, and only games that have been played should be considered when compiling rankings.

[SinCityGuy]

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Thank's for the info. I think that ELO-chess is a better formula to use to determine who makes the post season, because the idea is not to predict who will win, but who has earned it.

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The purpose is supposedly to rank the teams on their measured ability. If the BCS had not mandated the ELO system, then USC and LSU would have played for the national championship two years ago, after Oklahoma got their asses handed to them by Kansas State in the Big XII championship game.

[pokerdirty]

Let's say USC loses tonight. How far do they fall?

my prediction = 4

[kerssens]

I'm tired of people complaining about the polls and the BCS. It is what it is. People bitch and moan all year....Notre Dame blah blah, then they lose. Its September!!

[mostsmooth]

there should be no rankings until the end of the season. then, they can have a writers and coaches poll.