The College Football Thread

[George1902]

Originally Posted by joe ross

Of course, SOS is an arbitrary formula. Of the computer rankings that publish SOS, LSU is ahead in 2, USC ahead in 2. LSU's opponents were 3 games ahead of USC's opponents (1.10 percent in the winning percentage), and their opponent's opponents were 10 games ahead (0.15 percent ahead). Not a significant difference, and so that point is certainly debateable

Take a look at the SOS column. That is the SOS formula that counts the most. A stronger schedule could have made up the 16 hundredths of a point between USC and LSU.

Originally Posted by Joe Ross

OK, I will look at the losses. Oklahoma lost by 28, LSU lost by 12, USC lost by 3 in triple OT. USC is one play away from being undefeated. Can't say that about the other two.

Margin of victory was removed from the BCS formulas. To my knowlege, there has never been a "margin of loss" in there either. Therefore, a loss is a loss (+1 point in the BCS) no matter by how much.

Originally Posted by Joe Ross

BTW, every time I bring up the shutout statistic, everyone ignores it.

I try to adoid mentioning specifics too much in BCS discussions. In my opinion, a good system must remain objective and use general statistics, two things that the BCS does well.

Getting too specific leads to circular logic. For example, team A beats team B, team B beats team C, and team C beats A. Who's best?

I suppose this is the point in the discussion where one of us says, "We'll just have to agree to disagree."