2009 College Football Performance Formula
November 18
1. Texas 1.8619
2. TCU 1.8016
3. Alabama 1.7940
4. Florida 1.7411
5. Boise State 1.6952
6. Cincinnati 1.6616
7. Ohio State 1.5900
8. Pittsburgh 1.5561
9. Louisiana State 1.5530
10. Oregon 1.5494
11. Georgia Tech 1.5338
12. Virginia Tech 1.5213
13. Penn State 1.5027
14. Iowa 1.4672
15. Oklahoma State 1.4594
16. Clemson 1.4197
17. Wisconsin 1.4099
18. BYU 1.3645
19. Nebraska 1.3537
20. Utah 1.3475
21. Houston 1.343889
22. Miami 1.343870
23. Rutgers 1.3365
24. Central Michigan 1.3130
25. Oregon State 1.3026
26. Stanford 1.3021
27. USC 1.3006
28. Arkansas 1.3004
29. Navy 1.2909
30. West Virginia 1.2836
31. Arizona 1.2776
32. Mississippi 1.2671
33. Temple 1.2646
34. Boston College 1.2567
35. California 1.2554
36. Nevada 1.2426
37. North Carolina 1.2342
38. Auburn 1.2317
39. Notre Dame 1.2238
40. Air Force 1.2097
The Performance Formula compiles a grade for each of college football's 120 FBS teams based on three stat categories: winning percentage, opponents' winning percentage, and scoring margin. Both winning percentage factors are adjusted down to account for wins over FCS schools, and scoring margins are diminished to avoid stat-skewing by a win or loss margin greater than 40 points. A perfectly average team will score 1.0000, while eventual national champions generally score in excess of 1.7500.
I never understood why scoring margin was a factor in ratings formulas. A win is a win(and vice versa). It's a very misleading stat.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, all it does is attempt to give credibility to the "experts" predictions.
Why get bogged down in how close or lopsided the final score was? It's not fair to penalize a highly ranked team for winning a close contest when every opponent steps it up a notch hoping for the big upset. And is the scoring margin more important in conference games or in games between ranked teams or in games between ranked teams and unranked teams? It's an impossible matrix. And regardless, what does it matter?
Not to mention it encourages the unsportsmanlike run-up in scores.
While I agree that blowouts over bad teams really are worhtless in determining the best teams in the country, I am not sure that I completely agree with you that a "win is a win" and can look at the year USC has had to prove that point. The close loss to Washington was shrugged off by some because Barkley did not play. It took the blowout losses to Oregon and Stanford to finally put a stake into the Trojans regarding a possible BCS bowl at large berth. And Iowa's narrow wins over some middling competition were a clue to their talent level. So margin matters, just not as much as some believe. And the voters definitely use it to hurt some teams--that is the ones they do not want to see play for titles--and not others. So Florida continues to get passes for their narrow wins, but TCU will suffer if they do not rout their remaining opposition.
ReplyDelete