Old BCS Formula Delivers Same Result: Why Do We Need A Committee?
Anyone who knows me knows how much I loved, for all its quirks and corruption, the 16-year reign of the Bowl Championship Series.
That was the system that picked the top two teams using a formula of polls and computer formulas.
The system was rightfully railed for some of the things it spit out at the end of every year.
There were some real whoppers, none bigger than USC finishing No. 3 in 2003 despite being No. 1 in both polls.
The Powers that Were finally junked the BCS after 2013 for a more sensible system in which the top schools would be chosen by a 13-member committee.
My colleague Matt Hayes made me laugh out loud Sunday when he posted on Twitter how this year’s field would have fared in the despicable BCS.
Guess what? The BCS formula would have picked the same four schools as the committee picked. That’s right, a formula of polls and computers would have decided Oklahoma vs. Georgia at No. 4 just the way the committee decided it--without the huge hotel bill and room service charges!
In fact, there is very little difference between the committee's top 16 and the BCS top 16.
Thanks to a website called BCSKnowhow for making this all possible.
The committee's top six was identical to the BCS formula and they both had the same teams in the top 16. The committee had Michigan and Central Florida at No. 7 and No. 8. The BCS had it flipped. The BCS had LSU and Florida at 10 and 11 and the committee had that flipped. The rankings were identical for 12, 13 and 14 (Penn State, Washington State, Kentucky) and the BCS and committee differed on Texas\WVU at 15 and 16.
Seeing the BCS standings made me pine for 2004 and another round of Texas screwing Cal out of a Rose Bowl spot. That's the scandal that cost me my Heisman vote at the L.A. Times even though I had nothing to do with the controversy.
Another look at decimal points I never understood transports me back to a more complicated time when Jeff Sagarin's Ratings decided national championships and we had to call mathematicians to find out how to interpret "Quartile Rank."
Take me back to brain-scratch-and-sniff days like 2000 when Florida State edged out Miami for No. 2 by a margin of 5.37 to 5.69, whatever the hell that meant, even though FSU defeated Miami in the head-to-head. Or 2001, when Nebraska lost its last game at Colorado, 62-36, but still ended up No. 2 in the final BCS Standings.
What about 2007, when two-loss LSU rose from No. 7 to No. 2 in 24 hours to sneak in at No. 2 and then winning the national title for Les Miles?
Oh, I could go on and on but I'm starting to get emotional.