I suggested earlier the changes to the BCS as a topic for discussion. So
here are my two cents. I think the changes are completely neutral in
terms of what they will fix. I think that this is true for a couple of
reasons.

First, the question of whether to include a margin of victory or not is
not a simple black and white issue. I think it is useful to include a
variety of ratings systems that do things in many different ways. This
is, after all, the whole point behind having more than one person vote in
the polls. The thing is that defining the "quality" of a football team by
determining a single numerical index is an impossible task. A football
team is too complex a system. Some teams are good because of offense,
some because of defense, some because of coaching, etc. Not all systems
will treat these criteria equally so naturally, some teams will do better
than others in certain rating systems because the teams' particular
strengths are being rewarded disproportionately in a specific system.
For that reason, it only makes sense to have a variety of different
systems included.

That said, I think the BCS is screwing things up unnecessarily because
they don't seem to be able (interested?) to do simple math. In both the
polls and the computer ratings, there is a measure not only of ranking,
but also of how close one team is to another. Using only the ordinal
ranking and ignoring the actual average rating (or total points in the
polls) is simply unnecessary and distorts the final results. For example,
the top team could be three touchdowns a game better than the second place
team, but by using only the ordinal ranking, the top team is exactly one
point better than the second place team. Likewise, the second place team
could be a thousandth of a point "Better" than the third place team - and
yet the ordinals make #2 exactly one point better than #3. Why? This is
college football for crying out loud - surely the BCS can find someone who
understands statistics! For a better and more in-depth discussion of
these problems, see:

http://www.angelfire.com/ne2/bcs_exposed/

But finally, I don't think that any changes to the system will prevent
people from complaining. The third place finisher will always claim they
deserve a spot in the championship game. But then again, a playoff system
won't help either. The ninth place finisher will complain in an
eight-team playoff, so what's the difference? The only objection I have
to the BCS is how teams are chosen for the non-championship bowl games.
For example, if BYU won out last year, they should have gone to a BCS
Bowl. Marshall and Tulane should have had more consideration a couple of
years ago. Sure - they don't play in the power conferences, but they
still managed to beat everyone who agreed to play them. What more can you
ask of a team?

- Pat

-- Patrick E. Fleming
-- Department of Chemistry
-- San Jose State University
-- pfleming@...