Jerome Solomon needs a copy of THE post. He is still jabbering about the voting conspiracy in this mornings Houston Chronicle.
Send it to the LA Times writer who had an editorial in the Statesman today. Although overall a pretty fair article slamming the BCS, he still hints at a "whiff of fraud" and thinks the votes were the deciding factor in the outcome.
Cal dude Your main point is that the net human polls changed after the last Nov calculation, and not the computers, so the voters were the determinative factor. In this context your observation is correct, but the frame of your hypothesis is incomplete. After November 29, Texas had no games left, Cal had one. We know the story of that outcome. It would be informative to address, as Syntex did, the vote and computer situation for the teams just before A&M. Ignoring the impact of vote changes over each of our last games, but including the computer changes, Cal is nudged out. As valid, and more reasonable an explanation, is that the voters made a comparison of the teams' relative performance in their last two games, and made an ajustument. But the adjustment didn't matter, in light of the computer outcome. If you were happy at Thanksgiving with the vote, you can't complain about the impact of the voting changes. The Thanksgiving vote would have led to the same outcome. No Cal person was complaining then.
I just e-mailed the bcstruth.com site, featuring SynTex's gem, to Chris Dufresne -- who is the Los Angeles Times' college football writer.
I laughed when he said that an unbiased voter should have voted for Cal, when the only truly unbiased part of the BCS equation, the computers, went clearly for Texas.
stan, I am very lazy. that is my only defense. I have also pasted or emailed THE POST no more than 10 times and I am tired of doing it.
As long as there is a BCS, there needs to be some computer element. Computers have better memories than writers or coaches. Also, they don't get pissed after games. You can't brown nose them (no pun intended) and they aren't lazy or prejudiced by their geographical domicile. They are a unique leveling factor and they belong in the mix.
Great post - I just sent it to: Norm Hitzges Craig Miller Greg Williams Bob Sturm A friend who is an AP sportswriter A friend who works in Silicon Valley and has ALOT of Cal grads working for him.
I also e-mailed Chris Dufresne a link to The Post. He responded, referring to the "disturbing" poll shifts after NOVEMBER 20TH, when Texas was idle. In other words, he didn't like my response to his claim that Texas "edged out" Cal simply due to the most recent poll shifts, so he changed his point of reference. Pretty weak comeback... Thank you SynTex for an OUTSTANDING POST!
Chris should be smart enough to realize that Michigan lost the week that Cal won big and Texas was off, and that many voters also liked Michigan better than Texas.
Just in case any of you missed the anti-Texas column in today's San Diego Union-Tribune, here's the link: The Link
I love hearing California fans say that "If we had played Southern Miss when the game was scheduled, we'd be in the Rose Bowl." Which is 100% false since that would not have changed the computers' data at all, and although it would have helped them in the AP/Coaches polls, it wouldn't have changed the mind of EVERY SINGLE VOTER. I also love how they say "They shouldn't drop us because of a close road win." And then they talk about Kansas and claim that Texas isn't as good because of our close road win.
I just read the BCS Guru's post to my Dad. He was under the impression that Cal "just got left out" of the BCS. He didn't realize that the 6 BCS conference champs got in automatically. He thought the Rose Bowl snubbed the Bears when they took Michigan and didn't realize that Cal's #4 ranking in the human polls didn't mean squat. He's a big sports fan. He watches a lot of college football. But he had not kept up with how the BCS works. When I told him that a 6-5 Syracuse team nearly made the BCS, he was flabbergasted. I think this is what we're fighting... General fan misunderstandings.
AWESOME JOB!! This thread rocks! Man SynTex you can do some math!! Go Horns! Get jiggy at the Rose Bowl!!
