In Sagarin's ELO-CHESS poll, used in the BCS, Texas is 14th: Sagarin Poll Anyone else still want to claim that computers know more about football than humans?
Part of the problem is that they don't have the computers know the scores of the games. That's ridiculous - obviously humans are going to consider that. When Sagarin's poll has the scores factored in, Texas is 4th.
Not that I'm a big supporter of the computer polls, but taking a random mid-season poll and offering it as evidence of a failure completely misunderstands how these things work. That said, the BCS sagarin is a nerfed poll.
Sagarin tells the world he thinks his ELO Chess ranking is inferior to his Predictor and his Mixed rankings. He doesn't really understand why the BCS insists on using his ELO Chess ranking. ELO Chess is all about wins, losses, and SOS. Texas has yet to play a team that has less than 3 losses.
The Sagarin "ELO-CHESS" rating used in the BCS - which totally discounts margin of victory - says we are 14th. The Sagarin rating which includes MOV - the one Sagarin considers his legit rating - has us 10th. The rating which has us #4 is a "pure points" rating, which Sagarin himself does not consider his most legit system, because it takes out SOS.
Ah, OK. At any rate: * computer polls will look better the more games that are played * it is stupid to stipulate that computers can't consider the scores * both computer and human polls are flawed - how many times have we seen inexplicable human ballots? * people in Iowa, Cincinnati, and Boise St can worry about this - we keep winning and we're in.
It is absolutely absurd that we look to these freakin' pocket protector dorks for anything having to do with the blood and guts sport of football and then have the audacity to label it a "system" and allow it to impact who plays who for all the marbles. When is enough enough?!? Championships should be decided on the field of play! Playoff now!
TO be fair, those 01, and 03 seasons used a different formula, in which the computer rankings were more powerful.
Don't blame the computer polls. They didn't create this system. The powers that be probably added them to "legitimize" the system. Arguing about this only distracts you from the real problem.