Will be much kinder to us this year. I present you a chart from one of the comps. Look at last year first. The Link We were 4th place as a conference. We had losses to ULALA, Toledo, Colorado State, & Houston (twice) Now compare to this year. The Link Our only bad losses as a conference are thanks to Kansas. We are #1 so far this year. Yes there are about 8 or so OOC games left in the conference. But the conference should be favored in about 6 of them. We don't really need to worry about TCU this year, imho. Last year we were ranked #4 as a conference and the MWC was #7. They had a 21-15 record OOC last year. This year the MWC ranks #8 and they are 9-12 so far. So basically, if it comes down to Texas or TCU for one final spot in the comps, you have to like Texas's chances.
They also have OU and Texas as 1 & 2 overall with Missouri 7, Nebraska 17, Kansas State 18, & OK State 20. The conference may look good, but it might be a bit early yet to really figure out the computers.
F the computers. No, F the people who actually think the computers produce anything other than essentially random results. The computers gave us: Nebraska in 2001, OU in 2003, and OU in 2008. F the computers.
1. This is the Colley Matrix ranking of conferences, not an overview of how all of the BCS computer components view comparative conference strength. 2. If you click on "Explanation of Rankings" on the top left of the page, you get this text: "Note that the conference rankings are provided only for reference; they have no bearing on the team rankings." Just sayin'.
Some responses. Yes this is just one computer. Its the only one I could find with last years data. But just so you know, 4 of the 6 computers are published right now. We are #1 in 2 of them and #2 in the other 2. If the BCS were to be published right now, we'd be #2 just behind Alabama. Yes the season is along ways from being done... but after this weekend 7 of our 8 games (or 8 of 9 for the optimistic) will be within our conference. THAT IS WHY conference rankings are so crucial. Going from #4-5 last year in the conf. rankings to #2 this year will pay dividends now that 88% or so of our remaining games will be within our conference.
PREDICTOR is the best single way of rank ordering the teams in college football (BCS stipulates that Sagarin use ELO_CHESS instead). Compare this with the Harris Poll, wherein the voters do not always know the records of the teams that they are voting on.
