Schafer, Aaron "Fuzzy Math: Why the BCS Doesn't Work" (Online Article)

Summary:  This article is about Aaron Schafers opinion on how and why the Bowl Championship Series is flawed.  He was listening to the radio and Doug Gottlieb was talking about how the transitive property applies to college basketball.  Underdogs Boston College defeated No. 1 North Carolina, and then a few days latter, Harvard played Boston College and won. Since "a=b", "b=c", then "a" must ="c".  According to this Statement, Harvard is the best team in the country. The point he was making is that it doesn't work! If the Transitive property doesn't apply to sports, why does the BSC use it?  The BCS has a large formula that it uses to determine the two champions that play in the final game at the end of the year. It basically  takes a certain match-up, take the victor and assign them points for how strong their opponent was.  In Sports, any team has the ability to beat any other team on any given day, and no matter how good the team was before that game, they should not necessarily give extra big point totals for the occasional upset.  Football is not based on the transitive property


Reactions:  I completely agree with Schafers argument that there should be a playoff system in college football. He gave very convincing evidence on why the BCS doesn't work. The best example from last year was when the big ten "Champion" was selected to go to the rose bowl.  Michigan State, Ohio State and Wisconsin were tied at first place, all with one loss.  Logic tells us that since Ohio state lost to Wisconsin, Wisconsin Lost to Michigan State, and Michigan State lost to a 3 loss team Iowa, That Michigan State should be the overall Champion and play in the Rose Bowl, since they won the Head-to Head against Wisconsin. However, Michigan State lost late in the year, where Ohio State and Wisconsin lost earlier, so they had time to make up ground in the BCS rankings.  The computer behind the BCS does not take into account the head to head games, only what kind of schedule your team played. Because Wisconsin was ahead in the BCS rankings, they went to the Rose Bowl (and then lost to TCU).  A simple playoff system would settle any ranking dispute, and leave no doubt in anyone's mind who the best team is.

http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/therundown/2009/01/fuzzy_math_why_the_bcs_doesnt_add_up.php