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How are college football rankings determined? · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know?
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Speaker 1: From House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to
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Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant
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Speaker 1: that makes the Stuff you Should Know the College Football edition. Yes,
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Speaker 1: our first sportscast. Ever, I think we've never done it, dude,
0:29
Speaker 1: really yeah, because I've always kind of wanted to, but
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Speaker 1: then I thought we'd be, you know, excluding anyone who's
0:35
Speaker 1: not a sports fan. But we get a lot of
0:37
Speaker 1: sports fans who say you should do this. Uh, well,
0:40
Speaker 1: we'll throw them a bone here. It seems like we
0:42
Speaker 1: need some sort of heraldry like do do do do you?
0:50
Speaker 1: I could keep going. I wanted to sing final Count.
0:53
Speaker 1: I was literally like stopping myself. Well, now we have
0:55
Speaker 1: to pay a royalty since you name that tune. Buddy. Oh,
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Speaker 1: before we get started, let's plug fest our college tour. Yeah,
1:04
Speaker 1: we're gonna do uh it's not exactly college tour, but
1:07
Speaker 1: it is just oh yeah, that's a trivia tour. It was.
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Speaker 1: It's a national tour. But there's colleges in these places
1:12
Speaker 1: where we're going. Yeah, we're going to do um anywhere
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Speaker 1: between five and seven cities, winding up in Austin as
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Speaker 1: far as I know. Yeah. Um, And we're kicking it
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Speaker 1: off October, which is the Wednesday in Atlanta, g A,
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Speaker 1: which is just down the street. We're actually in it
1:29
Speaker 1: right now. Some would argue we kicked it off in
1:31
Speaker 1: New York. Yeah, you could definitely make that case. So
1:33
Speaker 1: New York brought the goods. Yeah, I wonder if Atlanta
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Speaker 1: will bring goods similar to New York. And and I'm
1:41
Speaker 1: talking to you toub Birmingham and uh, Chattanooga, Well definitely.
1:47
Speaker 1: And what else is close? Um, Charlotte's not too far
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Speaker 1: off Asheville's three hours. Ashville's got no excuse, and we're
1:53
Speaker 1: not coming to Ashville. So this is your chance. Well
1:55
Speaker 1: that's the beauty about the Southeast. Just go to Atlanta
1:57
Speaker 1: and everybody drives. You just know you have to drive
2:00
Speaker 1: if you're in the Nobody from Florida is welcome though,
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Speaker 1: you'll be turned away at the door. Um. So yeah,
2:06
Speaker 1: that's going to be October, which is a Wednesday. I'm
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Speaker 1: almost positive it's going to be at Five Seasons Brewery
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Speaker 1: Brewing Company. Yeah. On the west Side. Um so up
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Speaker 1: on the roof. Yeah awesome. We'll be throwing more details
2:22
Speaker 1: up on Twitter and our Facebook fan page stuff you
2:25
Speaker 1: should know. And our Twitter feed is s Y s
2:28
Speaker 1: K podcast in case you want to follow us, Um
2:30
Speaker 1: and Chuck. I guess it's time we should get to
2:32
Speaker 1: football rankings, right, yeah, this one. Uh, we should just
2:37
Speaker 1: go ahead and say that the article for this one
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Speaker 1: on our website is a little out of date. And
2:42
Speaker 1: college football and the BCS is ever changing, so I
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Speaker 1: kind of expected that it wouldn't be, you know, really
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Speaker 1: up to date. It's changed a lot over the past
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Speaker 1: six years. It's changed a lot over the past six minutes. Actually,
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Speaker 1: you know, Um, yeah, it's might you know, we're gonna
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Speaker 1: do our best here. Uh. Not only that, if you
3:00
Speaker 1: thought the Quantum Suicide podcast was hard to follow, Buddy,
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Speaker 1: get a pen and piece of paper out right now,
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Speaker 1: because there's gonna be some detailed equations and afterward there
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Speaker 1: will be a quiz. Chuck. I tend normally to lean
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Speaker 1: more towards UM A p the Associated Press over USA
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Speaker 1: today for accuracy and reporting, right, but I looked at
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Speaker 1: the n c a A Football rankings today preseason, uh,
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Speaker 1: and I saw that USA Today has Georgia ranked twenty one,
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Speaker 1: whereas A P has Georgia ranked twenty three. So I'm
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Speaker 1: leaning towards USA Today's reporting. Today they both have tech
3:35
Speaker 1: ring hired to Yeah, it doesn't matter. Let Tech get
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Speaker 1: the number one spot and then come Thanksgiving will knock
3:42
Speaker 1: them out of it. It's one of the great joys
3:44
Speaker 1: in my life when we have a terrible season, but
3:47
Speaker 1: we may have a good season. It remains to be seen.
3:49
Speaker 1: I can't say anything. I don't even know who are
3:50
Speaker 1: starting quarterback is going to be? Is that Aaron Murray?
3:53
Speaker 1: It's Aaron Murray and Murray Murray. It's like try to now,
4:01
Speaker 1: I wonder where she'd been. I think she's been in
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Speaker 1: the same place for several years. No, she did, I think,
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Speaker 1: so we should probably look that up there too, Anne Murray,
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Speaker 1: if you're not dead, we apologize. We've greatly exaggerated your
4:17
Speaker 1: so chuck before the BCS, right, there was a streat
4:21
Speaker 1: line in a John Travolta movie, and I can't believe
4:23
Speaker 1: these words are coming out of my mouth. But why
4:26
Speaker 1: you sweet? That's that's my impression. No, the um that
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Speaker 1: movie was Michael. I think it was where he played
4:33
Speaker 1: like a kind of down to earth angel who like
4:36
Speaker 1: drugs and boozing and womenizing. You saw it, okay, so
4:39
Speaker 1: it was like kind of a cute movie. But there
4:41
Speaker 1: was one thing that he said that I've always thought
4:44
Speaker 1: was very clever was that he told somebody in that
4:47
Speaker 1: movie that he invented lines. And before then people were
4:50
Speaker 1: just standing around, like bumping into each other and didn't
4:53
Speaker 1: know what to do. So I kind of have the
4:56
Speaker 1: same impression of college football season and their end pre BCS.
5:03
Speaker 1: Everybody's kind of bumping into everybody else. There was a
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Speaker 1: distinct possibility that you had a number of teams claiming
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Speaker 1: the number one spot in no way to resolve that.
5:11
Speaker 1: And you know, we humans are very much into saying
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Speaker 1: you are clearly number one. And the BCS, while it
5:17
Speaker 1: had a rockie start at first, has kind of fulfilled
5:20
Speaker 1: that spot. Right It's got a pretty good UM record
5:23
Speaker 1: the last six or ten years, right well, according to
5:26
Speaker 1: the BCS and ESPN, Yeah, well we might as well
5:30
Speaker 1: go ahead and say, um. The BCS claims that in
5:33
Speaker 1: the twelve years since it's been around, there twelve or
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Speaker 1: twelve according to their formulas, and there nine for twelve
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Speaker 1: according to like coaches polls as far as matching up
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Speaker 1: the two best teams to play for the national title.
5:47
Speaker 1: And previous to that, like you said, for decades, teams
5:52
Speaker 1: played each other in bowl games and then sports writers
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Speaker 1: voted on a national champion, which is kind of made up.
5:57
Speaker 1: It's beyond ridiculous. If you think the BCS predict, let's
6:00
Speaker 1: that's even more ridiculous. Yeah, and um, well, let's talk
6:03
Speaker 1: about how the BCS is calculated. Right, Well, what are
6:05
Speaker 1: what are the BCS. There's five games before there were
6:08
Speaker 1: twenty five bowl games? Is that correct? Uh, they're twenty
6:13
Speaker 1: nine games aside from the BCS games before. Now now
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Speaker 1: there's twenty nine excluding the BCS games. Okay, but before
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Speaker 1: I understand that they were like twenty five bowl games
6:27
Speaker 1: and they were all important because there was no BCS.
6:30
Speaker 1: Well important to varying degrees, right, But it's almost like
6:33
Speaker 1: playing musical chairs with eight kids, but with nine chairs,
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Speaker 1: you know. So, Um, the BCS comes in and says, hey,
6:40
Speaker 1: we're going to make sure the clear winners established, and
6:43
Speaker 1: we're going to do so by establishing that we're gonna
6:45
Speaker 1: say these Bowl games are actually the important ones, right,
6:49
Speaker 1: and they are what they are, the Sugar Bowl, the
6:52
Speaker 1: Rose Bowl, the Orange Bowl, and the Fiesta Bowl, and
6:55
Speaker 1: they all have different sponsors that kind of change, and
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Speaker 1: we're not paid by any of them, so we're not
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Speaker 1: going to mention. Huh. Well, three of the four of
7:02
Speaker 1: these in this article are wrong. That's how much they've changed.
7:05
Speaker 1: You know. I think Tostitos is the only one that's
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Speaker 1: still actively sponsoring the Fiesta Bowl and the There's big
7:13
Speaker 1: money involved in these things, right, There's payouts that go
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Speaker 1: directly to the schools involved and then also to their conferences. Right, Yeah,
7:21
Speaker 1: should we break that down? Let's do it? How that works? Uh?
7:24
Speaker 1: Last year, the payout for the National title game was
7:27
Speaker 1: seventeen million dollars per team, so thirty what is that for?
7:33
Speaker 1: Thirty four million bucks? But the team doesn't get all
7:36
Speaker 1: of that, It is split. You get a participation fee,
7:40
Speaker 1: and then after the participation participation fee is taken out,
7:44
Speaker 1: the rest of the money is split among all the
7:46
Speaker 1: teams in the conference. So the SEC is loaded with talent.
7:50
Speaker 1: They send let's say eight teams to bowls. So that's
7:55
Speaker 1: a lot of money coming to schools like Vanderbilt in
7:58
Speaker 1: Kentucky that may not go to of all, so they
8:01
Speaker 1: love it. I think I probably already know the answer
8:03
Speaker 1: to this, right, But are you one of those people
8:05
Speaker 1: who when George is not in a game, you still
8:09
Speaker 1: root for the SEC. I root for all SEC teams
8:15
Speaker 1: except for Florida, thank you, and uh boy, Tennessee is
8:19
Speaker 1: tough for me to get behind. Trouble rooting for Tennessee
8:22
Speaker 1: as well. But if it was like Tennessee versus USC,
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Speaker 1: I would certainly root for Tennessee. But I can never
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Speaker 1: root for Florida no matter what happens. Now, I can't either, Chuck,
8:30
Speaker 1: and I'm glad to hear you say that. I also
8:32
Speaker 1: have trouble rooting for Tech. Some people are like, well,
8:36
Speaker 1: it's a Georgia team, so if George is not playing,
8:38
Speaker 1: then I root for Tech, And I'm like, you're a
8:40
Speaker 1: communist at don't root for Tech. They're sort of neutral.
8:44
Speaker 1: Like I root for their basketball team because I liked
8:46
Speaker 1: them back in the day, but not not for football.
8:48
Speaker 1: And my brother works there, so I gotta keep it
8:50
Speaker 1: on the you know, up and up. That's very nice
8:53
Speaker 1: of you keep it in the family. So, Chuck, what
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Speaker 1: should we talk about next? Well, the BCS is um
9:03
Speaker 1: is not a body. It's an event which consists of
9:06
Speaker 1: these football games, and it's managed by the UM Bowl,
9:10
Speaker 1: the BCS, subdivision conferences and these are the big boys, right,
9:14
Speaker 1: But don't you get the And I was surprised to
9:16
Speaker 1: hear this. There's an ESPN article that you sent me
9:19
Speaker 1: giving it background background of the BCS, and it said,
9:22
Speaker 1: like two nine pole showed se of n c a
9:28
Speaker 1: a coach's favor keeping the BCS in place over a playoff. Right.
9:32
Speaker 1: That kind of flies in the face of information that
9:34
Speaker 1: I've had, like anecdotally, you know, I mean, I know,
9:37
Speaker 1: I've never asked Mark Rick, you know, on the spot,
9:40
Speaker 1: but I get the impression that there's a lot more
9:42
Speaker 1: people that want playoffs than don't, definitely, and that the
9:47
Speaker 1: BCS is something of an entity and it's not just
9:51
Speaker 1: you know, this this panel that's you know, created by
9:54
Speaker 1: this democracy, that it's more like an iron fist and
9:57
Speaker 1: if you don't like it, they'll you'll be c Is
10:00
Speaker 1: that not the case? How well? They say they're not entity,
10:02
Speaker 1: but I bet they have an office. I bet they
10:04
Speaker 1: kind bet people work there, and I bet there's just
10:07
Speaker 1: iron desks for their iron fists. I should know, though,
10:11
Speaker 1: I did say that the BCS conferences were who make
10:14
Speaker 1: up this this body. We also have to include Notre
10:18
Speaker 1: Dame in there because you actually get to vote, although
10:22
Speaker 1: you don't include Notre Dame as much as you used to. No,
10:25
Speaker 1: I mean they're still in there though. They get their
10:26
Speaker 1: participation included UM as an independent, as does Army and Navy,
10:30
Speaker 1: which is interesting too. Yeah, a Notre Dame gets three
10:34
Speaker 1: votes in Army and Navy get one each. Right, Well,
10:36
Speaker 1: that's votes for UM. Those are nominations for the Harris
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Speaker 1: Interactive Football Poll. This is going to be all over
10:45
Speaker 1: the place. It is, but it's okay, we're making sense
10:48
Speaker 1: so far. I mean, the BCS came around in ninety eight.
10:51
Speaker 1: It established that there's five bowls. We sent the bowls, right, Well, yeah,
10:54
Speaker 1: but four plus the national title game? Right, And it's
10:58
Speaker 1: not just like, okay, here's the rankings and then the
11:01
Speaker 1: season's over, so one versus to you go play two
11:04
Speaker 1: versus three, ugo play three versus or four versus five.
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Speaker 1: It doesn't happen like that. But that's kind of counterintuitive
11:10
Speaker 1: until you realize that the BCS algorithm is the most
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Speaker 1: complex algorithm ever created by man and it's actually composed
11:19
Speaker 1: of a number of different algorithms spitting out numbers and
11:22
Speaker 1: then those numbers are factored in. So I think, Chuck,
11:24
Speaker 1: we put it off long enough and we can't any longer.
11:27
Speaker 1: Let's talk mathematics and statistics. Okay, yes, Uh, you're gonna
11:32
Speaker 1: have to explain some of this, but um, because math
11:35
Speaker 1: is not my strong talk about the subjective pulse. How
11:37
Speaker 1: about that I was told there would be no math.
11:39
Speaker 1: I'll try to handle the math as best as possible,
11:41
Speaker 1: but it's gonna be like that one kind of breathalyzer
11:44
Speaker 1: that I thought I understood. Well, Uh, things have changed, Josh.
11:47
Speaker 1: Since it was originally the BCS was set up a
11:52
Speaker 1: certain way, and then in two thousand and two and
11:55
Speaker 1: two thousand four a lot of changes took place. It
11:58
Speaker 1: used to be UM four fact jurors that weighed into
12:00
Speaker 1: the BCS ranking, and now there are only three factors.
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Speaker 1: The A P I'm sorry, the USA today A Coaches poll. Right.
12:09
Speaker 1: The AP pole was replaced um before the two thousand
12:13
Speaker 1: four season, I think by the Harris Interactive Pole. And
12:16
Speaker 1: then the last third is a very complex computer ranking system. Uh.
12:23
Speaker 1: An average of six computer rankings are averaged and that
12:27
Speaker 1: is the last thirty three and the third percent. Right.
12:29
Speaker 1: And these UM computer rankings are basically independent groups or
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Speaker 1: people who say, yeah, we're following football and we have
12:37
Speaker 1: a pretty good algorithm, and here's our contribution. UM. There
12:41
Speaker 1: used to be I think eight, and now there's six. UM.
12:47
Speaker 1: So you've got guys like Richard Billingsley, who's just a
12:49
Speaker 1: businessman I love it and apparently likes to to come
12:53
Speaker 1: up with college rankings in his spare time. Their statisticians
12:56
Speaker 1: and mathematicians, right, and businessmen and businessmen. Yeah, so weird.
13:00
Speaker 1: It is weird. Maybe his business is accounting, but UM,
13:04
Speaker 1: so they'll they'll take into account. For example, the Billingsley
13:07
Speaker 1: report uses the strength of the opponent final score UM,
13:11
Speaker 1: and the win lose records of the teams before and
13:15
Speaker 1: after the game. Right. Combine all these together and you
13:18
Speaker 1: create a numerical value. Right. Some other people or some
13:22
Speaker 1: other UM computer rankings systems like UM. Who else is
13:27
Speaker 1: There's Seattle Times, which is run by a guy named
13:30
Speaker 1: Jeff Anderson who's a political science graduate student. Was and
13:34
Speaker 1: I guess he's just a political scientist. Um. And Chris Hester,
13:38
Speaker 1: who's a sportswriter and um, these two get together and
13:42
Speaker 1: they take quality of opponent and strength of schedule. The
13:45
Speaker 1: problem is, Chuck, is you can't just go, yeah, Boise
13:49
Speaker 1: States doing pretty good, So we're gonna give them a
13:51
Speaker 1: five for strength of schedule or strength of opponent or
13:54
Speaker 1: quality of opponent, that kind of thing. Um, what they
13:58
Speaker 1: have to take into account are wide factors like let's
14:02
Speaker 1: say you win. Yeah, it's not just good enough that
14:05
Speaker 1: you're going to win. Who exactly did you beat? And
14:08
Speaker 1: how do you quantify who you beat? Well, you say
14:11
Speaker 1: where you play, right, So we have to look at yours,
14:14
Speaker 1: not only your opponent's schedule, but your opponent's opponent's schedule,
14:21
Speaker 1: and then you you put numerical values onto those, right,
14:25
Speaker 1: the win loss, and then you calculate that, and you
14:28
Speaker 1: come up with another numerical value that's called strength of schedule.
14:31
Speaker 1: And to get down to the nitty gritty, the strength
14:34
Speaker 1: of schedules calculated like this, You've got your opponent's schedule, Chuck,
14:38
Speaker 1: you play Boise State. Boise State has been doing pretty good.
14:42
Speaker 1: I'm not playing there, dude, so you won't catch me
14:45
Speaker 1: on a blue football field. You Well, well, there they
14:47
Speaker 1: came and visited you, but you beat them between the hedges.
14:52
Speaker 1: So you've got UM two times s O, and s
14:55
Speaker 1: O is your opponent's schedule. Boise States schedule, you've got
14:58
Speaker 1: two times that. Plut. They're Boise States opponents schedules, all
15:03
Speaker 1: of them calculated to wins and losses. So it's two
15:07
Speaker 1: times your opponents schedule plus Boise States opponents schedules equals
15:13
Speaker 1: strength of schedule. Okay, that's just one component in some
15:17
Speaker 1: computer rankings, and strength of schedule I think used to
15:20
Speaker 1: be a standalone component, but now it's just factored in
15:23
Speaker 1: with the rest. And they also threw out the margin
15:26
Speaker 1: of victory. That used to be a factor as well,
15:28
Speaker 1: but they could you remember that was a big deal
15:30
Speaker 1: when coaches were running up the score. Florida would try
15:33
Speaker 1: and put like sixty points on a team, you know,
15:36
Speaker 1: against like Louisiana Lafayette, and uh, they were like, you
15:39
Speaker 1: know what, that's not really too cool. That really shouldn't
15:42
Speaker 1: factor in. So that was thrown out right the scripts
15:44
Speaker 1: Howard UM poll, which I don't think is used any longer.
15:49
Speaker 1: UM used to have a penalty actually for running up
15:52
Speaker 1: the score before it was thrown out. Yeah, part of
15:55
Speaker 1: their computer ranking was if you ran up the score,
15:57
Speaker 1: you were penalized, which is good because guys like Steve
16:00
Speaker 1: Spurrier used to need to be held in check. Now
16:03
Speaker 1: he's holding himself in check. Look at you. That's good.
16:08
Speaker 1: So is that all for the computer ranking? Third or
16:10
Speaker 1: you still got something on that? No? I think I'm
16:12
Speaker 1: I'm good okay. Uh, then you have, like I said,
16:16
Speaker 1: one third is the USA today, Uh, coach's poll and
16:22
Speaker 1: that is literally coaches voting. Um, not all of them
16:26
Speaker 1: always vote. I think there's a hundred and fourteen potential votes,
16:30
Speaker 1: but there may be a hundred and six people vote
16:33
Speaker 1: one week. Remember Steve Spurrier got some criticism at one
16:38
Speaker 1: point because like he failed to vote in like some
16:40
Speaker 1: really important week a couple of years back or something
16:42
Speaker 1: like that, and he explained that he did and his
16:44
Speaker 1: assistant lost a vote or something like that. I can't
16:46
Speaker 1: remember what it was. But that is factored in as well.
16:49
Speaker 1: They still don't divide by the same number, you know,
16:50
Speaker 1: they'll they'll factor it down by the number of votes
16:53
Speaker 1: that the number of possible votes. Yes, okay, to make
16:56
Speaker 1: them more accurate. I've also heard accusations that in coaches polls, UH, specifically,
17:01
Speaker 1: they have their kids vote sometimes, like they just can't
17:04
Speaker 1: be bothered to vote, so they'll just be like fill
17:07
Speaker 1: this out for me, will you, because they know their
17:08
Speaker 1: kids watch some games or whatever. And that that's why
17:12
Speaker 1: human polls are so fallible. That a lot of coaches
17:15
Speaker 1: don't vote, and the coaches that appear to a vote
17:18
Speaker 1: haven't necessarily voted themselves, and even if they have, they're
17:21
Speaker 1: not completely informed. Because TCU horned frogs, I like frogs,
17:26
Speaker 1: that's how it ends up. Yes, well that's how TCU
17:29
Speaker 1: ended up in the top. Ever, I guess so because
17:32
Speaker 1: of Ralph Wigham UM. And then you have the Harris
17:35
Speaker 1: Interactive Poll, and that um, like I said, replaced the
17:38
Speaker 1: eight people and they ranked them each week from late
17:42
Speaker 1: September to the end of the season. And I'm sorry
17:46
Speaker 1: that has a d and fourteen participants. That was the
17:49
Speaker 1: one fourteen I was thinking of, And UM, sorry I
17:52
Speaker 1: didn't correct you, right, And they're not just coaches, they're
17:54
Speaker 1: former coaches, student athletes, administrators, some media. And that is
17:59
Speaker 1: where Notre Dame get to say, because you get to
18:01
Speaker 1: nominate who was on this committee to vote for the
18:05
Speaker 1: Interactive poll, and each conference see these where Notre Dame
18:09
Speaker 1: gets away with something. In my opinion, each conference gets
18:11
Speaker 1: ten nominations and Notre Dame gets three, Army gets one,
18:16
Speaker 1: and Navy gets one. Yeah, so like the Big twelve
18:18
Speaker 1: twelve teams get ten nominations, Notre Dame gets three all
18:21
Speaker 1: by themselves. Right, Notre Dame has always gotten some sort
18:24
Speaker 1: of weird free ride for some reason. Why we're gonna
18:27
Speaker 1: hear about it. Yeah, but it's still I mean, it's true.
18:29
Speaker 1: They they there's a lot of favoritism towards that team,
18:32
Speaker 1: and I dare anybody to prove otherwise. Well, they haven't
18:36
Speaker 1: been great recently, but they are. They still one of
18:39
Speaker 1: the most favored, one of the most legendary teams. Yes,
18:43
Speaker 1: just because Ronald Reagan played for you doesn't mean you're
18:45
Speaker 1: a great team in two thousand and ten. You know, hey,
18:48
Speaker 1: you're preaching the choir, my friend, so Chuck. When you
18:51
Speaker 1: take these things together, the Harris Interactive Poll, the Coaches poll,
18:54
Speaker 1: and the computer rankings numbers that you crunched together and
18:58
Speaker 1: created one number. That's the third or third and third, right, Um,
19:01
Speaker 1: the most you can get is one correct at one point? Oh,
19:07
Speaker 1: actually at one point oh oh. The lowest score. You're
19:10
Speaker 1: looking for a low score here, right, low score means
19:12
Speaker 1: high ranking. This is where it gets a little hinky.
19:17
Speaker 1: Sorry to steal your word, but in the article explicitly
19:20
Speaker 1: says that you want the lowest score. Right, Yes, But
19:26
Speaker 1: in this other material that we've gotten from the BCS site,
19:29
Speaker 1: it looks like the the the higher the score, the
19:32
Speaker 1: closer to a one point oh, the higher you're ranked.
19:36
Speaker 1: Here's why I say that, chuck um in. In the
19:40
Speaker 1: coach's poll, right, coaches vote from one to five and
19:45
Speaker 1: assign each team ranking in reverse order. So if you're
19:50
Speaker 1: number one, you get twenty five points. If you're in
19:52
Speaker 1: twenty five place, you get one point, Right, so you
19:55
Speaker 1: would want more points. Correct, Yeah, But here's here's where
19:59
Speaker 1: I think it gets worked out if I'm correct and
20:02
Speaker 1: understanding this. What happens is, let's take the Harris poll.
20:05
Speaker 1: For instance. You take the total score of all your votes,
20:10
Speaker 1: and you divide that by two thousand, eight hundred and fifty,
20:13
Speaker 1: which is the maximum number that anyone can receive if
20:16
Speaker 1: all one D fourteen voting members rank that same team
20:21
Speaker 1: number one. So let's say everybody ranks Alabama number one,
20:25
Speaker 1: a one fourteen that they get two thousand, eight hundred
20:29
Speaker 1: and fifty total points, they divide that by two thousand,
20:31
Speaker 1: eight hundred and fifty, and so they end up getting
20:33
Speaker 1: a one. Okay, okay, So if you got um, if
20:40
Speaker 1: you divided I guess what one? If you had a
20:43
Speaker 1: one and you divided that by two thousand, eight hundred
20:46
Speaker 1: and fifty, I see, it would be much lower, right,
20:48
Speaker 1: And the coach the coaches poll is the same thing.
20:50
Speaker 1: They just divided by fourteen seventy five because that's the
20:53
Speaker 1: maximum number. So at least I'm right in saying that
20:56
Speaker 1: the best you could possibly get from the b CS
21:00
Speaker 1: formula is a one point zero, I believe. And it
21:04
Speaker 1: kind of follows that same thing, like you have a
21:06
Speaker 1: one in anything less would be like a point nine
21:08
Speaker 1: to oh or a point eight seven three? Right, yes, okay, yeah,
21:15
Speaker 1: that's exactly right. A plus B plus C divided by
21:19
Speaker 1: three would be point right okay, okay, all right, And
21:24
Speaker 1: see this is really confusing. It's like giving birth to
21:26
Speaker 1: a watermelon, except with your head a square Japanese watermelon,
21:30
Speaker 1: which would be even worse, especially if the edges were sharp. So, ladies,
21:35
Speaker 1: when you're like, you know, if you're not into this.
21:37
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that not all ladies are into it,
21:38
Speaker 1: but whoever's not into college football, and you poo poo it,
21:42
Speaker 1: think about how complex the system is that they've worked out.
21:45
Speaker 1: It's not just a bunch of guys sitting around drinking
21:47
Speaker 1: beer smashing each other's heads in. It's very complex, right,
21:52
Speaker 1: But I mean to the guys who are sitting around
21:54
Speaker 1: smashing each other's heads in with beer being drunk around them,
21:58
Speaker 1: it's still like I'm ranked twenty three. Yeah, true, you know, Okay,
22:03
Speaker 1: so chuck, it sounds like we made it through the
22:05
Speaker 1: math part. Yeah, what else is left? Uh? Well, that's
22:11
Speaker 1: sort of it. I mean, at the end of the year,
22:15
Speaker 1: the math determines your ranking. And we should point out
22:18
Speaker 1: that the BCS ranking, which determines who plays in these
22:22
Speaker 1: BCS Bowls and National title game, that doesn't start getting ranked.
22:27
Speaker 1: They don't do like preseason rankings or even early season
22:30
Speaker 1: that starts in mid October. Right, the preseason rankings are
22:32
Speaker 1: a p in USC today. Yeah right, and all sorts
22:35
Speaker 1: of other rankings. You know, there's all kinds of people
22:37
Speaker 1: that are like the BCS can't conceivably start because the
22:41
Speaker 1: computer rankings have to take in like strength of schedule,
22:44
Speaker 1: and you can't you can't determine that until somebody has
22:46
Speaker 1: a winner a loss against them, right, Uh, unless you're
22:50
Speaker 1: ranking by last year, right, Yeah, exactly. So mid October
22:53
Speaker 1: is when the BCS rankings start to come out, and
22:55
Speaker 1: that's about halfway through the football season, so they have
22:58
Speaker 1: enough data at that point. I think that's why. Wait,
23:01
Speaker 1: so check. You used to be the n c A
23:03
Speaker 1: Football League, the conference, the whole thing was called Division
23:07
Speaker 1: one A, and now it's called the Football Bowl Subdivision programs.
23:12
Speaker 1: Whether you like it or not, Yeah, exactly. Do you
23:15
Speaker 1: feel like we should have a playoff? Uh? Oh boy.
23:20
Speaker 1: I think that they should work a playoff system into
23:24
Speaker 1: the existing system somehow, and a lot of a lot
23:27
Speaker 1: of people think that. I agree. I don't think that
23:30
Speaker 1: there should be like um wild cards or anything like that,
23:33
Speaker 1: although I think you need them mathematically, but I think
23:36
Speaker 1: that you have to still place an emphasis on the
23:40
Speaker 1: regular season, and it's possible to do that with with
23:43
Speaker 1: a playoff system as well. Yeah. That's one of the
23:45
Speaker 1: arguments against the playoff is that they some people say
23:48
Speaker 1: that it will render the regular season. BC supporters say
23:50
Speaker 1: will render the regular season not as important, And I
23:53
Speaker 1: don't understand that logic because you still have to play
23:56
Speaker 1: those games to get ranked high to get in the tournament.
24:00
Speaker 1: They're not It's not like the basketball. They're not gonna
24:01
Speaker 1: include sixty four football teams. They're gonna I mean, I've
24:05
Speaker 1: heard different proposals from like sixteen teams to like the
24:08
Speaker 1: final eight teams battle it out. Finally, eight teams would
24:11
Speaker 1: be fine with me. Anything, anything where you determine it
24:14
Speaker 1: on the football field would be fine with me, because
24:17
Speaker 1: it's the only sport that it's not determined by a
24:20
Speaker 1: bracket of some sort. One of the reasons why we
24:23
Speaker 1: may never see a playoff is that the revenue associated
24:27
Speaker 1: with bowl games has increased by like two thousand percent
24:30
Speaker 1: since the BCS was instituted. So well, I think you
24:33
Speaker 1: can still work within that system. I mean, you can
24:36
Speaker 1: still call them bowl games and everything. You could just
24:39
Speaker 1: put it in the form of a bracket. It would
24:41
Speaker 1: add games, which would add more money. Um. Another reason
24:45
Speaker 1: against it, they argue, is like risk of injury and
24:47
Speaker 1: their student athletes, so they don't want to drag it
24:49
Speaker 1: on into their academic year. But come on, it's all
24:53
Speaker 1: about the dough it's this college athletics, but everyone knows
24:56
Speaker 1: it's about the money. Um. I did read a UM
25:00
Speaker 1: I read a few arguments today, like four and against
25:03
Speaker 1: and one writer I think he was from Slate. He
25:08
Speaker 1: calculated from his calculations. Um, he thinks only sevent of
25:13
Speaker 1: n C Double A Division one eight teams even have
25:17
Speaker 1: a shot to compete for the national title by his calculation.
25:20
Speaker 1: Each year. Well, if you're not a BCS school, then
25:25
Speaker 1: you're kind of out the door to begin with, Like
25:28
Speaker 1: boise State may have a chance that they were on
25:29
Speaker 1: the table this year, but that's a rarity, so that
25:32
Speaker 1: takes you down to and then he says, uh, if
25:36
Speaker 1: you don't start the season ranked number twenty or higher,
25:40
Speaker 1: then you're almost mathematically eliminated. So that takes you down
25:43
Speaker 1: to sevent can even compete for the national title. But
25:48
Speaker 1: I also say, I mean, there's both sides to the
25:50
Speaker 1: coin there. I also say, if you're you know, I'm
25:54
Speaker 1: not gonna pick on Boisey State because they are a
25:56
Speaker 1: good football team. But let's say you're like Colorado Appalachian
26:00
Speaker 1: State who beat Michigan that what two years ago? Remember
26:05
Speaker 1: that that was awesome. They in Michigan paid them like
26:08
Speaker 1: a million dollars to come to Michigan. Michigan pound on
26:11
Speaker 1: them and that. But teams like that, I mean, I
26:15
Speaker 1: kind of don't want to hear their argument that they
26:17
Speaker 1: should be competing because they're not big boys. They're not
26:19
Speaker 1: playing in the SEC. They're not playing in uh the
26:23
Speaker 1: Big ten or the Big twelve. Yeah, but if you're not,
26:26
Speaker 1: then you'll never attract talent. You can never get there.
26:29
Speaker 1: It's a self defeating system. Yeah, So, I mean it's
26:32
Speaker 1: very exclusive and elitist. Really from the schools with the
26:36
Speaker 1: most money are the ones that get to be in
26:38
Speaker 1: it and can perpetuate that that good program, the winning
26:42
Speaker 1: program through more and more money. Yeah, yeah, you're right.
26:45
Speaker 1: I did see another guy that said that he thought
26:48
Speaker 1: they should do like um, I think it was a
26:50
Speaker 1: sixteen team pool and and the top twelve BCS schools, Like,
26:56
Speaker 1: you get your automatic if you win the SEC, you're in,
26:58
Speaker 1: If you win the Big ten, you win, if you're
27:00
Speaker 1: in the Big twelve year in. So after all your
27:02
Speaker 1: automatic bids make the rest like the last four or
27:05
Speaker 1: whatever at large bids. So you can still have the
27:08
Speaker 1: Cinderella teams in there with the possibility, and you know
27:11
Speaker 1: answered on the football field, if you can beat them,
27:13
Speaker 1: great because boys State beat Oklahoma a few years ago.
27:16
Speaker 1: Remember in that ball game. Remember the statue of liberty play.
27:20
Speaker 1: It's crazy. They pulled out a play from like the nineties.
27:23
Speaker 1: It was beautiful and one that was um I think
27:25
Speaker 1: was that to three years ago. It was like the
27:27
Speaker 1: greatest football season of all time. It was just all
27:31
Speaker 1: over the place number UM Missouri was like number one
27:35
Speaker 1: for a little while. There was like twenty different teams
27:37
Speaker 1: number one. Yeah. Yeah, it's exciting. It's like three years ago. Right,
27:40
Speaker 1: it's not very exciting. Like when you start the season
27:42
Speaker 1: number one, you run the table unless you go to
27:44
Speaker 1: that school. We should mention too though. There was one
27:47
Speaker 1: change about um geez. Just about a month ago. Uh,
27:52
Speaker 1: the BCS announced that teams that are ineligible for postseason
27:55
Speaker 1: play are removed from the computer rankings and all six
27:59
Speaker 1: of the formula was so basically this is like the
28:03
Speaker 1: USC rule. Oh yeah yeah. Because USC's on probation now,
28:07
Speaker 1: they can't play in a bowl game for the next
28:09
Speaker 1: like two years or something, and so they said, well,
28:11
Speaker 1: we can't factor them in if they are the number
28:13
Speaker 1: eight ranked team, if they can't even play in the postseason, right,
28:16
Speaker 1: But not only that, if you're not eligible. I got
28:18
Speaker 1: the impression like, once you've reached once it's statistically impossible
28:22
Speaker 1: for you to be eligible through your losses, they start
28:25
Speaker 1: taking you out of the rankings, and everybody below you
28:26
Speaker 1: goes up one rank. No, I think if you, I
28:30
Speaker 1: think that means if you're ineligible from like crime, yeah,
28:34
Speaker 1: from from being a banned from postseason play, I'm pretty sure.
28:38
Speaker 1: And as far as the code the human polls go, uh,
28:41
Speaker 1: they said earlier this summer that the polls will not
28:44
Speaker 1: include teams that are prohibited from the n t A.
28:47
Speaker 1: So they went the same route. So but by USC
28:51
Speaker 1: and there is the BCS. We could re record this
28:53
Speaker 1: in probably twenty thirty minutes, and um, it would be
28:56
Speaker 1: entirely different. Um. If you to know more about the BCS,
29:01
Speaker 1: you should probably go to BCS dot com. There's a
29:05
Speaker 1: handy search bar there, I'm sure. And just give us
29:07
Speaker 1: a little while to get this article up to snuff. Okay, yeah,
29:11
Speaker 1: we probably got something wrong here and there too. I
29:13
Speaker 1: was just I hope we talked fast enough so that
29:15
Speaker 1: where no one noticed. I have them in my head,
29:18
Speaker 1: my friend Scott Galvin, um with his arms crossed, just
29:21
Speaker 1: like shaking his head. He's in the sound booth right
29:23
Speaker 1: behind you. Actually, like I could feel it. Actually, all right, Well,
29:27
Speaker 1: thanks for listening to me and talk about college football. Um,
29:31
Speaker 1: for whatever reason you want to, you should go to
29:33
Speaker 1: house stuff works dot com. There's a handy search bar there.
29:36
Speaker 1: Make something up and type it in and it will
29:39
Speaker 1: take you to a beautiful new place. Just spell it correctly,
29:42
Speaker 1: or also won't take you anywhere. Right. Yeah, Um, that
29:45
Speaker 1: brings us. Then I guess to listener mail. Yes, Josh,
29:50
Speaker 1: this is gonna be a two parter because it's long.
29:52
Speaker 1: We heard from a prisoner about our prison email, and
29:56
Speaker 1: he gave us lots of good stuff, and I told
29:58
Speaker 1: him I was going to read it. It's an anonymous
30:00
Speaker 1: because he is a straight shooter. Now he's on the level,
30:03
Speaker 1: doing very good in his profession, a square, and nobody
30:08
Speaker 1: in his profession knows that he was arrested for dealing math,
30:11
Speaker 1: and so he wants to keep it that way. Does
30:13
Speaker 1: he work here, Yes, he does. It's Jonathan Strickland. Uh, guys.
30:19
Speaker 1: I was arrested in the mid nineties for selling an
30:21
Speaker 1: ounce of meth to an undercover narc in Nevada. I
30:25
Speaker 1: was set up by a friend who had gotten arrested
30:27
Speaker 1: on a similar charge. Decided that he would snitch rollover
30:31
Speaker 1: and uh some uh some people so they would get probation. Unfortunately,
30:36
Speaker 1: under Nevada zero tolerance policy, I had no priors. I
30:39
Speaker 1: was twenty two and I was looking at twenty five
30:41
Speaker 1: to life for my first defense. Did he include uh
30:44
Speaker 1: in there? Or was that you? That was me? To
30:47
Speaker 1: make a long story short, I jumped bail rand Oregon
30:50
Speaker 1: and lived on the lamb for three years. This is
30:53
Speaker 1: the real deal. It sounds like hippie Rob. It is
30:55
Speaker 1: not hippie Rob. He got tired of living life on
30:57
Speaker 1: the lamb, obviously, hired a lawyer, turning self in like
31:00
Speaker 1: a good guy, and managed to get the charges dropped
31:03
Speaker 1: to level two trafficking, enter to plea deal. And the long,
31:07
Speaker 1: long story short, he was in for I think three years. Uh,
31:11
Speaker 1: And I just have a couple of prison ted bits
31:13
Speaker 1: on this end, and then we'll do the next part
31:14
Speaker 1: in the next podcast. He was not in a new
31:16
Speaker 1: prison that had the cards to keep track of commissary accounts.
31:19
Speaker 1: They were given paper slips sort of like at a
31:22
Speaker 1: sushi restaurant, and we would turn them in once or
31:24
Speaker 1: twice a week. We would pick up our order in
31:27
Speaker 1: the next day or so. Items available were personal hygiene
31:31
Speaker 1: items tooth basted, deodorant, shampoo. If you could not buy
31:34
Speaker 1: your own, you could get the state issued stuff. But
31:36
Speaker 1: that stuff was absolute garbage and I should mention too.
31:40
Speaker 1: We got another email from someone that said that Bob
31:41
Speaker 1: Barker's company, just looking it up makes prison. So yeah,
31:46
Speaker 1: is that true. I'm looking it up as hopefully at
31:49
Speaker 1: the end of this you'll know, because that would be
31:51
Speaker 1: really weird. Get your pet spade and neutered, and I
31:55
Speaker 1: will make your prison soup for you. UH. Cigarettes were available,
31:58
Speaker 1: both packs of cigarettes like Cammel and Marlborough, as well
32:02
Speaker 1: as loose tobacco and rolling papers. Packs of cigarettes were
32:05
Speaker 1: called tailor's short for tailor made. They're expensive and out
32:08
Speaker 1: of reach for most inmates. UH. Financially, having Tailor's was
32:12
Speaker 1: a status symbol, and their rarity made them great bargaining chips. Interestingly,
32:17
Speaker 1: most gray market trading he reserves the term black market
32:20
Speaker 1: for contraband, where items purchased out of the commissary. Things
32:25
Speaker 1: you could get with purchased commissary items for trade were
32:28
Speaker 1: limited only by the creativity of the inmates. For example,
32:31
Speaker 1: a pack of cigarettes a week. You could pay somebody
32:34
Speaker 1: to iron your clothing for you, so you would always
32:36
Speaker 1: look as nice as possible for visits. If you wanted
32:39
Speaker 1: to write somebody a letter, you could pay one of
32:41
Speaker 1: several talented artists to custom decorate your envelope with roses
32:45
Speaker 1: or balloons or whatever else you could imagine. Basically, it
32:48
Speaker 1: was like on demand customary stationary, and it was actually
32:51
Speaker 1: a high service demand in prison. So that is the
32:55
Speaker 1: end of part one. Josh, we're gonna leave hanging for
32:57
Speaker 1: part two. So Chuck, do you want the answer about
32:59
Speaker 1: Bob bark greatly. There is a guy named Bob Barker
33:03
Speaker 1: who makes prison toiletries, but he's not Bob Barker of
33:07
Speaker 1: Crisis right according to Snopes at least. Okay, So thank
33:11
Speaker 1: you very much Chuck for part one. I myself, I'm
33:14
Speaker 1: very excited about part two, and I'm glad I don't
33:16
Speaker 1: have to wait until next Thursday to hear it. I
33:20
Speaker 1: get to hear it in about thirty forty minutes. If
33:23
Speaker 1: you want to send us an email about Bob Barker,
33:27
Speaker 1: your favorite college football team, or your mom's home cooking.
33:31
Speaker 1: We want to hear about it. Send it to Stuff
33:34
Speaker 1: Podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more on
33:42
Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff
33:45
Speaker 1: works dot com. Want more how stuff works, check out
33:48
Speaker 1: our blogs on the house. Stuff works dot com home page.
33:54
Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
33:57
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