Question on BCS Calculations

[6ftdeep]

Is this how we calculate or BCS standings?.. except of course we only use one computer poll.. so the extra stuff about dropping stuff doesn't count.


The current version uses three basic factors:

Point total in the Harris Interactive poll.
Point total in the coaches' poll.
Ranking in the six selected computer ranking systems, after throwing out the best and worst ranking for each team.

In the polls, a team's score is its point total divided by the best possible point total for that poll. In 2008, there are 114 Harris voters and 61 coaches voting, which means that the best possible score for the Harris poll is 2850 (114 voters x 25 points for a first place vote) and in the coaches' poll, the best possible score is 1525.

The four computers for each team will be treated like voters in a mini-poll. That means, the team ranked #1 in a computer ranking will get 25 points. The #2 team will receive 24, and so on, down to the #25 team in a computer getting one point. Each team's four computer scores (after tossing the best and worst) will be added and divided by 100 (the best possible score) to give the computer average.

Then, the three numbers will be averaged for the total BCS score, highest being better.

Here is an example of how to calculate the BCS ratings:

In the Harris poll, Purdue has 1556 points. That was good enough for the #10 ranking, but that doesn't matter. Their score for the Harris poll part of the formula is 1556/2850 or .5450.
In the coaches' poll, the Boilers have 664 points, which is then divided by 1525 to give a score of .4354.
Purdue has computer rankings of 3, 4, 4, 6, 9 and 10. When you throw out the best and the worst, you are left with 4, 4, 6 and 9. Those rankings are worth 22, 22, 20 and 17 points respectively in the mini-poll, which adds up to 81 points. That is then divided by 100 for a total of .81.
The Boilermakers final BCS score then is the average of those three numbers, or (.5450 + .4354 + .81) / 3 = .5968.

[ajalves]

[ChampDizzle]

NDL:F just picks who they like

[Cnasty]

NDL:F just picks who they like

Literally.

Thats Nole's hat above.

[NCSUholmey]

NDL:F just picks who they like

Literally.

Thats Nole's hat above.

you know thats not true, nole uses the old faithful

[Nole4real]

points received divided by the maximum total points (dependent on # of coaches/media voting in each poll) for both coaches and media

computer portion is massey ranking plus SOS ranking amongst ranked teams, averaged then staggered to a 1-2.2 range

final bcs is simply the above for coaches plus the above for media, plus the number of losses, plus the final Massey/SOS

hope that helps

[6ftdeep]

points received divided by the maximum total points (dependent on # of coaches/media voting in each poll) for both coaches and media

computer portion is massey ranking plus SOS ranking amongst ranked teams, averaged then staggered to a 1-2.2 range

final bcs is simply the above for coaches plus the above for media, plus the number of losses, plus the final Massey/SOS

hope that helps

Ok the voting part is simple enough to understand.

And the massey ranking + SOS ranking .. simple enough.. but I don't get the staggered to 1 to 2.2 range.

What do you mean by that..

the final part is is simple enough too.

[Nole4real]

oops, meant to say staggered 1-2.2 with .05 increments

so the #1 ranked guy receives 1.0 points, #2 gets 1.05, #3 gets 1.10, #4 gets 1.15 and etc

if u go back and look at the bcs releases, and look in the massey/sos column, u can see the 1-2.2 range and how they ranked

keep in mind, the main point of the massey/computers/sos is to differintiate unbiasedly when teams are equals. it wont help say a 1 loss team leap ahead of a 0 loss team (unless the 0 loss team has a HORRIBLE SOS)

but rather, if between the coaches and the media, the points are very close, or like the cases we've had before, 1 team is ranked higher in one poll then they are switched in the next "splitting" the polls....the massey formula gives the computer portion a lower (higher) value based on the SOS and all the things that massey considered

[6ftdeep]

ahh ok thx.. makes sense now... thx for taking the time to explain.

but just out of curiosity, why do we also include a value for amount of losses, when current real life bcs calculations don't. Is it because we don't have a all the computers polls, or something that was decided because it seemed more fair or logical then the actually bcs formula? Or is it that the calculation method i found above is incorrect. If so

[Nole4real]

real life used to but they dont anymore i think

we've never been exactly like real life because they use(d) 6 different computer rankings for that portion so we had to tweak it to fit ndl

for example, we never used quality wins as a factor when they did in real life

i think they may have stopped using # of losses when they went to the harris poll and dropped the other poll

because of the way we have to "even out" our computer portion with the sub massey/sos formula, we though it was important to leave the # of losses in after we ran some numbers based on possible events.

its part of the stability factor for the overall formula so we've continued using it