Great info about the BCS computers from Ferd

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071104/SPORTS0201/711040354/1312/SPORTS0201&template=UHsports

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071104/SPORTS0201/711040355/1312/SPORTS0201&template=UHsports

HA Note: "The six computer providers are Anderson & Hester, Richard Billingsley, Wes Colley, Kenneth Massey, Jeff Sagarin and Peter Wolfe. That UH's standing varies from 14th to 55th among the computers reflects the differences in the providers and the latitude they have in their programs."

About the different computer rankings, Charles Bloom (associate commissioner of the SEC, which administers the BCS in conjunction with the National Football Foundation) said:
"The parameters are up to them. Each of the (computers) have its own measures of what they use: i.e. schedule strength, recent results, conference strength, etc." (HA)

HA Note: "The only prohibition being a margin of victory component, which the BCS did away with in 2002. Jeff Sagarin, 59, an MIT graduate in theoretical mathematics, is the only one of the six who makes his living on rankings. The providers receive what is described as a small "honorarium." "


About the small amount of money they get for their computer rankings, Wolfe said:
"let's put it this way, I'm not giving up my day job." (HA)

HA Note: "His day jobs include being an associate professor at UCLA, specializing in infectious diseases, and a physician with a private practice."

About his computer ranking, Wolfe said:
"College football is my favorite sport and I've been interested in math and ratings systems since college. I think the people who run the BCS knew there is a kind of sports ratings subculture out there on the internet and, one day, Ray Kramer (then commissioner of the SEC) called me to invite me to participate." (HA)

HA Note: "Colley's call came while he was in a MIT lab working on missiles. Colley, 36, produces the Colley Matrix and is an astrophysics professor at the University of Alabama-Huntsville who began mixing algorithms and football as a hobby while at Princeton. Colley's Matrix, which this year began tracking games against I-AA opponents for the first time, does not give UH (26th) any points for strength of schedule. UH was especially hurt by not only playing two I-AA opponents, but by playing New Mexico State, which also had two I-AA foes."


About how he has consistently rated UH high (currently 14th), Wolfe said:
"I chose to design my system to have a small preference for undefeateds, perhaps more than the other systems used by the BCS, which might account for Hawai'i's position." (HA)

HA Note: "Anderson and Hester were buddies at the University of Washington in the 1980s and, feeling that the major polls had a bias against the Huskies, came up with their own. Anderson became a constitutional law scholar and professor at the Air Force Academy and Hester a sportswriter in Seattle. In their system UH is currently 33rd."

About his computer rankings, Anderson said:
"Each team's opponents and opponents' opponents are judged not only by their won-lost records but also, uniquely, by their conferences' strength. Each conference is rated according to its non-conference won-lost record and the difficulty of its non-conference schedule." (HA)

HA Note: "Massey is a math professor at Carson-Newman College (Tennessee) and, at 31 the youngest of the providers. The Warriors are 55th on his computer — a function, he said, of their schedule to date, which compares with a "Division I-AA schedule." As UH plays better teams, Massey said its numbers should rise."

HA Note: "The interest people have in the BCS standings, Colley said, hit home when he was introduced to the commanding general at the Army's Redstone Arsenal who, to heck with missiles, demanded to know where Colley had his team (Texas) ranked. Fortunately, Colley said he was able to tell him the Longhorns were No. 1 on his computer at the time."


HA Note: "Taking issue with the suggestion that a lot of UH's scheduling weakness can be blamed on the Spartans' pullout, Jeff Anderson writes on www .andersonsports.com under the headline, "Why Hawaii Doesn't Deserve Sympathy for Its Easy Schedule," "... all of Hawaii's scheduling woes cannot be blamed on Michigan State's having bailed out. If Hawaii had played Michigan St. instead of I-AA Northern Colorado (the Spartans' replacement), the Warriors would still have played the easiest or second-easiest schedule to date out of the nation's 119 (major) teams." "

"Fully half of Hawaii's games have been against teams that are currently ranked in the bottom-6 (No. 114 or worse) or are I-AA," Anderson wrote on the Web site. "What about the tough half of the Warriors' schedule, you ask? Those games have been against teams ranked between Nos. 84 and 106." (HA)