July 20, 2004

New BCS Formula



Under the new BCS Formula passed unanimously, only three factors will decide the number one and two teams in the country in college football. Out are the strength of schedule, quality wins, and team record. The new formula is one third Associated Press poll, one third Coaches poll, and one third computer polls. The computer polls retain six of last years seven polls, leaving New York Times out.

So here is how it works.

For the AP poll, the number of total points a team gets will be divided by 1625, which is the maximum number of total points, resulting in a number between 0 and 1.

For the Coaches poll, the number of total points a team gets will be divided by 1525, the maximum number of total points for the Coaches poll. This again, gives you a number between 0 and 1.

For the computer polls, teams ranked 1-25 will be given points in a descending order starting with the number one team getting 25 points. After that, the highest and lowest scores will be weeded out. The remaining four numbers will be added up and divided by 100, which gives you another number between the magical 0 and 1 range.

Add up the three numbers between 0 and 1. The two teams with the highest points will be playing in the Orange Bowl come January.

Let’s see if this tweak would have changed things in who would be playing in last year’s Championship game.




USC LSU OU

AP points 1608 1576 1476

Coach points 1542 1516 1449



Anderson 23 24 25

Billingsley 23 24 25

Colley 23 24 25

Massey 23 25 24

Sagarin 22 24 25

Wolfe 23 24 25

CPU total 0.92 0.96 1.00



New BCS 2.9207 2.9239 2.8585





Ding, Ding, Ding….The results are in, it would have been USC vs. LSU in the Sugar Bowl last year!!!! Well, duh, the results were predictable as it would be embarrassing if the latest tweak wouldn’t have changed anything. Is the change good? Maybe. The formula is a lot less complex with the triumvirate, but nevertheless, calculators are mandatory. But the reality is only 2 of the 117 teams gets to play for the championship. I’m still going with the 4-team playoff scenario over the BCS any day.






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