Jeff Sagarin - Time To Take Out The Garbage

This is my statement: Jeff Sagarin's computer ranking system should be immediately eliminated from the BCS formula.

We learned yesterday that Sagarins computer formula which is included in the BCS standings currently has three teams from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) in the top 10 of the nation.

In fact, he has one loss Bethune-Cookman ranked No. 4, ahead of Oregon and several other top tier programs. Simply put, that is ludicrous. Any algorithm that spits out nonsense like that has serious flaws at its core.

Sure, the BCS simply drops the FCS schools out of the poll, thus moving teams up a spot (or in the case of some teams, three spots). But that is not the point.

If Sagarin's "brilliant" formula spits out a team whose presence is only made possible because they LOST to Florida State 54-6 while beating teams like Tennessee State (12-9) and Delaware State (21-7) there is a fundamental flaw and NONE of his projections can be trusted.

This shows you just how ridiculous a system is when it allows programmers to determine who should play a championship game. Can you imagine the NFL doing that?

Worse is that the formulas are not required to be released publicly so he could throw any garbage "bias" into his program he wants and it goes virtually unchecked.

The BCS honchos have absolved themselves of any responsibility for the faulty formulas proclaiming those people whose formulas are included in the process as the "experts" therefore the BCS executives don't particularly care what garbage goes into the formulas.

Many of these programs have long seemed suspicious. They are said to be programmed where "only winning matters." Reality says that cannot be true.

Look at another example, also from Sagarin. Oregon State lost earlier this year to an FCS foe (Eastern Washington) yet, somehow, Sagarins formula considers Oregon State the No. 8 team in the nation. The team that beat the Beavers has lost two games to FCS foe Sam Houston State and MAC opponent Toledo. Eastern Washington comes in at No. 75 on Sagarin's list.


So, apparently, losing to No. 75 gets a team better ratings than beating No. 62 (Tennessee), No. 41 (Washington) and No. 44 (Washington State).

Sagarin's ratings are an absolute joke. No, wait, sorry, jokes are funny. They are an absolute embarrassment. His ratings should immediately be dumped and he should be forbidden from having any involvement in any system that determines relative strength of NCAA teams.

Clearly he has no clue what he is doing. Honestly, I think a high school calculus student could probably devise a more accurate formula. In fact, a dog barking randomly when team names are announced could probably come up with a better ranking system.

Sagarin should feel nothing but disgust and shame that his supposed formula is so riddled with obvious inconsistencies.

His inclusion in the BCS formula is the worst kind of joke. Time to kick him out.

Garbage in, garbage out; GIGO. That should be the name of Sagarin's ratings. They are utter garbage. And the garbage begins with his formula. Garbage.