04/26/24
November 17, 2010
Rhoden: BCS Encourages Mighty to Crush Weak: Wisconsin's 83-20 victory over Indiana is the result of a system that discourages mercy, writes William C. Rhoden in the New York Times. "Where is the sportsmanship? Where is the compassion? Where is the mercy? The answer is that they have been devoured by the Bowl Championship Series beast."
YES! Exactly! The BCS is EEEVIILLLL!
Except...
The computers can't factor in margin of victory, so they aren't the ones that are moving everyone around based on the scoreboard. That would be the pollsters (who only pay attention to the scoreboard, judging by TCU's drop this week). If he wants (and I think was trying) to say that the big money atmosphere in college football creates an attitude that it is more important to win and get into the big money games, I would agree with him, but I'm not sure that is a product of the BCS or other factors.
And as the guy mentioned but chose to ignore, it's not like this has never happened before.
posted by Bonkers at 12:30 AM on November 18, 2010
Err, that should read "has ever".
posted by Bonkers at 01:02 AM on November 18, 2010
None of the computers that factor in to the BCS rankings weighs margin of victory? Did that change?
posted by rcade at 07:04 AM on November 18, 2010
the BCS no longer uses margin of victory
That may be what they want you to believe, but at least one of the coaches thinks that it is still in there somewhere. Also, it's hard to see why Boise with a big win jumped over TCU with a close win if margin of victory did not factor in.
posted by graymatters at 09:15 AM on November 18, 2010
Margin of victory hasn't been a factor since 2002. However, the computers can't control voters who want to factor that into their ranking.
posted by bperk at 10:03 AM on November 18, 2010
Argument against margin of victory.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 11:10 AM on November 18, 2010
it's hard to see why Boise with a big win jumped over TCU with a close win if margin of victory did not factor in.
Boise State only jumped them in the human polls (where margin of victory does matter, because few of the pollsters probably even knew anything about the SDSU-TCU game other than the final score).
While it remains third in the BCS formula, TCU did take a hit in most of its computer rankings. This can be justified by the fact that their previous best victory was just routed by a mediocre Notre Dame squad, while Boise State can still note that they beat the best team in the ACC. Strength of schedule still does factor into the BCS, last I remember, and TCU doesn't have any huge victories in that department.
posted by Bonkers at 01:42 AM on November 19, 2010
This article makes little sense. The BCS only compels running up scores to please pollsters who like the big numbers (since the BCS no longer uses margin of victory). Before the BCS, those very same pollsters chose the national champions anyway and they liked the big numbers then as well.