OU-Mizzou: Arguing with logic
A reader sent me a fantastic email. A friend of his was outraged that the BCS computers had Missouri ahead of Oklahoma. He sent out inquiries to the computers and received a response from Anderson-Hester, the computer ranking that seems to factor in proximity to the Pacific Ocean. Anderson-Hester’s final rankings had Missouri second, OU eighth. Here was the response:“Aside from the two Oklahoma-Missouri games, Oklahoma isn’t even close to Missouri. Apart from those head-to-head games, Missouri is 11-0 with wins over (otherwise unbeaten) Kansas and Rose Bowl-bound Illinois and would be clearly the #1 team in the nation. Meanwhile, Oklahoma is 9-2 with 2 losses to very mediocre teams (Colorado and Texas Tech) and zero wins vs. the current top-20. The head-to-head games bring the Sooners almost even with Missouri, but not quite: the 11-2 Tigers have still played the tougher schedule than the 11-2 Sooners, and therefore deserve to be ranked ahead based on season-long results.”This is how the old joke about Mrs. Lincoln got started. Other than the two times OU bloodied Missouri’s nose and knocked the Tigers to the canvas, all evidence shows the Tigers are superior? This is why I’m no good at debate. This is where in a courtroom, I would turn to the judge and say, “Your honor…” with my palms up.
I don’t even want to get into that stuff about Kansas, the biggest fraud since junk bonds. And thus we’ve found the problem with computers. No one, so far as I know, has figured out a way to program common sense.
Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel.
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Comments
This is exactly why the BCS is BS, a true farce. The computer says is not an answer. Any programmer worth his pay can write a program to produce any, I mean any result they want. I am very surprised that more ComSci folks have not vented their outrage over the computer rankings. Computers crunch numbers, crunched numbers are statistics, you can make any set of statistics produce any result you want. That of course never makes them true or fact. It has been said, ‘there are lies, damned lies, and then there are statistics”. Instead of a playoff maybe we should toss the current computer programs in the crapper and have some more truthful like systems developed and have the input of the numbers crunched more real.
I wasn’t the source that Barry referenced, but I did send him an email or two about the cpu rankings. Pick and choose for the second spot in the championship game- I won’t argue that. My problem, though, is that not only Mizzou was above us, but that KU was also. So, the arguments about MU having a tougher schedule, well- whatever. But did KU?
Blaming computers is silly. Computers just execute programs. Program designers are the culprits; they have a tough job though; they have to distill into programmable expressions common sense. For instance, common sense would say a loosing team should never be rated higher than a team that beat them. Seems reasonable.
Ohio State lost to Ilinois, Illinois lost to Iowa, Mich, Mizz. Doesnt seem so reasonable once the implications are exposed. “never rated higher” could be qualified to be more reasonable, ie, “never rated higher with same or fewer losses”. Seems more reasonable.
Then strength of schedule would need to be considered — to be fair. And that, “to be fair”, would require qualifications that could fill volumns. Designing can easily get out of hand with unintended results, etc.
It can be done; tweaking is endless, requires patience and dedication.
But programs are unbiased and human polls certainly could use a dash of that…so…why not have both? Thus the BCS! Sure its rarely right and obviously wrong at times but welcome to the ‘ol human race. Besides its fun sussing the mess; playoffs are dull by comparison!
I wouldn’t call Texas Tech “mediocre” there buddy!!!!!!