nd ranked in top 20 of computer poll

ND Ranked in Top-20 of Computer Poll

I've been in a blog coma lately, nothing excited me enough to make a

post, until now. What could possibly be so earth shattering to

motivate me out of my pleasant state of sloth? The BCS, obviously.

There is almost too much to complain about with the present system in

the NCAA. How can the human polls unanimously rank Ohio State first

while the computer polls rank Ohio State fifth? With such a huge

disparity, how can they be equally respected? I've always sided with

the computers, defending the PCs from naysayers that argued,

"computers don't have a brain ... they can't make rational decisions,"

well, neither can Terry Bradshaw and he's a part of the Harris Poll.

My love affair with the computer polls ended this week; however, when

Jeff Sagarin made me look like a fool by ranking ND #18 in his latest

poll. Sagarin's rankings are 1/6 of the composite computer rankings

which account for 1/3 of a team's BCS rating. Here are Sagarin's most

recent rankings:

1) South Florida

2) LSU

3) South Carolina

4) Kentucky

5) Boston College

6) Kansas

7) Ohio State

8) West Virginia

9) Arizona State

10) Virginia Tech

11) Auburn

12) Oklahoma

13) Tennessee

14) California

15) Missouri

16) Virginia

17) Georgia

18) North Dakota State

19) Oregon

20) Florida

Sorry Oregon, Florida, USC, Hawaii, Texas, and, uh, Notre Dame ... you

are no match for the North Dakota State Bison.

Despite the insanity of this ranking, I think Sagarin might get too

much blame for this atrocity. Since the BCS has taken out the "margin

of victory" component from its equation, the rankings Sagarin submits

have become a disaster while his actual rankings are pretty normal

(which includes margin of victory). Which begs the question, should

the BCS keep Sagarins rankings in their formula? Or, is encouraging a

team to run up the score worse than having North Dakota State ranked

in a top-25? The answer to both questions is, obviously, no. The

answer to this overall BCS problem is, obviously, a playoff.

Sagarin Rankings

BCS Rankings