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  • aishak 8:08 pm on November 24, 2009 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
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    CompuDrew – Playoff Proposal Part 2 

    Let’s take a quick look at the current CompuDrew ratings.  Part 2 of my playoff proposal is below (read Part 1).

    CompuDrew Nov 23

    So based on Part 1, the top 7 conference champions make the playoffs, as well as the highest-ranked at-large team (I called it a wildcard last week, but I’ll use the popular college football term).  Those 8 teams, given the current rankings and assuming that the higher-ranked team will win the SEC, look like this:

    1. Alabama (SEC)
    2. Florida (at large)
    3. Texas (Big 12)
    4. TCU (MWC)
    5. Cincinnati (Big East)
    6. Georgia Tech (ACC)
    7. Boise St. (WAC)
    8. Oregon (Pac 10)

    Here is where the system becomes really fun for fans and college campuses: the top four conference champions get to host the first round on their campus.  The at-large team, if in the top 4, is moved to 5th place, and then the rest of the seeding continues.  In most seasons, I think the schedule could support having the quarterfinals on the third Saturday in December.  Could you imagine this schedule on a Saturday?

    12 pm ET on ESPN – #5 Florida at #4 Cincinnati – Cinncinnati, OH
    3 pm ET on CBS – #8 Oregon at #1 Alabama – Tuscaloosa, AL
    6 pm ET on NBC – #6 Georgia Tech at #3 TCU – Fort Worth, TX
    9 pm ET on ABC – #7 Boise St at #2 Texas – Austin, TX

    I am drooling.  I wouldn’t leave my couch from 9 am central (start of College Gameday on ESPN) to midnight.  Unless of course, I went to the game, which is one of the best parts of this playoff system: postseason games on college campuses.  All bowl games are currently in pro stadiums.  That’s fine, because it’s the best way for the bowls to make money.  But could you imagine the electricity in Austin on gameday in December, especially since everyone will have just finished the semester?  Or Gainesville?  Or Tuscaloosa?  Or Columbus or Eugene or South Bend?  There is nothing like a college town on gameday, and we’re talking about putting even more huge games on campus.

    Semifinals and Finals

    The day after the first round will also be a fun day for fans and bowl organizers, because this is when the four major bowls would get to choose their matchups from the playoff teams.  Here’s how it works: the Rose, Sugar, Orange, and Fiesta bowls will rotate their draft slots each year so that each bowl gets their first choice of game every four years.  Let’s say in 2009 the order is this: Sugar, Orange, Fiesta, Rose.  And let’s say that the home teams won their playoff games.  The Sugar Bowl organizers can choose any of these matchups:

    • Cincinnati vs. Alabama (semifinal)
    • Oregon vs. Florida (first round losers)
    • Texas vs. TCU (semifinal)
    • Georgia Tech vs. Boise State (first round losers)

    Obviously in this case, the Sugar Bowl would choose Cincinnati vs. Alabama for the SEC connection.  Then the Orange Bowl is up. Do the Orange Bowl organizers want the other semifinal (Texas vs. TCU), or do they want to honor their ties to the ACC and go with Georgia Tech vs. Boise State?  I think both choices would be lucrative for the Orange Bowl.  Let’s say their primary goal is to sell tickets so they go with Georgia Tech vs. Boise State.  That would leave Texas vs. TCU for the Fiesta Bowl (Big 12 and MWC) and Oregon vs. Florida for the Rose Bowl (Pac 10 and SEC).  Perfect.  Two of the games will be played on New Year’s Day (Rose Bowl and one other on rotation) and the two others will be played on January 2nd.

    That was too easy, right?  Each bowl actually getting at least one of their conference ties?  AND two of those games actually matter, and aren’t just postseason exhibitions?  It won’t always work out perfectly, but to be honest this is one of those years in which not all the top teams are marquee programs, such as Cincinnati, TCU, Oregon, and Boise State.  So think about the years in which USC and Ohio State are in there, too; You’ll have some great matchups and happy bowl organizers.

    Who hosts the championship?

    Okay, yes, there will be a few years in which the 4th bowl selection is kind of a stinker.  Maybe a 11-1 Utah team vs. a 10-2 Pitt.  That doesn’t sounds too lucrative to an event like the Rose Bowl.  A game like this will pop up once in a while, so here’s how we make it better: the 4th bowl selector (in this case, the Rose Bowl) also hosts the National Championship during the second week of January.  What this means is that if you pick last among the four bowls, you are still guaranteed the most watched and important game of the season.  Fair?  I think so.

    So, the bowls still make their money and keep most of their conference ties.  The teams get a system that is fair in that it lets in league winners, but only league winners who deserve to move on.  The schools and conferences will still get their BCS money (no, the Big 10 wouldn’t get money this year, but do they deserve it?).  And most importantly, the fans and players get a system that is exciting and equitable at the same time.  Only four games total added to the schedule (those mid-December home games), and just the right amount of time between games for fans, teams, and ticket sellers.  Tradition preserved and improved upon.

    Thoughts?

     

  • aishak 9:52 am on November 18, 2009 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
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    CompuDrew – Playoff Proposal Part 1 

    Here are the latest CompuDrew rankings.  The first part of my playoff proposal is below.

    CompuDrew

    Before I detail my playoff system, I should let you know that its biggest strength lies in appeasing all of college football constituencies: the teams, the schools, the conferences, the bowls, and most importantly, the fans.

    CompuDrew Playoff Proposal Part 1

    Who makes the playoffs? The top 7 conference winners (denoted above by a *) and the next highest rated team (denoted by a ^).  We’ll call that last team the wildcard.

    Any exceptions? Yes.  A team cannot capture the wildcard if they are “leapfrogging” their own conference winner.  For example, if Iowa were the top ranked non-conference winner, they would be skipped because the team that won their conference (Ohio St) didn’t even make the playoffs

    So who would make it this year? As of now, it just so happens that the top 8 teams would make it (Alabama, Texas, Cincy, TCU, GT, Boise St, Oregon, and Florida as the wildcard).  But there could still be some changes.  If the loser of the SEC Championship drops far enough, they might be out.  If Texas loses the Big 12 Championship, they will certainly be out because the Big 12 north winner won’t even be in the top 25.

    Let’s take a look at last year’s BCS Standings on December 7, 2008 to see a scenario in which not all top 8 teams make it.

    1. Florida* (SEC champ)
    2. Oklahoma* (Big 12 champ)
    3. Texas^ (Big 12 wildcard)
    4. Alabama (lost SEC champ game – not in playoffs)
    5. USC* (Pac 10 champ)
    6. Utah* (MWC champ)
    7. Texas Tech (Big 12 3rd place – not in playoffs)
    8. Penn State* (Big 10 champ)
    9. Boise State* (WAC champ)
    10. Ohio State (Big 10 2nd place – not in playoffs)
    11. TCU (MWC 2nd place – not in playoffs)
    12. Cincinnati* (Big East champ)

    Alabama, Texas Tech, Ohio State, and TCU would not have made it, but Cincy would have.  My response to any complaints from 2nd place teams?  Win your conference.  Maybe you’re thinking: “Win your conference? That’s convenient for a Texas fan to say; they didn’t win their conference and still would have made it.”  I’ll detail next week how Texas would have been penalized for not winning their conference.  2009 Florida and 2009 Alabama, take note.

    The teams will be appeased with an 8-team system.  Now, a team like Boise State won’t be left out if they go undefeated.

    Next week: CompuDrew Playoff Proposal Part 2, including a huge boon for the schools and fans.  I’ll give you a hint: it’s good news for the top 4 conference champions.

     

  • aishak 8:35 am on November 9, 2009 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
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    CompuDrew Week 4 

    Okay, this is a little embarrassing.  I was looking at my formula and I realized that when we get to the end of the season, the combined reward-punishment of both teams playing in a conference’s championship will be negative.  Put another way, the ratings would favor teams that don’t even play in those games.  So I made a small change to the formula, giving credit to teams for winning extra games, and not penalizing teams too harshly for losing the 13th game of the season.  Here are the new CompuDrew rankings.

    CompuDrew Week 4

     

  • aishak 9:30 am on November 2, 2009 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment  

    CompuDrew Week 3 

    Not too many meaningful changes in the top 10, except for Oregon jumping up after their win over USC.  Texas fans should note that while CompuDrew still has them ranked 4th, they are closing the gap in terms of raw score because their schedule is looking stronger each week (although playing Baylor on November 14 won’t help).

    Why is Boise State only at 13, even though they beat Oregon?  Look at their strength of schedule, which most computers have ranked as 100 out of 119.  They played UC Davis for goodness’ sake.

    CompuDrew Week 3

     

  • aishak 9:03 am on October 29, 2009 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment  

    How Slicing Meat is like Writing a Paper 

    What is that, the 700 series? Sweet.

    What is that, the 700 series? Sweet.

    One of the many wonderful things about my marriage is that my wife and I like doing complementary chores. Actually, to be accurate we don’t mind doing complementary chores, but that’s good enough. Heather prefers cleaning the bathroom to taking out the trash.  I prefer the opposite.  Heather would rather clean the dishes than cook dinner each night.  Luckily, I like cooking.  We have complementary “least-worst” chore preferences and that suits us well.

    But one chore that I love–I mean LOVE–is grocery shopping.  I could shop every day if I had the time.  I love picking out food for my family, trying free samples, and mentally putting together meals.  My wife is a self-professed proceduralist; like in her day job, she prefers chores that involve following tried and true methods in a linear fashion.  As for me, I enjoy the creativity of shopping and cooking. Except for my trip on Monday.  Here’s how an enjoyable, efficient experience can go downhill in a hurry, and at the same time remind me of the academic paper-writing process. (More …)

     

  • aishak 9:31 pm on October 27, 2009 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment  

    Halloween: It was this or Kim Jong Il 

    Darth Baby

     

  • aishak 7:23 pm on October 26, 2009 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
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    CompuDrew Week 2 – College Football Ratings 

    One of the biggest controversies of the BCS is that the computers cannot take margin of victory into account.  This means the Texas blowout of Missouri (41-7) would be given the same weight even if the Horns beat them by two points on a last second touchdown, or needed a blocked field goal as time expired to escape with a victory.

    So you’ll notice that close victories by Iowa and Alabama haven’t hurt their standings among the BCS computers.  For example, Jeff Sagarin still has Iowa at #1 in his BCS rankings, but in his own personal rankings that he claims are more accurate (because they take margin of victory into account), Iowa stands at #12.  A converse example is Texas; (More …)

     

  • aishak 12:36 pm on October 23, 2009 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment  

    CompuDrew – My college football computer ratings 

    Do you want to know an intelligent, passionate fan’s perspective on college football? Go somewhere else. In the meantime, here is my computer rating system (my next post will be about my completely reasonable playoff proposal–even Lee Corso is appeased).

    CompuDrew – Andrew Ishak’s computer ratings
    This rating system is based on team record, strength of schedule (SOS) and conference strength of schedule. Margin of victory is not taken into account. Measurements I threw by the wayside: team honor, perseverance, handsomeness of quarterback, if the team likes to “just win”, fight song, things written on eye black.

    Here’s the formula: (More …)

     

  • aishak 4:04 pm on October 22, 2009 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment  

    Who sings to you? 

    Have you ever thought about who sings to you every day? When you put in your headphones, or go to a concert, who are you listening to? The person who’s singing their heart out on stage…what’s in their heart to begin with?

    Heather and I went to see Tyrone Wells (pictured in 2007) play last night at La Zona Rosa. I’ve written about Tyrone before: he’s a kind, talented man who is (More …)

     

  • aishak 7:23 pm on September 30, 2009 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment  

    Yakademics – Episode 2 

    The second episode of Yakademics is up! Check it out!

     

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