Word: bcs
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...sparkling record of the BCS thus far has merely covered up the system's glaring holes. It's only a matter of time before the system will deny a deserving team of the chance to play for the national title...
College football statisticians claim that the BCS can't fail. They say that they have tested the BCS with data from the past 20 college football seasons and that the BCS produces the desired national championship every time, so therefore it must work. They fail to acknowledge, however, the common sense fact that a system's success with a few specific examples from the past does not guarantee its success with realistic outcomes in the future...
...BCS index is calculated by adding together four factors: composite poll ranking, composite computer ranking, strength of schedule ranking divided by 25, and total number of losses. The two teams with the lowest index play for college football's national championship in either the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, or Orange Bowl, depending on the year...
...BCS has fallen under a great deal of controversy since its inception, since people have a natural aversion to using computers to determine their fate. Most arguments against the BCS have focused on the computer rankings which favor teams that run up the score. But the biggest problem with the BCS is its overemphasis on strength of schedule...
...BCS designers didn't even intend strength of schedule to have so much weight. Early BCS literature considered strength of schedule to be only of minor consequence, since it could only differentiate teams by at most four points (since there are about 100 division 1-A teams, and the BCS adds in the ranking divided by 25). But in practice, when two teams are ranked one-two or two-three in the polls and computer rankings, the strength of schedule points can far outweigh the effects of the polls...