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BCS formula hangs in limbo
Strength of schedule will remain key element
By RALPH D. RUSSO
AP Sports Writer
BOSTON — The Bowl Championship
Series is still crunching numbers for its new formula to determine which
teams will play for the national championship, a change prompted by last
season's split title.
The BCS had considered
unveiling its new math this week at the Collegiate Commissioners Association
meetings in Boston.
``We're proceeding in a
deliberate fashion because ... the poll has been a subject of a lot of
controversy and we want to make sure that by making changes we're not
creating different types of problems from perhaps what we had in the past,''
Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg said in an interview Tuesday after a day
of CCA meetings. ``We want to receive some assurance that the changes that
we may have in mind are sound from a mathematical standpoint.''
Weiberg said the BCS wants to
have its new formula in place before conference football media days begin.
``Ideally that means no later
than the third week in July,'' said Weiberg, the incoming BCS coordinator.
This season, the BCS formula
will emphasize The Associated Press media poll and USA Today/ESPN coaches
polls, while lessening the influence of computer rankings.
Weiberg said the BCS is
looking at a formula that would take into account not just where a team
ranks in the human polls, but also how many votes it receives.
Last year, the BCS gave equal
weight to the average of two human polls and the average of seven computer
rankings. Also, factored in were strength of schedule and total losses, with
bonus points awarded for wins against teams in the top 10 of the BCS
standings.
The BCS wants a simpler
formula with fewer redundancies.
``I think there is a general
feeling that those components that have been added over the past four or
five years have resulted in more complexity to the poll and its
calculation,'' Weiberg said. ``Specifically, that would be the separate
strength of schedule component and the quality win component.''
Strength of schedule will
still be a big part of the BCS standings, Weiberg said.
``First of all it's a very
prominent element of all the computer polls,'' he said. ``And I believe it
is still considered as part of the human polls as well.
``Who you play is still going
to be a very important factor in all of this.''
Weiberg said the BCS is
looking into tinkering with the way computer rankings are used, and studying
elements used in them such as margin of victory.
``Should that (margin of
victory) be in at the discretion of some individual computer pollster?'' he
said. ``Should it be capped at some level?
``How should the averaging of
computer polls be handled? Should you eliminate the top and the bottom then
average the other four or five, depending on how many are in the system?''
There will be no new computer
polls added to the BCS standings this year, Weiberg said.
The BCS was widely criticized
last season when LSU and Oklahoma played in the Sugar Bowl for the national
title while Southern California was ranked No. 1 in both polls.
For the first time since the
BCS was implemented in 1998, there were two national champions. LSU was
required to be voted No. 1 in the coaches poll after beating Oklahoma, and
USC took the top spot in the AP poll after beating Michigan in the Rose
Bowl.
Oklahoma reached the title
game and held first place in the BCS standings, despite losing the Big 12
title game to Kansas State. The Sooners had been No. 1 in both polls before
losing to Kansas State, then fell to third behind USC and LSU.
Earlier this month, the BCS
implemented a new model to include a fifth game. The championship game will
now be played about a week after the Fiesta, Rose, Sugar and Orange bowls,
rotating among those four sites on a yearly basis.
The BCS will begin using the
so-called double-hosting and fifth game in the 2006 season.
Copyright 2004
The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
02/23/2007 10:40:25 AM
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