A true "Computer Poll" component for the BCS

For the 2004 season, the BCS radically adjusted the BCS formula in an attempt to make the AP poll winner the same as the BCS winner. Whether this was a good idea or not is subject to debate, but the way they went about only shows that they know as little about ranking systems as they do about football and public opinion.

On the surface they changed the formula so that the AP and ESPN/USA today point-totals with respect to total possible points would be used for those components, and "the same" approach would be used to treat the computers as a third "poll." But they made two elementary mistakes.

First, they only took the top 25 from each computer ranking, and used the same 25 points for first, 24 for second... etc tally mechanism that the AP and USA Today use. This means they invented something new, and it is completely different from what the polls use.

The 25, 24, ... point system is appropriate for the polls because none of the voters in those polls can list more than 25 teams. All of the computers rank all 117 teams, so the point assignment for counting those "the same way" should be 117 for first, 116 for second, and so forth.

The second problem is that they decided to delete the best and worst of the computer rankings for each team. This would only make sense if they deleted the best and worst AP-voter's ranking and the best and worst Coach's ranking. Is it the "same kind of poll" if there are special rules to even more minimize the computer rankings?

I'd suggest that if we treat the computers as "voters in a poll" the right way to do it is count their votes exactly the same way that the AP and USA Today/ESPN count theirs - sort by points from all voters rankings and then take the top 25.

Here's the result of such a counting through rankings as of 1 November, 2004 (the maximum number of points is 702):

Rank Vulue Team Conf A-H Bil Col Mas Sag Wlf Points 1 0.9957 Southern Cal P10 1 2 2 1 1 2 699 1 0.9957 Oklahoma B12 2 1 1 2 2 1 699 3 0.9829 Auburn SEC 3 3 3 3 3 3 690 4 0.9615 Tennessee SEC 5 4 4 7 8 5 675 5 0.9487 California P10 6 13 11 4 4 4 666 5 0.9487 Utah MW 4 11 6 5 6 10 666 7 0.9444 Boise St WAC 11 7 8 8 5 6 663 8 0.9387 Arizona St P10 9 14 5 6 7 8 659 9 0.9373 Texas B12 10 5 7 10 11 7 658 10 0.9316 Miami-Florida ACC 8 9 10 9 9 9 654 11 0.9188 Wisconsin B10 7 10 13 12 10 11 645 12 0.9145 Georgia SEC 13 8 9 11 13 12 642 13 0.8917 Michigan B10 12 6 12 17 22 13 626 14 0.8789 Florida St ACC 14 18 14 13 14 18 617 15 0.8661 Oklahoma St B12 17 15 17 16 18 17 608 16 0.8618 Virginia ACC 16 17 16 15 17 22 605 17 0.8504 Louisville CUSA 19 27 21 18 12 14 597 18 0.8462 LSU SEC 20 12 19 20 23 20 594 19 0.8433 West Virginia BiE 21 20 18 19 19 19 592 20 0.8405 Texas A&M B12 15 44 15 14 15 15 590 21 0.8333 Iowa B10 18 16 20 24 24 21 585 22 0.8120 Virginia Tech ACC 25 21 25 22 21 24 570 23 0.7977 Southern Miss CUSA 22 22 23 30 28 23 560 24 0.7963 North Carolina ACC 31 19 31 21 20 27 559 25 0.7877 Texas Tech B12 27 24 27 25 27 25 553 26 0.7707 UTEP WAC 28 62 22 23 16 16 541 27 0.7692 Ohio State B10 23 23 29 34 30 29 540 28 0.7578 Navy Ind 30 29 28 29 32 28 532 29 0.7322 Purdue B10 26 35 30 39 34 30 514 30 0.7308 Notre Dame Ind 24 48 26 28 37 32 513 31 0.7151 Oregon St P10 42 38 40 26 26 34 502 32 0.7023 UCLA P10 33 50 33 27 35 37 493 33 0.6994 Oregon P10 36 30 34 37 40 40 491 34 0.6909 Georgia Tech ACC 41 39 50 33 25 35 485 35 0.6880 UAB CUSA 29 68 24 42 36 26 483 36 0.6838 Northwestern B10 34 33 36 41 43 41 480 37 0.6695 South Carolina SEC 32 46 32 40 45 43 470 38 0.6667 Clemson ACC 37 42 45 31 33 52 468 39 0.6610 Boston College BiE 40 32 37 52 47 36 464 40 0.6567 Colorado B12 43 40 41 35 38 50 461 41 0.6510 Alabama SEC 39 25 38 45 53 51 457 42 0.6425 Nebraska B12 38 37 39 46 50 47 451 43 0.6368 North Carolina St ACC 45 57 53 38 29 39 447 44 0.6296 Louisiana Tech WAC 50 69 42 36 31 38 442 45 0.6282 BYU MW 44 67 43 32 39 42 441 46 0.6040 Minnesota B10 35 59 35 54 57 44 424 47 0.6011 Arkansas SEC 46 34 52 43 52 59 422 48 0.5926 Iowa State B12 48 53 56 47 42 46 416 49 0.5840 Memphis CUSA 51 64 46 62 44 31 410 50 0.5755 Syracuse BiE 52 52 48 50 48 54 404 51 0.5712 New Mexico MW 54 60 54 44 46 49 401 52 0.5698 Maryland ACC 53 31 62 51 49 62 400 53 0.5570 Pittsburgh BiE 47 43 44 59 66 58 391 54 0.5556 Northern Ill MAC 63 26 51 71 62 45 390 55 0.5527 Bowling Green MAC 60 28 47 78 74 33 388 56 0.5456 Stanford P10 55 54 57 48 54 57 383 57 0.5427 Missouri B12 59 45 63 56 51 53 381 58 0.5399 Michigan St B10 49 36 58 64 61 61 379 59 0.5199 Fresno St WAC 62 75 64 53 41 48 365 60 0.5128 Wyoming MW 56 73 59 49 56 55 360 61 0.4829 Wake Forest ACC 61 55 70 60 55 68 339 62 0.4815 Florida SEC 57 66 49 58 68 72 338 63 0.4744 Mississippi SEC 65 56 68 61 59 66 333 64 0.4715 Connecticut BiE 58 58 60 67 67 67 331 65 0.4530 Cincinnati CUSA 66 65 66 70 63 60 318 66 0.4245 Toledo MAC 67 41 61 86 91 64 298 66 0.4245 Baylor B12 68 76 76 57 60 73 298 68 0.4231 North Texas SBC 78 92 55 63 58 65 297 69 0.4217 Kansas B12 64 63 74 69 72 70 296 70 0.4174 Kansas St B12 71 49 81 65 71 78 293 71 0.4145 Marshall MAC 72 47 67 84 84 63 291 72 0.4131 Air Force MW 74 74 77 55 64 74 290 73 0.4074 TCU CUSA 70 71 71 72 69 69 286 73 0.4074 Troy St SBC 75 78 73 75 65 56 286 75 0.3932 Washington St P10 73 61 80 68 70 80 276 76 0.3704 Indiana B10 69 70 78 76 78 77 260 76 0.3704 Rutgers BiE 76 72 65 77 76 82 260 78 0.3419 Colorado St MW 77 81 82 66 77 85 240 79 0.3205 Miami-Ohio MAC 80 51 79 102 100 71 225 80 0.3077 New Mexico St SBC 81 102 83 74 73 79 216 81 0.2991 UNLV MW 82 80 84 73 83 96 210 82 0.2977 Mississippi St SEC 79 83 69 79 90 99 209 83 0.2963 Hawaii WAC 89 85 72 80 88 86 208 84 0.2892 South Florida CUSA 85 79 90 85 82 84 203 85 0.2792 Middle Tenn St SBC 96 103 75 83 79 76 196 86 0.2507 Houston CUSA 87 89 87 90 89 90 176 86 0.2507 Penn State B10 83 82 88 95 92 92 176 88 0.2336 East Carolina CUSA 84 111 86 81 87 95 164 89 0.2279 LA-Monroe SBC 97 116 103 82 75 75 160 90 0.2265 LA-Lafayette SBC 93 106 95 91 81 83 159 91 0.2208 Rice WAC 92 93 89 98 93 88 155 91 0.2208 Nevada WAC 90 84 91 97 98 93 155 93 0.2094 Vanderbilt SEC 88 94 92 88 97 102 147 93 0.2094 San Diego St MW 91 87 97 89 96 101 147 95 0.2023 Army CUSA 94 112 94 93 86 87 142 95 0.2023 Utah St SBC 102 105 93 92 85 89 142 97 0.2009 Arkansas St SBC 105 107 98 96 80 81 141 98 0.1923 Washington P10 101 77 100 94 95 106 135 99 0.1852 Tulane CUSA 99 91 101 99 94 94 130 100 0.1781 Akron MAC 95 98 85 107 107 91 125 101 0.1766 Tulsa WAC 100 86 102 100 99 97 124 102 0.1610 Illinois B10 86 97 99 101 105 107 113 103 0.1524 Arizona P10 98 100 106 87 101 109 107 104 0.1225 Kentucky SEC 104 88 105 105 108 112 86 105 0.1154 San Jose St WAC 109 90 110 108 106 104 81 106 0.1125 Central Mich MAC 103 104 104 109 109 100 79 107 0.1054 Idaho SBC 111 109 108 106 102 98 74 108 0.1026 SMU WAC 107 113 107 103 103 103 72 109 0.0940 Eastern Mich MAC 112 95 96 113 113 113 66 110 0.0926 Duke ACC 106 110 111 104 104 108 65 110 0.0926 Ohio MAC 108 99 109 111 111 105 65 112 0.0755 Kent St MAC 113 96 112 112 112 110 53 113 0.0570 Temple BiE 110 114 113 110 110 111 40 114 0.0499 Ball State MAC 114 101 114 114 115 115 35 115 0.0242 Buffalo MAC 117 115 116 115 114 114 17 115 0.0242 Western Mich MAC 115 108 117 117 117 117 17 117 0.0171 UCF MAC 116 117 115 116 116 116 12