The good thing about the BCS? Computers.

Irony, thy name is BCS.

For years, humans and computers have been at odds over the best college football teams. We all know how in 2003, the No. 1 team in both human polls was deep-sixed from the title game by Deep Blue (or one of his ilk).

Currently, Florida is the No. 2 team according to both media polls. One of those (Harris) accounts for 1/3 of the BCS formula. That faint noise you hear right now in your computer isn't a cooling fan. It's contemptuous laughter. The machines rank the Gators No. 6.

Why the disparity?

I haven't talked to the computers, but they seem to lack something human polls have: inertia.

The idea isn't anything new. Most analysts say it's tough to overcome a low human ranking early in the year, regardless of what you do on the field. An undefeated Auburn got left behind in 2004. USC pummeled Oklahoma in the title game and -- in hindsight -- Auburn probably would have put up a better fight.

But though the computer formulas were tweaked and improved over the years, humans haven't changed very much. Voters are still pressured to turn in a ballot by early Sunday morning. Whether they're a coach or a reporter, you know they already worked a long day on Saturday and were probably focused on just one game. What are the odds they watched a couple dozen more overnight?

Maybe, just maybe, humans will miss something. Computers? They might not be so evil, after all.

Looking back at Florida, it's easy to fall in love with its season. I did. The Gators are a fast, athletic team oozing with talent and led by an accomplished coach, ripping through the nation's most legendary conference. Marred by only one bad day, they beat the Nos. 4, 6, 20 and 25 teams as ranked when they played. Heck, they didn't beat them -- they humiliated every one by at least 30 points. Wow.

Those wins are still big to us humans, each a reason to give Florida props for a season well played. But the computers are wired differently. They did a retroactive audit and realized that all those SEC opponents weren't as amazing as we thought. Only one -- Georgia -- is still ranked. Yes, the Bulldogs are 17th in the AP Poll and 20th in the Harris Poll. Compared with the other one-loss teams, Florida might have had a cakewalk up to this point. As a cherry on top, the Gators intentionally scheduled the Citadel. While the Gators were humiliating a team that's bad even by Division II standards, four of their previous opponents took the field -- and lost.

Do you automatically go back each week and revisit the significance of each previous game in your head? Me neither. And it seems that after years of tweaking formulas, the computers were right to keep Florida down in the rankings based on its body of work. Along with the USA Today pollsters, those machines helped hold the Gators down to fourth in the overall BCS standings instead of second or third.

If the playoff revolutionaries have their way and end the BCS, hopefully somebody remembers to salvage the computers to help make an eight-team bracket.

On Saturday, the SEC Championship and a national championship bid will go to one of two excellent teams. Alabama runs downhill, plays tough defense and dominates in the trenches. Florida is athletic, fast and features great skill players.

Personally, I think Florida will beat Alabama and deserve the No. 1 ranking in the nation.

But what do I know? I'm just human.

-- Adam Rose
Photo by David Bohrer
Thanks to Amanda Georges for your questions about the polls.

Comments

[Martin]

Good perspective, but there is one missing piece. Sagarin ranks Florida's schedule #28, which is not that far off from Oklahoma (#17) and Texas (#12), Texas Tech (#26), and better than Alabama (#73) and Utah (#72), which are the five teams ahead of them in that poll. What is killing them is the fact that margin of victory is not included. Including it takes them to No. 2.

Not including margin of victory makes no sense: (1) if you think a team that wins by 1 point every week is as good as a team that wins by 30, what about a 30-point loss versus a 1-point loss? Yet the computers see no difference, (2) omitting margin of victory doesn't achieve it's stated goal of (i.e., sportsmanship) because teams still try to get "style points" for the human voters, (3) it creates odd situations (e.g., when USC played Washington State, it mathematically was destined to fall in the polls, even if it scored on every play, including WSU plays, (4) it distorts who really is the best team (e.g., if the New York Giants played in the WAC, they would still be the #1 team; but the computers would rank Alabama ahead of them).

Removing margin of victory is the biggest flaw in the BCS system that no one talks about.

[Matthew]

Last year, Georgia was #4 when 1/2 lost. The next week? They dropped a spot to #5 while not even playing a game. Why did that happen to them? They didn’t win their own conference, let alone their own division so the voters would not even conceive of letting them play for the national title. See the similarities with Texas?

Why isn't USC being considered for a spot in the national title. Doesn't the idea that Defense wins Championships mean nothing to anyone anymore? Winning your conference should mean something! I wouldn't have an argument if we had shared the Pac-10 title with OSU but we're going to win it outright! Why is everyone resigned to sending USC to the Rose Bowl?