All right, I've officially had it with the BCS. And so should all of you after you hear this news. It seems this week that James Madison, a I-AA school that is having a fine season (they're 10-1) somehow wound up in the nation's top 25 rankings in the Sagarin computer ratings. Just so you know, the Sagarin computer rating is not some random rating, it's one of the computer ratings that counts towards the BCS standings. James Madison is ranked No. 24. And that's not in I-AA rankings, but I-A rankings.By the way, you're probably wondering who that one loss was to. It was to Duke, one of the worst D-I schools out there. And it wasn't even close, Duke blew out James Madison 31-7. Yet somehow, James Madison is ranked ahead of teams like Michigan State and Cal. Weirdest thing of all: According to the Sagarin rating, James Madison would be the fourth-best team in the SEC. Yes, better than LSU. WTF?
Seriously, I'm not making this up. If you go to the rankings right here, pay attention to the red numbers, not anything in blue. The red numbers are Sagarin's ELO-CHESS numbers, which are completely computer generated and are the one part of his rankings that are used by the BCS. And there's James Madison, a team that can't even play in a BCS bowl, ranked 24th.
Words fail me, because this is utterly ridiculous. Seriously, if there was ever a time for there to be a college football playoff, the time is now.
Either James Madison is a lot better than you think, or there's one more thing rotten in the BCS [Dr. Saturday]
Sagarin football ratings [USA Today]
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