Computers Don't Kill Polls, People Kill Polls

It always annoys me when people suggest the Bowl Championship Series is flawed because "computers decide championships".  The computers are far from perfect, mainly because the BCS wants to keep it that way.  For instance, they don't take into account the score of any games, only the results (win or loss).  However, computers only make up one fraction (1/3) of the equation while the Coaches' USAToday Poll and Harris Interactive Poll (both human polls) each make up another third.

For as much as the computer rankings take the heat, they really deserve it the least.  The computers are not biased towards teams or conferences.  They rely on the far more sound mathematics than the human based polls.  Never mind that the USAToday is filled out either by coaches who don't watch many games (because they are coaching their own), or graduate assistants who only have so much other responsibility.  The Harris Poll is made up of a bunch of former players, coaches, media personalities, and other randoms who have admitted in the past to being apathetic to voting.  Time after time, the system obviously fails, but it is the computer who still take the brunt of the insults.

This week, the biggest fault in the human polls goes to a component no longer associated with the BCS, but is equally regarded: the AP Poll.  This poll made up of journalists (because who better to make decisions in this country than journalists?) is independent of others, but still equally flawed and biased.  When looking at the polls each week, I always like to see the additional teams to receive votes that didn't crack the top 25.  This week, not only was I shocked when I saw the Texas State Bobcats listed, but that they received 10 points in the poll (good for 34th overall).

My suspicions were that this was one voter who voted Texas State high in the poll (16th) versus a couple of voters having a nervous breakdown and voting for them.  Sure enough, I was right, and the culprit was Ray Ratto of Comcast SportsNet Bay Area.  The only part that surprised me is that he had been writing in the Bay Area for over 30 years with little ties to the state of Texas or Texas State.

For those who aren't sure if they've heard of Texas State before, you're correct.  This is only the Bobcats first full season at the FBS level, essentially making this past week their first official game.  Yes, they did upset the Houston Cougars, but Houston is not a highly regarded team by any means this year.  This isn't an Appalachian State, North Dakota State, or James Madison either that is joining the higher ranks.  This is a team that last year as an FCS finished with a 6-6 record.

Based on his assessment, the 1-0 FBS Bobcats are a better team than Arkansas, Wisconsin, Michigan, West Virginia, and six other Big 12 teams that inhabit that same region.  Texas State isn't his only hiccup, just the most obvious one to someone who wasn't looking for a mistake.  Of the 64 other AP voters, no one ranked Florida State (3rd), Michigan State (5th), Nebraska (10th), and Notre Dame (15th) any higher than he did, not to mention Texas (9th) who only one voted higher.  In addition, each of the other 64 voters voted West Virginia as 15th or better, yet Ratto is by far the lowest vote at a pathetic 24th.  He is one of only four not to vote for Michigan this week, and voted LSU (7th) and Arkansas (17th), far below where almost all other voters had them.

Ratto's poll alone will have little affect on the grand scheme of things, and hopefully he receives enough nasty emails that point out why he should not be allowed to vote.  However, this is not an event that won't happen again.  There will be many more horrible ballots just this year.  If it hasn't already, it should become apparent that the biggest problem in the college football system is not the computers, but the human polls.