Here is the genuine article

Do not be misled by the AP poll, the USA Today poll, the Harris Interactive poll, or the BCS rankings. Here is the correct college football top twenty-five ranking, the Nelson Poll:

1. Ohio State
2. Oklahoma
3. Arizona State
4. Louisiana State
5. Kansas
6. Boston College
7. South Florida
8. Hawaii
9. Kentucky
10. South Carolina
11. Texas Tech
12. West Virginia
13. Virginia Tech
14. Cincinnati
15. Missouri
16. Connecticut
17. Southern California
18. Oregon
19. Virginia
20. Boise State
21. California
22. Brigham Young
23. Michigan State
24. Texas
25. Auburn

(As of October 14, 4:00 p.m. PDT.)

Actually, the Nelson Poll is not a poll, it is the result of a mathematical analysis of the records of all Division I-A college football teams, undertaken by me. I did it because the polls are stupid. Stupid, you ask? Yes. They rank the teams before the season even starts, based on a team's reputation and the rankers' opinions, and then teams move from their original positions only in tiny increments as the season wears on. I decided that a correct ranking would be based solely on what a team does on the field -- who the team plays, where they play, and how they do, both in terms of wins and losses and points scored and points allowed. No opinion, no reputation, just results. So I came up with a formula that takes all that into account. It took me about two weeks to get it to a point where I was satisfied with it.

I got the idea listening to Bob Valvano's radio show one evening, when he talked about his own frustration with the college football polls, and he described his own cocktail-napkin ranking system. His was a step in the right direction, but was too simple.

I will be posting the Nelson Poll every week from here on through the college football season.

Posted: Sun - October 14, 2007 at 04:10 PM

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Here is the genuine article

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