Jeff Sagarin E-Maill Response to Stat

[StatTiger 3,086]

My E-Mail:

Jeff,

In your latest poll, Harvard is rated as the 36th best team in the

Country. I realize they are 10-0 and have played well this season but

do you really think they are better than Arkansas, Boston College,

Clemson, Alabama, South Carolina, Minnesota, Syracuse, Pittsburgh,

UAB, Nebraska and Michigan State?

Throwing out your formula for rating the teams, do you actually think

that Harvard would beat the above listed teams?

Thankyou for any response

Stat

His Response:

My intuition would agree with yours I'm sure. But guess

what, none of us would have predicted that MAINE(I-AA)

would win on the HOME FIELD of MISSISSIPPI STATE of the

mighty SEC.

Note that he singled out the upset over MSU and his sarcastic reference to the "mighty" SEC.

[Streyeder 0]

His ratings are part of the BCS. What else did you expect? If the guy can't come up with a better system than he's got, were you really looking for higher intelligence?

What an ass.

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

His ratings are part of the BCS. What else did you expect? If the guy can't come up with a better system than he's got, were you really looking for higher intelligence?

What an ass.

126923[/snapback]

Isn't Sagarin a bama grad? I know he has some close connection to bama.

[CarolinaTiger 0]

i'm surprised he takes the time out to reply to anybody...much less those that criticize him.

[StatTiger 3,086]

i'm surprised he takes the time out to reply to anybody...much less those that criticize him.

126927[/snapback]

I thought the same. A poster from ITAT sent him an e-mail and responded with the MSU-Maine game too. I think he whips that response out like a gun.

[AUHansel 0]

What does that have to do with Harvard?

[rexbo 102]

Wow, he really doesn't have a clue. His poll doesn't represent what one team might pull off in some 1 in a 100 game, it should really try to represent which team is better over the entire season.

Las Vegas should put a poll together, they would never be stupid enough to claim that Harvard would be favored over 'Bama. Ask that Sagarin guy if he is willing to take his poll to Vegas and put some money on his higher rated teams over the mighty SEC.

[TexasTiger 10,972]

I think his formula is off this year, but I do remember in 1983 he had us #1. Thus the shirts, "I love NY Times polls!"

[Streyeder 0]

I threw in my two cents.

I figure you could probably afford it now considering your ranking system is a part of the BCS. You actually got 1 and 2 correct, but where in God's name do you get the rest of the poll? When was the last time a 1-AA school beat a decent 1-A school? (No, the Maine v. MSU arguement won't work here. MSU was horrific at the beginning of the season.) The mighty Troy State? I doubt Harvard couldn't beat half of the 1-A teams below it. Your rankings are such a joke.

Then again, they ARE part of the BSc...I mean BcS. I guess it is quite fitting.

[d-r 0]

My E-Mail:

His Response:

My intuition would agree with yours I'm sure.  But guess

what, none of us would have predicted that MAINE(I-AA)

would win on the HOME FIELD of MISSISSIPPI STATE of the

mighty SEC.

126906[/snapback]

So is he saying that his computer model isn't always capable of making accurate predictions about the outcome of college football games? That's sort of interesting, because I thought that was the whole basis of the computer ratings.