Explaining the BCS

Since the BCS is political in nature the best way to explain it would be through an analogy with, well politics. The BCS poll is a combination of three polls which include the Coaches, the Harris Poll and the computers polls; and in this way it works a lot like the federal government. The Coaches Poll consists of around 65 FBS coaches who vote weekly on the top 25. We will call the coaches poll the legislative branch of the BCS. This poll is undeniably subject to special interests because it directly affects the people who run it and often gives birth to strange oddities. For example during the 2007 season when Kansas put together a cinderella run every ballot for the final poll going into bowl season listed Kansas somewhere in the top 12, except for Texas Tech's ballot. In fact the Mike Leach never once voted Kansas in the top 25, maybe he had something against coaches who looked like blueberries, or maybe coach Mangino said something to insult pirates, who knows. Most of the conspiracies are based on more concrete reasons: Oklahoma was making a case to be in the 2007 National Championship Game and their ballot reflected it, not only were they ranked number 1, but every team they had beaten was an average of five spots higher than they appeared  on the actual poll. Currently the statistical research team of Thinking Outside the Ranking is looking into the oddities of the coaches poll, including why the Big Ten gets nine votes when they have eleven teams and if there is indeed a Midwest conspiracy to rank everyone in the conference four or five spots higher in order to make the conference look better, until the results are published we will assume the conspiracy is very real and ongoing. The computer poll is actually the average of six different computer programs, with the high and low results dropped. The computer poll functions without the consequences of popular opinions and without having to listen to the other polls and for that they are the judicial branch. There isn't much more to elaborate on really. That leaves the Harris Poll as the executive branch. Harris voters are experts, on college football and on statistical matters, and are paid to be right. It is only a matter of time before I receive a vote in the Harris Poll. These are the three branches of the BCS, each poll generated is exactly 1/3 of the final BCS poll. I hate them all.