Stats in the Wild

Alabama hosted LSU yesterday in what was billed as number 1 versus number 2.  This is a great way to market a football game, but it completely ignores reality.  6 out of 7 BCS computer polls, which the BCS itself has selected to rank college football teams, had Oklahoma State ranked number 1 heading into the LSU-Alabama game, and the lone dissenting system had Oklahoma State ranked number 2.  That means there were 0 computer rankings that had LSU-Alabama as a 1 vs 2 game.  I guess it’s just harder to market a 2 vs 3 game.

Cheers.