Colley Matrix
Wes Colley has a Ph.D from Princeton University in Astrophysical Sciences. He attended Virginia and is therefore a Virginia fan. His brother, Will Colley played for Georgia. Colley claims 5 advantages using his system:
- First and foremost, the rankings are based only on results from the field, with absolutely no influence from opinion, past performance, tradition or any other bias factor. This is why there is no pre-season poll here. All teams are assumed equal at the beginning of the year.
- Second, strength of schedule has a strong influence on the final ranking. Padding the schedule wins you very little. Furthermore, only D-IA opponents count in the ranking, so those wins against James Madison or William & Mary don't mean anything. For instance, Wisconsin with 4 losses finished the 2000 season ahead of well ahead of TCU with only 2 losses. That's because Wisconsin's Big 10 schedule was much, much more difficult that TCU's WAC schedule.
- Third, as with the NFL, NHL, NBA, and Major League, score margin does not matter at all in determining ranking, so winning big, despite influencing pollsters, does not influence this scheme. The object of football is winning the game, not winning by a large margin.
- Fourth, there is no ad hoc weighting of opponents' winning percentage and opponents' opponents' winning percentage, etc., ad nauseam (no random choices of 1/3 of this + 2/3 of that, for example). In this method, very simple statistical principals, with absolutely no fine tuning are used to construct a system of 117 equations with 117 variables, representing each team according only to its wins and losses, (see Ranking Method). The computer simply solves those equations to arrive at a rating (and ranking) for each team.
- Fifth, comparison between this scheme and the final press polls (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002) proves that the scheme produces sensible results.
While all computer systems are not biased towards the "Name recognition" of a school, Colley's system doesn't include any information that doesn't involve the current season. No pre-season poll and no carry-over from the previous season. Colley's focus on strength of schedule without including opponents' strength of schedule is unique.
| Week 8 Oct 14 |
Week 9 Oct 21 |
Week 10 Oct 28 |
Week 11 Nov 4 |
Week 12 Nov 11 |
Week 13 Nov 18 |
Week 14 Nov 25 |
Week 15 Dec 3 |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | USC (6-0) | Michigan (8-0) | Michigan (9-0) | Michigan (10-0) | Michigan (11-0) | Ohio State (12-0) | USC (10-1) | Florida (11-1) | 1. |
| 2. | Michigan (7-0) | Ohio State (8-0) | Ohio State (9-0) | Ohio State (10-0) | Rutgers (8-0) | USC (9-1) | Ohio State (12-0) | Ohio State (12-0) | 2. |
| 3. | Ohio State (7-0) | USC (6-0) | California (6-1) | Louisville (8-0) | Ohio State (11-0) | Michigan (11-1) | Florida (10-1) | Michigan (11-1) | 3. |
| 4. | Florida (6-1) | California (6-1) | Florida (7-1) | California (7-1) | USC (8-1) | Florida (9-1) | Michigan (11-1) | USC (10-2) | 4. |
| 5. | Auburn (6-1) | Florida (6-1) | Notre Dame (7-1) | Florida (8-1) | Florida (9-1) | Louisville (9-1) | Louisville (10-1) | Louisville (11-1) | 5. |
| 6. | California (5-1) | Rutgers (6-0) | USC (6-1) | Notre Dame (8-1) | Notre Dame (9-1) | Notre Dame (10-1) | LSU (10-2) | Boise State (11-0) | 6. |
| 7. | Rutgers (5-0) | Notre Dame (6-1) | Rutgers (7-0) | Rutgers (7-0) | Louisville (8-1) | West Virginia (8-1) | Boise State (11-0) | LSU (10-2) | 7. |
| 8. | Notre Dame (5-1) | Auburn (7-1) | Louisville (7-0) | USC (7-1) | Wisconsin (9-1) | Rutgers (8-1) | Rutgers (9-1) | Notre Dame (10-2) | 8. |
| 9. | Louisville (6-0) | Louisville (7-0) | Auburn (8-1) | Auburn (9-1) | Boise State (9-0) | Wisconsin (10-1) | Notre Dame (10-2) | Auburn (10-2) | 9. |
| 10. | Boise State (6-0) | Boise State (7-0) | Tennessee (7-1) | Texas (8-1) | California (7-2) | Arkansas (9-1) | Auburn (10-2) | Wisconsin (10-1) | 10. |
| 11. | Arkansas (4-1) | Boston College (5-1) | Boise State (7-0) | Wisconsin (8-1) | Arkansas (8-1) | Boise State (10-0) | Wisconsin (10-1) | West Virginia (9-2) | 11. |
| 12. | Tennessee (5-1) | Tennessee (6-1) | West Virginia (6-0) | Boise State (8-0) | West Virginia (7-1) | Auburn (10-2) | Arkansas (9-2) | California (8-3) | 12. |
| 13. | Boston College (4-1) | West Virginia (6-0) | Texas (7-1) | West Virginia (6-1) | Auburn (9-2) | LSU (9-2) | California (7-3) | Oklahoma (11-2) | 13. |
| 14. | West Virginia (5-0) | Texas (6-1) | Wisconsin (7-1) | Tennessee (7-2) | LSU (8-2) | California (7-3) | Tennessee (9-3) | Rutgers (9-2) | 14. |
| 15. | Oregon (5-1) | Wisconsin (6-1) | Boston College (6-1) | Arkansas (7-1) | Texas (8-2) | Boston College (8-2) | Virginia Tech (9-2) | Tennessee (9-3) | 15. |
| 16. | Wisconsin (5-1) | Arkansas (5-1) | Texas A&M (7-1) | LSU (7-2) | Georgia Tech (7-2) | Texas (8-2) | Oklahoma (10-2) | Arkansas (9-3) | 16. |
| 17. | Texas (5-1) | Missouri (6-1) | Arkansas (6-1) | Georgia Tech (6-2) | Wake Forest (8-1) | Virginia Tech (8-2) | West Virginia (8-2) | Virginia Tech (9-2) | 17. |
| 18. | Missouri (5-1) | Clemson (7-1) | Georgia Tech (5-2) | Oklahoma (7-2) | Oklahoma (8-2) | Oklahoma (9-2) | Wake Forest (9-2) | Wake Forest (10-2) | 18. |
| 19. | Tulsa (4-1) | Texas A&M (6-1) | Washington State (6-3) | Boston College (6-2) | Boston College (7-2) | Georgia Tech (8-2) | Texas (8-3) | Oregon State (8-4) | 19. |
| 20. | Georgia Tech (4-1) | Tulsa (5-1) | Tulsa (6-1) | Oregon (6-2) | Maryland (7-2) | Tennessee (8-3) | BYU (10-2) | Texas (8-3) | 20. |
| 21. | Nebraska (5-1) | Wake Forest (5-1) | Missouri (6-2) | Wake Forest (7-1) | Tennessee (7-3) | Wake Forest (8-2) | Oregon State (7-4) | BYU (10-2) | 21. |
| 22. | Clemson (6-1) | LSU (6-2) | Clemson (7-2) | Oregon State (5-3) | Virginia Tech (7-2) | BYU (9-2) | Nebraska (8-3) | Boston College (8-3) | 22. |
| 23. | Wake Forest (5-1) | Washington State (5-3) | Oklahoma (6-2) | Maryland (6-2) | Oregon (6-3) | Clemson (8-3) | Boston College (8-3) | UCLA (7-5) | 23. |
| 24. | Texas A&M (5-1) | Oregon (5-2) | Oregon (5-2) | Virginia Tech (6-2) | Nebraska (7-3) | Nebraska (7-3) | Georgia Tech (8-3) | Texas A&M (8-3) | 24. |
| 25. | LSU (5-2) | Georgia Tech (4-2) | LSU (6-2) | Texas A&M (7-2) | Clemson (8-3) | Maryland | Texas A&M (8-3) | TCU (9-2) | 25. |
| Week 8 Oct 14 |
Week 9 Oct 21 |
Week 10 Oct 28 |
Week 11 Nov 4 |
Week 12 Nov 11 |
Week 13 Nov 18 |
Week 14 Nov 25 |
Week 15 Dec 3 |
||
| Dropped: Nebraska |
Dropped: Wake Forest |
Dropped: Washington State Tulsa Missouri Clemson |
Dropped: Oregon State Texas A&M |
Dropped: Oregon |
Dropped: Clemson Maryland |
Dropped: Nebraska Georgia Tech |
Read more about this topic: 2006 BCS Computer Rankings
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