Methodology
An explanation for the mathematical calculations was usually given as part of the story of the season ending rankings. In 1927, the AP story about the "national football championship" for that year noted that "Scores of 96 football teams were compiled by Dr. Dickinson in seven football conferences, including an Eastern group of 25 leading teams regarded for convenience as a conference...
"The Dickinson system awards 30 points for a victory over a strong team, and 20 for victory over a weak team. Defeats count half as much as victories, and ties are considered as games half won and half lost . Dividing this total by the number of games played gives the final rating." Illinois, which played 8 games, had 172 points overall and a 21.50 rating. Professor Dickinson later added another variable, a "sectional rating" which provided for different points in games where the teams were from different sections of the country.
Read more about this topic: Dickinson System
Famous quotes containing the word methodology:
“One might get the impression that I recommend a new methodology which replaces induction by counterinduction and uses a multiplicity of theories, metaphysical views, fairy tales, instead of the customary pair theory/observation. This impression would certainly be mistaken. My intention is not to replace one set of general rules by another such set: my intention is rather to convince the reader that all methodologies, even the most obvious ones, have their limits.”
—Paul Feyerabend (1924–1994)