February 4, 2009

Rivals National Signing Day Rankings: Fuzzy Math Results?

It appears as if a USC Fan has independently created a spreadsheet using Rivals own posted and public ranking formula for teams.

It seems every team checked out-except for the University of Alabama. They had the same score as LSU. Exactly. With less Top 100 players, lower position rankings, etc. Yet, somehow, they received extra points.

There have been a few threads regarding this information on Rivals sites. They can be found at these URLS (Which require a Rivals Subscription):

http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?SID=880&fid=2208&style=2&tid=124426760&Page=2

http://lsu.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=2219&tid=124445305&mid=124445305&sid=886&style=2

http://lsu.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=2219&tid=124430574&mid=124430574&sid=886&style=2

At the time of this post, no answer from the folks at Rivals have been forthcoming.

The bottom line is that, if I'm reading these threads correctly, there was admittedly a lot of room for error throughout the day, but that Alabama was at least half a hundy points or so-give or take-from overtaking their nearest competitor, which just happens to be LSU.

Time will tell if Rivals sets the record straight, but it still won't stop the stories on all the wires from going out without time for correction, and it won't take back the front page hand you know what that Rivals gave Bama after they declared them champions. Quite convenient for a "news service" that was owned and still employs a large number of Alabama fans, and whose largest individual school site in terms of membership is also the University of Alabama's.

Most folks might know here that I've railed about this issue for some time. Perhaps we've finally found the Recruiting Rankings version of The Zapruder film?

Update as of 9:20

For clarity's sake, after reviewing a mountain of data, it boils down to this:

Alabama ends with a point total of 2786 and LSU at 2762. Using the spread sheet LSU still has 2762 while the Crimson Tide compute out at 2742.415. They picked up 44 mystery points somewhere.

Comments:

Rivals National Signing Day Rankings: Fuzzy Math Results?
It appears as if a USC Fan has independently created a spreadsheet using Rivals own posted and public ranking formula for teams. It seems every team checked out-except for the University of Alabama. They had the same score as LSU. Exactly. With less Top 100 players, lower position rankings, etc. Yet, somehow, they received extra points. There have been a few threads regarding this information on Rivals sites. They can be found at these URLS (Which require a Rivals Subscription): http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?SID=880&fid=2208&style=2&tid=124426760&Page=2 http://lsu.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=2219&tid=124445305&mid=124445305&sid=886&style=2 http://lsu.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=2219&tid=124430574&mid=124430574&sid=886&style=2 At the time of this post, no answer from the folks at Rivals have been forthcoming. The bottom line is that, if I'm reading these threads correctly, there was admittedly a lot of room for error throughout the day, but that Alabama was at least half a hundy points or so-give or take-from overtaking their nearest competitor, which just happens to be LSU. Time will tell if Rivals sets the record straight, but it still won't stop the stories on all the wires from going out without time for correction, and it won't take back the front page hand you know what that Rivals gave Bama after they declared them champions. Quite convenient for a "news service" that was owned and still employs a large number of Alabama fans, and whose largest individual school site in terms of membership is also the University of Alabama's. Most folks might know here that I've railed about this issue for some time. Perhaps we've finally found the Recruiting Rankings version of The Zapruder film? Update as of 9:20 For clarity's sake, after reviewing a mountain of data, it boils down to this: Alabama ends with a point total of 2786 and LSU at 2762. Using the spread sheet LSU still has 2762 while the Crimson Tide compute out at 2742.415. They picked up 44 mystery points somewhere.