IN SEARCH OF A NATIONAL CHAMPION
Revised July 21, 2002
Several years ago I was asked by some loyal followers of my
rating system to put into words an exact description of my views regarding the National
Championship in College Football. It was not an easy task, as the process
itself is very complex. Yet, I do feel it is important for followers of any
point of view, whether it be religious, political, or philosophical in
relationship with sports, to be well informed of exactly what it is they are
following. As a pollster for over 30 years, I certainly recognize, that in this
new age of "instant information" the sports public is becoming more
and more aware of their options available in regards to college football polls
and rating systems. Thus, I felt it important for people to understand my views
in relationship to this subject. I hope you find it to be informative, but even
more importantly, thought provoking. Happy reading!
HISTORY OF THE POLLS
The sophisticated game of
college football that we know today scarcely resembles that first game played
in 1869. Although early games were physical, even brutal by some accounts, they
were very simple and one dimensional by today's standards. In the early years
teams just lined up and used brute strength to move the ball forward. Today we
have complex offensive and defensive schemes that make the mental part of the
game just as important as the physical. But, the simplicity of the game in the
early years was not without controversy. Like determining a
National Champion, for instance. In 1869 there were only two games
played.
The popularity of college football spread widely in the
early 1900's. What began in 1869 with two teams grew to almost 90 major teams
by 1920. The NCAA was founded in 1906 to organize and regulate the sport, and
points for scores, size of the field, and penalties etc., were all standardized
by 1912. But, the NCAA failed to address the one issue that burned in the
hearts and minds of players, alumni, and fans of all ages, the question of "Who
is No.1 ?" Perhaps if they had addressed it 100
years ago we would not have the controversy that we have today! American's
thrive on competition. There is only one Grand Champion bull at the County
Fair, one Best of Show at the AKC Dog Show and one Blue Ribbon Apple Pie, so
there has always been a need for a college football poll. The problem lies in
the fact that there has always been more than one poll and they don't always
agree.
The first widely recognized College Football Poll did not
originate until 1926. It was a mathematical rating system developed by Frank
Dickinson, a professor of economics at the
All of that changed in 1936 when the Associated Press (AP)
began publishing a poll voted on by a national board of sportswriters and
broadcasters, and because of its national distribution, their word instantly
became gospel. The United Press International (UPI) joined the hoopla in 1950
by soliciting votes from a board of coaches. Their theory, I suppose, was that
coaches knew more about football than writers and broadcasters.
It was bound to happen sooner or later, but it wasn't until
1954 that the AP and UPI disagreed on who the No. 1 team in the land should be.
The AP chose
Eventually, everyone and his dog got in on the action: The
New York Times, Sporting News, Football News, Sports Illustrated, Sears, McDonald's. Heck fire, there are more polls than
there are bowls and God knows we've got more than we need of both. Over the
years there have been many fine rating systems developed, and with the advent
of the Internet you may examine all of them by simply clicking a button. Check
out David Wilson's Web Library of College Football Polls at www.cae.wisc.edu/~dwilson/rsfc/rate/index.shtml.
Among those listed you will find Hermann Matthews, who began his poll in 1966
and Jeff Sagarin who began in 1978. Those gentlemen,
along with myself and Kenneth Massey, Dr. Peter Wolfe,
and Wes Colley, are the current recognized leaders in the mathematical poll
process. Although the Dunkel Index is no longer part of the BCS, it continues to
be one of the most respected polls in
TYPES OF POLLS
In 1968 I embarked on the path
of experimenting with different mathematical formulas. Two years passed before
I was able to create a blueprint with which I was comfortable. That wasn't
easy. I had a difficult time deciding between what I considered to be two basic
approaches. I like to define them as mathematical and personal choice.
A pure mathematical poll is power-based and revolves around
a point-spread projection for the upcoming week's games. This is the kind of
system familiar to us through computer rankings. This type of system does take
emotion out of the decision making process, and at the end of the season their
No. 1 team will have a very high percentage chance of beating any other
Division 1-A team. Impressive. Impressive but not
always fair in head to head competition, which is one of my main concerns with
any rating system.
A personal choice poll is just that, it is based solely on
someone's personal opinion. In the 1940's and 50's individual personal choice
polls were somewhat popular. Sports editors of large newspapers would sometimes
announce a Top 10 college football poll at the end of the regular season.
The AP,
Personal choice polls are fun and exciting. I can assure
you that on more than one occasion, while still in school, I raced to get a
Tuesday paper to read the polls. They can really get the blood boiling at a
rival institution, and remember, everyone is entitled
to an opinion. Yet, personal choice polls, like mathematical polls, are not
always logical. Many times, I have witnessed a team play a great game against a
Top Five opponent, lose by a slim margin, and then drop drastically in the
polls. If #7 Clemson loses to
You can see the dilemma that was created. I wanted to be
fair, but I wanted to be logical as well. What's a guy to do? I solved it by
uniquely combining the two. My system is a mathematically based power rating
that is, I believe, through a series of checks and balances, as logical and
fair as it can be within the boundaries that must be in place to assure
objectivity. The Billingsley Report, where power meets logic!
This system is not designed for gambling use. If a person
tried to gamble with this information without understanding its functions, they
would miserably fail because you cannot look at these figures and determine a
point spread. For instance, a #1 ranked
DYNAMICS OF THE BILLINGSLEY REPORT
PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL FIGURES
USED IN THIS EXPLANATION ARE FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GENERATING EXAMPLES. THE
EXACT PERCENTAGES AND CORRECT FIGURES HAVE NOT BEEN USED!
The first thing I want to say is the same thing I have
always said about my rating system. I'm not here to prove to anyone than my
work is better than anyone else's. I have a very healthy respect for a lot of
rating systems. This formula is just an extension of my point of view, and they
come a dime a dozen. I will say I take my work very seriously. I have a passion
for College Football and I have done a tremendous amount of research, more than
anyone I know. All that hard work, experience, passion, and dedication has gone
into the creation of this formula. I am not a mathematician; I am not a
computer geek. I am a devout College Football Fan, and have been since I was 7
years old. My formula is 100% computer generated and it treats all teams
equally. I wrote the program myself and its not written using fancy math
equations, just simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It's
the RULES that make the system unique and the rules are MY RULES, rules that
make sense from a fan's perspective, rules that come from 32 years of
experience in which I researched the ENTIRE 132 years of College Football.
I'm a pretty strongly opinionated guy, and if you ruffle my
feathers I can certainly take you toe to toe on any of these opinions.... but
the one thing you will ALWAYS find about me is that I'm willing to listen, and
if I'm proven wrong, I'm always willing to admit it and change. You may not
always agree with where I place your favorite team, but after looking over your
team's history for a decade or two, I hope you can at least say " this guy
knows a thing or two about football."
OK, let’s make this short and sweet in the beginning for those
of you who don't care about details. These are the main components in the
formula, Won-Loss Records, Opponent Strength (based on the opponent’s record,
rating, and rank), with a strong emphasis on the most recent performance. Very
minor consideration is also given to the site of the game, and defensive
scoring performance. Now... for those of you
who appreciate details and like to hear me ramble, read on.
Believe it or not, the system is designed after our own
The design is one of a series of checks and balances. Just
as our Constitution designates Federal, Legislative, and Judicial branches that
provide the basis for our Democracy, my formula provides a similar series of
checks and balances to ensure accuracy (higher rated teams winning games
against lower rated opponents), without sacrificing fairness in head to head
competition. The checks and balances revolve around these three basic
components, the Strength of the Opponent, the
Won-Lost Record, and Season Progression. After
32 years my formula no longer uses margin of victory. It only accounted for 5%
of the total for several years, and after careful consideration in the off
season of 2001, I decided to remove it completely. For a
detailed explanation please read, "BCS Approves Billingsley No Margin
Formula" from the Home Page.
The SOS will fast become the "hot" topic of discussion
in College Football as this component is now the main ingredient in the BCS
formula, and for that matter all 7 computer polls. Especially now that margin
of victory is no longer part of the equation. Why will it be so hotly
discussed? Because WE ALL HAVE
DIFFERENT MODES OF CACULATING SOS.
To say, "oh, the most important part of
my formula is SOS", means nothing. The important question to ask should be
"How is it calculated" and "is that SOS calculated fairly?"
For many years I struggled with whether a team's SOS should
be calculated by using a teams rating and rank on the day the game was played,
or use an opponents most recent rating and rank. There
are excellent arguments for both sides. Early on I used ONLY GAME DAY stats. I
felt very strongly that if
Several years ago I made a compromise that I think has
worked exceptionally well. I use a combination of both, with percentages tilted
slightly towards the game day rating and rank. This way both are taken into
account. The current rankings are not totally discounted but more credit is
given to the original "mind set and intensity" of the game.
A team's Won - Loss Record is pretty self explanatory. Winning takes care of
EVERYTHING as long as it's against quality opposition.
The Season Progression may need a little explanation. They are really a very
simple, yet powerful set of rules. I want my poll to "look logical".
In the first week of the season if
Now, let's go one step further. I don't want a team jumping
60 places from #70 to #10 in November either. You just simply can't turn your
season around in one game, even if you beat a #1 team. I want people to be able
to look at my poll, look at the previous week's contests, and say, "oh, I
can see how he did that". So there are specific rules in place that
PREVENT those things from occurring. I guess you could say it "forces a
team to progress through the season in a logical fashion". I don’t believe
a team should be #50 in week #8 and #1 in week #9. I wanted to create as
much STABILITY as possible in the poll, especially in the Top 10. If a team
moves up, I want a person to be able to see WHY, through looking AT THE MOST
RECENT PERFORMANCE FIRST, then taking the other factors into account.
Additionally, I feel very strongly that the most recent performance should
carry a stronger weight. A team should be better in November than they are in
September.
The "checks and balances" are played out through
a series of four "phases" in the formula. Each phase has a different
purpose and a different mathematical function in the application of the checks
and balances. I will give as many practical examples as possible as I feel that
is the best way for people to understand the point I'm trying to make. The
checks and balances provide what I call "the fairness factor". Under
these guidelines an undefeated team playing a hard schedule is ALWAYS going to
be ranked close to the top. A team with one loss, but playing a very hard
schedule can still be in contention for the National Championship, as evidenced
by
Phase One: Making the transition from one season to another
Where a team begins the season
is also a hotly debated topic, and understandably so. It is, after all, truly
impossible to determine how incoming players, or coaching changes, will effect
the returning nucleus of a team. I think it is important for teams to earn
their position in a poll and not have 15 or 20 positions handed to them just
because of what I personally, or anyone else, personally thinks. At the same
time however, teams who have vastly improved from one season to the next
deserve the opportunity to have those improvements reflected in their ranking
quickly. As I have said many, many, times, I am adamantly OPPOSED to PRESEASON
POLLS. They do an incredible injustice to College Football. I could state
COUNTLESS examples over the last 50 years of such injustices, but let’s look at
the most recent glaring example of
I am convinced that carrying a team's RANK over from one
season to the next, and then making the rules for the first few weeks of the
season "more relaxed" is the best method to use. To accomplish this I
created a different set of rules for the first 4 weeks of the season. Normally,
as the season progresses, a team’s "earnings" are drastically reduced
as they go thru the various phases in the formula. This creates a more stable
poll week to week, not allowing drastic movements up or down, and therefore
preventing any one team from changing the whole outlook of their season in one
game. However, in the first few weeks, since everyone is more equal in terms of
won- loss records, everyone receives a very high percentage of their earnings,
double what they do during the balance of the season. This allows a team to be
ranked ahead of any team they beat in the first few weeks of play unless the
computer detects that it was a "major upset". Believe me, those type
of upsets do occur, and if allowed to stand, a "major upset" in the
first few weeks can create pure havoc in the correct balance of a poll, so
there had to be some boundary in place, all be it so lenient .
Granted, it does put a lot of emphasis on the first few
games of the season, but why not? If everyone is aware of their importance,
steps can be taken to prepare accordingly. Under the rules written into the
program a predetermined figure is used to distinguish between a "minor
upset" and a "major upset". The figure comes from my research,
where I have found that 92% of the time teams who won in games where this
predetermined figure was greater than what I am using were unable to sustain
that level of performance. In other words, it was a fluke. I do not believe the
stability of a poll should be compromised for something that has only happened
8% of the time over the last 132 years. Because of the flexible rules in the
early stages of the season, a team is easily able to re-position itself in the
poll simply by performing well. It's not uncommon for teams to shift 15 or 20
places in their first game, but it's because they've earned it, not because it
was handed to them.
Another change you will notice from the previous formula is
that a teams RATING IS NOT CARRIED OVER, only the rank. A new rating is assigned. The new rating was
created from the "average rating of the last 50 years at middle
ground", ( #58 ), and then one point up for each
rank above and one point down for each rank below. In other words #58 gets 213
points, #57 gets 214, and #59 gets 212. Using this method #1 gets 270 points
and #117 gets 154 points. A projected point spread can still be achieved by
taking the ratings of both teams, subtracting, and dividing by 3, then giving 3
points to the home team. Moving to this method of assigning a rating to begin
the season prevents a team from receiving an undue advantage from having an
excessive rating the previous year. I've toyed with this for years, but just
decided to implement it with the rest of the changes. I feel like that by doing
this I will also be able to get a more accurate read of the strength of teams
from one decade to the next, which will be important to me as I run the new formula
though all 132 years of football. To begin each season a #1 team will be
favored over the #117 team by 38 points. Keep in mind however, this figure has
no bearing on the future ratings at all, this is purely for the fun of it, for
the fans sake I suppose. I think its fun and important
to know how much one team compares to another in strength.
Phase Two
: Obtaining the Strength Of The Opponent
The formula created for the
Billingsley Report is a performance based formula, but one uniquely designed to
NOT TAKE THE MARGIN OF VICTORY INTO ACCOUNT. The greatest success in this formula is achieved by
remaining undefeated while playing higher ranked opponents. While losing a game, or playing a lower ranked opponent will not prevent a
team from becoming the National Champion, it does create a handicap in the
process. Every loss dictates a lesser % of forward progress, and the lower
ranked opponent played, the less chance for upward
movement.
The initial "point value" assigned to an opponent
is based according to THEIR RATING AND RANK. An opponent's strength is determined, not by their won-
lost record, which alone reflects only a portion of their strength, but rather,
it is based on their rating and rank, which is more reflective of a true
strength. This is a HUGE bone of contention between myself
and the BCS, one which I have tried to no avail to have addressed over the last
two years. Currently the BCS SOS is determined solely on opponents, and
opponents, opponents won- loss records. In other
words, at the end of the 2000 season, a team initially received the same value
for playing
Phase Three
: Comparing The Won -Lost Records
After phase two is completed,
the remaining figure is then compared to the number of losses accrued during
the course of the season, and also to a team's own position in the poll. The
reason for the additional scrutiny is so a team cannot unduly move up in the
polls based on one game's performance, all be it a superlative one, in the
event a team has not been consistent with their performance. This is
accomplished by giving a team a higher % of their earnings, or losses, as the
case may be, according to the number of losses in their own record. The less
number of losses yields a higher return of their earnings. For example, an 11-0
Next, a team's position in the poll is compared to their
own record each time a team acquires a loss on the season. The reason is to
prevent teams with multiple losses on the season from remaining high in the
poll unless they are playing far superior opposition. An additional deduction
is attached to the adjusted accrued value each time a team losses a game. The
more losses acquired, the higher the deduction. If a team loses a game, and
it's their first loss, the penalty is one %, if it's their second loss, the %
is greater, and if it's their third, the penalty is even more severe. This
process has proven to filter down the ratings until it is possible to be ranked
in the top 25 with 3 losses, but it can only occur if a team has played well
consistently, and played a difficult schedule.
Phase Four: Final Touches
A few final minor adjustments,
in terms of % of input, but necessary in terms of comparisons, are taken into
account. Those include the site the game was played, home or on the road, a
look at the defensive performance, and a final comparison of a teams overall
record. Two different % are attached to the site of the game, the greatest
reward coming from winning on the road as an underdog, but there is a small
reward for playing on the road, win or lose. A team's defensive performance is
given a special look because in my mind winning the game it’s self is a reward
of offensive performance, but the defense often gets overlooked. Great teams
are built on solid defense and I feel that should be rewarded, even if it is so
very slightly. The reward is based on holding an opponent to less than a
touchdown, on a scale of 0-6 points, a shutout getting the most benefit. Also,
after all is said and done, a final look is made at a team's overall record,
and a very small adjustment is made in that comparison. If a team has a winning
record, even by just one game, say 3-2 on the season, they get some reward for
that. If however, they have slipped on the season to a losing record, say 2-3,
that is taken into account as well. The reason for these three final comparison's is this, if, through all previous
categories, two teams come out virtually tied, these three simple
characteristics can help determine which team, based on the current performance,
deserves an ever so slight edge, even if it's a tenth of a point. To be
precise, if two teams are tied at 290, then the team with the better record
will be ranked higher. If they are still tied, and one team played on the road
while the other played at home, the road team gets the advantage. If they are
still tied, the team with the best defensive performance will prevail.
After phase four is completed, the result is added to a
team's previous week's rating. That result becomes a new rating which is
reflective of the team's overall performance to that point in the season, with
a strong emphasis on the most recent performance. This formula has proven to
reward teams who, through consistency, create a solid winning record against
quality opposition.
I hope we all have a very exciting and rewarding 2002
college football season. I know my participation with the BCS has certainly
compounded my passion for football and I hope in some small way contributes to
the sport overall. The BCS has done a tremendous service for college football
by bringing the poll process to the forefront. Remember, it's not important
that you "believe" one poll is better than another. Explore the
various options, understand their dynamics and follow who you will, whether it be me or someone else. What's really important is that you
trust the BCS process as a whole and celebrate the fact that for the first time
in our great sport's tradition laden history, (which I believe is the greatest
on earth), we have an opportunity to match the #1 and #2 teams every year.
That's quite a statement in itself!
Richard
Billingsley
President, CFRC