Wednesday, December 9, 2009

A Computer Rankings of the Bowls

There are a lot of people ranking the quality of the bowls. Based on an average of each bowl's pair, using the Sagarin computer ranking, here is what the top 10 bowl games are:
Rank; Bowl; Teams; Sagarin average
1; National Championship; Alabama vs. Texas; 2
2; Sugar Bowl; Florida vs. Cincinnati; 4
3; Fiesta Bowl; TCU vs. Boise State; 6
4; Rose Bowl; Oregon vs. Ohio State; 8.5
5; Orange Bowl; Iowa vs. Georgia Tech; 14
Not surprising that the top 5 games in a computer ranking are the BCS games, it appears they got something right at least (i.e. setting up a computer formula that agrees with them).
6; Capital One Bowl; LSU vs. Penn State; 15
7; Chick-Fil-A Bowl; Virginia Tech vs. Tennessee; 16.5
8; Holiday Bowl; Arizona vs. Nebraska; 19
9; Sun Bowl; Oklahoma vs. Stanford; 20
10; Maaco/Las Vegas; BYU vs. Oregon State; 22

I may not entirely agree with it, but the 10 is pretty solid. My top 10 would be (putting aside my own personal bias and just from a college football perspective):
1 NC, Alabama vs. Texas (I wish this was Bama-TCU, but as it is, it's obviously the biggest/best bowl game of the year)
2 Fiesta, Boise State vs. TCU (this game has the second best team in college football against a team that dominated the Pac 10 champion)
3 Sugar, Florida vs. Cincy (Tebow's last collegiate game has intrigue but Cincy does not belong on the same field with Florida: not saying they can't or won't win, just saying)
4 Rose, Oregon vs. Ohio State (two legitimate top 10 teams, bottom of the top 10 mind you, but better than G Tech and Iowa)
5 Capital One, LSU vs. Penn State (Big Ten tends to struggle in bowl games, Joe Pa has a chance to make a statement for his conference)
6 Orange, Iowa vs. Georgia Tech (the ACC stinks on ice in BCS bowls, they are going against a second place team from the other conference that stinks in BCS games: at least one of them gets to win this one)
7 Las Vegas, BYU vs. Oregon State (only other bowl involving two top 20 teams: winningest QB at BYU, which has produced several Hall of Fame QBs vs. winningest coach in Oregon State history)
8 Sun, Oklahoma vs. Stanford (if for no other reason than watching the unstoppable object Toby Gerhart against the stingy Oklahoma run defense, this game is a must see)
9 Holiday, Arizona vs. Nebraska (two great defenses, one not-so-horrible offense and a team with a very experienced field goal kicker)
With number 10 I'm going out on a limb a bit:
Texas Bowl, Missouri vs. Navy (one of the most dynamic attacks in college football against one of the most one-dimensional attacks, Navy played at Big Ten champion Ohio State and played them to a virtual draw, Missouri went 0-3 against teams better than Navy)

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