Buried in the aftermath of the UTL epic finish, before the game it was announced that the stats from the opener against Western Michigan would not be recognized by the NCAA. They would recognize the final score, the records and the attendance.
Furthermore, as described by Ryan Artullo from the Toledo Blade, the Big Ten does recognize the stats:
Both Michigan and Western Michigan, along with their respective conferences, were given permission by the NCAA to honor the statistics. That means, for example, the Big Ten will observe linebacker Brandon Herron’s two touchdowns, but the NCAA won’t. It remains to be seen if the NCAA’s decisions will have an impact on postseason national awards. Voting is done by media members, some of whom may choose to ignore the NCAA’s ruling and view the statistics recognized by UM and WMU.
I hate this but it’s done. I mean, consider that they keep all the stats from games like the 3 OT Illinois game from last season.
BCS Computers?
Something that crossed my mind on Sunday and I preface with a big disclaimer: Michigan isn’t anywhere close to a BCS team. That said, given that the BCS computers use that NCAA stats to varying degrees in their rankings, I wondered how this would affect the computer calculations. So I pinged a few of the gents who run the rankings, namely Jeff Sagarin and Richard Billingsley.
Billingsley replied:
Hello Greg…..excellent question. I understand why you would be curious. My rankings consist of wins, losses,and strength of schedule only, therefore, stats have no bearing on the results. Have a great season.
I just use the final score as it was and treat it like a regular game. Michigan 34, Western Michigan 10. Thanks for writing.
So there you go, with at least two of the guys this shouldn’t affect their calculations.
One Comment
The Gerv
I was wondering this as well so thanks for the post