A comment on the current Power Index from reader ‘M Fan’:
You’re joking, right? Your “power index” has Michigan ranked ahead of Purdue? By what logic??? I suspected this all along, but obviously, this index is idiotic.
Response: Nope, this isn’t a joke this is very serious. The Big Ten has approached me* about using the Index to determine the order of bowl selections after the Rose. Read ‘How it Works’ and note a few things to understand:
- A team that is .7 of a point ahead of another team isn’t really “ranked” ahead of the other. Statistically it is insignificant. Both teams equally blow.
- M Fan’s implied argument is that Purdue beat Michigan last week, therefore how on earth could Michigan be slotted higher than Purdue? This isn’t the AP poll. The index asks the pollsters to rate each team in the index against each other each week as if they were going to meet on a neutral field. If you came away from that game Saturday thinking that Purdue was clearly the superior team, that’s fine, but that’s not what the guys in the index saw. Most, including me, believe a game on a neutral field would be a toss-up. (At least today).
- Finally, I still get notes/comments suggesting that this is a clearly Michigan-biased poll, which might get to the heart of M Fan’s concern. It’s not. Currently the pollsters outside the webmaster are a die-hard fans from Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Michigan State, and yes, Ohio State.
* OK, that’s a joke.
