Colley Matrix
Wes Colley has a Ph.D from Princeton University in Astrophysical Sciences. He attended Virginia and is therefore a Virginia fan. His brother, Will Colley played for Georgia. Colley claims 5 advantages using his system:
- First and foremost, the rankings are based only on results from the field, with absolutely no influence from opinion, past performance, tradition or any other bias factor. This is why there is no pre-season poll here. All teams are assumed equal at the beginning of each year.
- Second, strength of schedule has a strong influence on the final ranking. A team does not gain by padding its schedule, so those wins against James Madison or William & Mary are discounted. (Prior to 2007, these games were completely ignored. With the schedule expansion to 12 games, these are now counted but still influence the scores very little since their strength of schedule makes them very weak teams.) For example, Wisconsin with 4 losses finished the 2000 season well ahead of TCU with only 2 losses. That's because Wisconsin's Big 10 schedule was much, much more difficult that TCU's WAC schedule.
- Third, as with the NFL, NHL, NBA, and Major League, score margin does not matter at all in determining ranking, so a large victory margin may influence pollsters, but does not influence this scheme. This reflects Colley's view that the object of football is winning the game, not winning by a large margin.
- Fourth, there is no ad hoc weighting of opponents' winning percentage and opponents' opponents' winning percentage, etc., ad infinitum (no random choices of 1/3 of this + 2/3 of that, for example). In this method, very simple statistical principles, with absolutely no fine tuning are used to construct a system of 117 equations with 117 variables, representing each team according only to its wins and losses, (see Ranking Method). The computer simply solves those equations to arrive at a rating (and ranking) for each team.
- Fifth, comparison between this scheme and the final press polls (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002) proves that the scheme produces sensible results.
While all computer systems are not biased towards the "Name recognition" of a school, Colley's system doesn't include any information that doesn't involve the current season. No pre-season poll and no carry-over from the previous season.
| Week 8 Oct 13 |
Week 9 Oct 20 |
Week 10 Oct 27 |
Week 11 Nov 3 |
Week 12 Nov 10 |
Week 13 Nov 17 |
Week 14 Nov 24 |
Week 15 Dec 2 |
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| 1. | South Florida (6-0) | Louisiana State (7-1) | Boston College (8-0) | Louisiana State (8-1) | LSU | Louisiana State (10-1) | West Virginia (10-1) | Louisiana State (11-2) | 1. |
| 2. | Arizona State (7-0) | Boston College (7-0) | Arizona State (8-0) | Oregon (8-1) | Oregon | Ohio State (11-1) | Missouri (11-1) | Virginia Tech (11-2) | 2. |
| 3. | Louisiana State (6-1) | Ohio State (8-0) | Louisiana State (7-1) | Ohio State (10-0) | Arizona St. | Arizona State (9-1) | Ohio State (11-1) | Georgia (10-2) | 3. |
| 4. | Ohio State (7-0) | Arizona State (7-0) | Ohio State (9-0) | Boston College (8-1) | Kansas | West Virginia (9-1) | Georgia (10-2) | Missouri (11-2) | 4. |
| 5. | Kentucky (6-1) | South Florida (6-1) | Oregon (7-1) | Arizona State (8-1) | Ohio St. | Kansas (11-0) | Louisiana State (10-2) | Ohio State (11-1) | 5. |
| 6. | South Carolina (6-1) | Virginia (7-1) | Kansas (8-0) | Kansas (9-0) | Missouri | Missouri (10-1) | Boston College (10-2) | West Virginia (10-2) | 6. |
| 7. | Boston College (7-0) | Oregon (6-1) | West Virginia (7-1) | Oklahoma (8-1) | West Virginia | Georgia (9-2) | Virginia Tech (10-2) | Florida (9-3) | 7. |
| 8. | Oregon (5-1) | Kansas (7-0) | Connecticut (7-1) | Connecticut (8-1) | Georgia | Oregon (8-2) | Florida (9-3) | Oklahoma (11-2) | 8. |
| 9. | Virginia Tech (6-1) | Virginia Tech (6-1) | Georgia (6-2) | Missouri (8-1) | Oklahoma | Boston College (9-2) | Arizona State (9-2) | Arizona State (10-2) | 9. |
| 10. | Kansas (6-0) | Kentucky (6-2) | Oklahoma (7-1) | Georgia (7-2) | Florida | Florida (8-3) | Kansas (11-1) | Kansas (11-1) | 10. |
| 11. | Oklahoma (6-1) | Missouri (6-1) | South Florida (6-2) | Virginia (8-2) | Virginia | Virginia Tech (9-2) | Oklahoma (10-2) | Boston College (10-3) | 11. |
| 12. | Virginia (6-1) | Florida (5-2) | Virginia Tech (6-2) | West Virginia (7-1) | Virginia Tech | Virginia (9-2) | Tennessee (9-3) | USC (10-2) | 12. |
| 13. | Auburn (5-2) | West Virginia (6-1) | Missouri (7-1) | Virginia Tech (7-2) | Clemson | South Florida (8-3) | USC (9-2) | South Florida (9-3) | 13. |
| 14. | California (5-1) | Oklahoma (7-1) | Michigan (7-2) | Florida (6-3) | Boston College | Texas (9-2) | South Florida (9-3) | Hawaii (12-0) | 14. |
| 15. | West Virginia (5-1) | South Carolina (6-2) | Virginia (7-2) | Michigan (8-2) | Texas | Oklahoma (9-2) | Oregon (8-3) | Clemson (9-3) | 15. |
| 16. | Missouri (5-1) | Connecticut (6-1) | Boise State (7-1) | Boise State (8-1) | Cincinnati | Tennessee (8-3) | Clemson (9-3) | BYU (10-2) | 16. |
| 17. | Cincinnati (6-1) | Michigan (6-2) | Alabama (6-2) | Texas (8-2) | Connecticut | Connecticut (9-2) | BYU (9-2) | Tennessee (9-4) | 17. |
| 18. | Florida (4-2) | Auburn (5-3) | Auburn (6-3) | Auburn (7-3) | South Florida | USC (8-2) | Hawaii (11-0) | Virginia (9-3) | 18. |
| 19. | Georgia (5-2) | Wake Forest (5-2) | Wake Forest (6-2) | South Florida (6-3) | USC | Illinois (9-3) | Illinois (9-3) | Illinois (9-3) | 19. |
| 20. | Hawaii (7-0) | Boise State (6-1) | Florida (5-3) | Alabama (6-3) | Illinois | Clemson (8-3) | Virginia (9-3) | Cincinnati (9-3) | 20. |
| 21. | Tennessee (4-2) | UCLA (5-2) | Clemson (6-2) | Clemson (7-2) | Tennessee | BYU (8-2) | Cincinnati (9-3) | Oregon (8-4) | 21. |
| 22. | Kansas State (4-2) | Alabama (6-2) | Kentucky (6-3) | Kentucky (6-3) | Kentucky | Cincinnati (8-3) | Texas (9-3) | Texas (9-3) | 22. |
| 23. | Illinois (5-2) | Georgia (5-2) | South Carolina (6-3) | Penn State (7-3) | Michigan | Hawaii (10-0) | Wisconsin (9-3) | Connecticut (9-3) | 23. |
| 24. | Michigan (5-2) | USC (6-1) | Tennessee (5-3) | Florida State (6-3) | Boise St. | Wisconsin (9-3) | Connecticut (9-3) | Auburn (8-4) | 24. |
| 25. | Wisconsin (5-2) | Rutgers (5-2) | Purdue (7-2) | USC (7-2) | Wisconsin | Boise State (10-1) | Auburn (8-4) | Oregon State (8-4) | 25. |
| Week 8 Oct 13 |
Week 9 Oct 20 |
Week 10 Oct 27 |
Week 11 Nov 3 |
Week 12 Nov 10 |
Week 13 Nov 17 |
Week 14 Nov 24 |
Week 15 Dec 2 |
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| Dropped: California Cincinnati Hawaii Tennessee Kansas State Illinois Wisconsin |
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Read more about this topic: 2007 BCS Computer Rankings
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—Margaret Atwood (b. 1939)