A Glicko Sports Blog

A Glicko Sports Blog

Sun 14 Oct 2007

Arizona Province for the Championship
A network-based ranking system for NCAA-ball; if Appalachian beats Michigan, and Michigan beats Notre Dame, and Appalachian is beaten by Wofford, what does that tell us about the relative rankings of Wofford and Notre Dame? Where does Northwestern fit into this?

A similar, more intuitive and less complex graph is proposed by Beatpaths, which has applied its work to Bayes'-ball and NFL-ball. Comments discuss generating minimal feedback arcs, rather than removing the entire loops of minimal length; it is trivial to prove the existing stategy optimal if and only if we assume all wins are equal. A subsequent post discusses fluke wins, removing a single edge where this contradicts two distinct paths (in other words, removal of a single edge would break two cycles.)

We hope to apply this graphing technique to matches in individual conferences once the regular season ends, and compare the results to the Glickoblog results. At this stage, we do not propose to construct the 119-node graph involving all NCAA sides; there does not exist a margin of sufficient size for this project.

Last Week's Top Ten

40- #1 LSU 37 vs. #30 Kentucky 43
 #98 Kent St. 3 vs. #2 Ohio St. 48
39- Oregon St. 31 vs. #3 California 28
 Arizona 13 vs. #4 Southern Cal 20
 #5 Boston College 27 vs. Notre Dame 14
 #20 Missouri 31 vs. #6 Oklahoma 41
 #31 Purdue 21 vs. #7 Michigan 48
 #8 Virginia Tech 43  vs. #110 Duke 14
      No match for #9 West Virginia
30- #10 Wisconsin 7 vs. #25 Penn St. 38

For the second week running, the Glickoblog leader has been defeated: this time, the rising stars of Kentucky required three periods of extra time to defeat Louisiana. Justice should require us to penalise Ohist somehow for choosing to play Kent; the prospect of a meltdown 50-point upset evidently wasn't enough to stop the moneybags from scheduling a side that only missed last year's postseason on the Pick A Favourite shenanigans. California also suffered an upset defeat against another handy side, ORGST have been just outside the top 30 all year. Useful wins for Oklahoma and Michigan, and Virginia Technical College has the excuse that Duke is in their division. Wisconsin's second straight defeat sends them plummeting - is it really only two weeks since they were ranked in position 4?

No, ESPN, you won't find Illinois's defeat listed highly. You can call them a number 18 side until you're blue in the face: as far as we're concerned, they were a number 49 side, and yesterday's results rather proved it. Just as Missouri's loss proved 11 was wrong, and 20 was about right. As for The door is wide open now for Cal to move into the No. 1 spot [rolls eyes].

We already know the answer, but let's do it anyway.

Who have Notre Dame Lost To This Week?

 #5 Boston College 27 vs. Notre Dame 14

It's worth noting that NOTDM is now +1-6; one more defeat will see the side ineligible to make any post-season match, never mind sneak into the BCS Five by the back door.

Other Top 40 matches

 #22 Texas A&M 7 vs. #24 Texas Tech 35
 #32 Florida St. 21  vs. #34 Wake Forest 24
 #36 Georgia Tech 17 vs. #38 Miamiflorida 14

Other closely-ranked rivals

 #91 Bowling Green 14 vs. #92 Miami 47
 #114 Tulane 21 vs. #112 UAB 26
 #100 New Mexico St. 21 vs. #111 Louisiana Tech 22
33- #101 Louisiana-Monroe 21 vs. #116 North Texas 31

Who have Wofford Beaten This Week?

X- Gardner-Webb 17 vs. Wofford 52

Provincial Championship News

 UCF 12 vs. #13 South Florida 63
 #15 South Carolina 21 vs. North Carolina 15
 #22 Texas A&M 7 vs. #24 Texas Tech 35
X- Tennessee St. 45  vs. Tennessee Tech 28

The Upset-o-meter

40- #117 Temple 24 vs. Akron 20
40- #1 LSU 37 vs. #30 Kentucky 43
39- Oregon St. 31 vs. #3 California 28
36- Oklahoma St. 45 vs. #21 Nebraska 14
33- #101 Louisiana-Monroe 21 vs. #116 North Texas 31
32- New Mexico 20 vs. Wyoming 3
32- Louisville 28 vs. #18 Cincinnati 24
32- Illinois 6 vs. Iowa 10
30- #10 Wisconsin 7 vs. #25 Penn St. 38

Yes, Temple is quite clearly learning from Kent State last year, and embarking on a thrilling run during October and November that will leave the side short of the play-offs thanks only to the insularity and snobbishness of a flawed selection system. That's now two wins in a row for the side, which has risen remarkably:

The Bottom Ten

LY   LW   TW          Conf  R      RD    Idle
===================================================================
77   107  110  NILNS   MA   749   112.3   0   N Illinois
116  110  111  DUKE    AC   742   129.7   0   Duke
103  108  112  MEMPH   CU   739   114.7   0   Memphis
110  116  113  NTEXS   SB   721   116.9   0   North Texas
117  117  114  TEMPL   MA   712   120.2   0   Temple
115  113  115  EMICH   MA   689   117.6   0   East Michigan
109  115  116  IDAHO   WA   679   123.0   0   Idaho
102  114  117  TULNE   CU   673   119.2   0   Tulane
114  118  118  UTHST   WA   639   125.2   0   Utah Territory
119  119  119  FLINT   SB   610   129.3   1   Florida International

For values of "remarkable" that encompass a soar from 119th to 114th. The 127 points represent over a quarter of the side's rating two weeks ago, which can't be all bad. Temple is now +2-5, which is a more winning record than certain other religious buildings can boast. NILNS, for the record, is +1-5, but with two losses recorded in the annals of the Upset-o-meter.

This Week's Top Thirty

LY   LW   TW          Conf   R      RD    Idle
===================================================================
 2    2    1   OHIST   BX   1382   128.9   0   Ohio Province
 4    1    2   LSU     SE   1336   119.4   0   Louisiana Territory
 1    4    3   SCALF   PX   1314   129.9   0   Southern California
19    5    4   BOSCL   AC   1304   120.4   0   Boston College
 9    6    5   OKLAH   BT   1301   113.1   0   Oklahoma
12    7    6   MICH    BX   1290   115.9   0   Michigan
11    8    7   VTECH   AC   1269   120.5   0   Virginia Tech
10    9    8   WVIRG   BE   1254   123.5   1   W Virginia
15    3    9   CALIF   PX   1248   118.0   0   California
36   12   10   ARZST   PX   1244   109.3   0   Arizona Province
 3   11   11   FLORD   SE   1243   122.0   1   Florida
12   --   --   MICH2   BX   1233   112.4   0   Michigan 2
42   13   12   SFLOR   BE   1232   119.9   0   S Florida
 8   16   13   AUBRN   SE   1225   116.1   0   Auburn
 5   14   14   TEXAS   BT   1223   121.3   0   Texas
35   15   15   SCARO   SE   1220   113.2   0   S Carolina
32   17   16   OREGN   PX   1216   113.8   0   Oregon
13   19   17   BSEST   WA   1202   127.8   0   Boise State
54   30   18   KNTCY   SE   1199   114.1   0   Kentucky
 7   10   19   WISCO   BX   1198   119.2   0   Wisconsin
24   24   20   TXSTC   BT   1196   115.1   0   Texas Tech
30   23   21   TENSE   SE   1179   110.8   0   Tennessee
17   25   22   PENST   BX   1170   113.8   0   Penn Province
18   26   23   GRGIA   SE   1169   115.3   0   Georgia
23   34   24   WAKEF   AC   1166   111.7   0   Wake Forest
38   20   25   MISRI   BT   1161   115.4   0   Missouri
53   33   26   KANSS   BT   1156   117.7   0   Kansas
21   29   27   BYU     MW   1153   111.0   0   Brigham Young
25   27   28   UCLA    PX   1152   111.1   1   Calif, Senora Riena
31   28   29   MARYL   AC   1151   114.7   1   Maryland
44   18   30   CINCI   BE   1149   115.5   0   Cincinnati

As we expected, OHIST takes over at the top, with a whole bundle of sides gaining from California's loss. Arizona Province becomes the third side from that jurisdiction in the top ten, and is the only side to start the season +7-0. Their reward in the polls? Peanuts, showing how much the polls rely on blind prejudice and how little they take account of actual results. OHIST, BOSCL and OKLAH all booked their places in the post-season with their sixth wins against top-flight opposition. KNTCY gets its expected rewards for a famous win, now at the giddy heights of 18th. Texas A and M and Nebraska dip out of the 30 following their crunch losses; Wake Forest have been regular visitors to the circle, but we don't recall Kansas gracing us recently.

The "Big" East

LY   LW   TW          Conf   R      RD    Idle
===================================================================
10    9    8   WVIRG   BE   1254   123.5   1   W Virginia
42   13   12   SFLOR   BE   1232   119.9   0   S Florida
44   18   30   CINCI   BE   1149   115.5   0   Cincinnati
 6   44   35   LSVLE   BE   1132   122.1   0   Louisville
20   39   40   RUTGR   BE   1113   118.8   0   Rutgers
80   53   63   CONNC   BE   1005   117.1   0   Connecticut
61   82   87   PITTS   BE    874   116.1   0   Pittsburgh
90   103  101  SYRAC   BE    790   115.1   0   Syracuse

Cincinnati, Connecticut, and South Florida have the leading records in the division, a whopping +1-0. Those three sides will play each other during November, and the first two will meet West Virginia - the Florida side has already won their match.

The Pacific Ten

LY   LW   TW          Conf   R      RD    Idle
===================================================================
 1    4    3   SCALF   PX   1314   129.9   0   Southern California
15    3    9   CALIF   PX   1248   118.0   0   California
36   12   10   ARZST   PX   1244   109.3   0   Arizona Province
32   17   16   OREGN   PX   1216   113.8   0   Oregon
25   27   28   UCLA    PX   1152   111.1   1   Calif, Senora Riena
27   42   34   ORGST   PX   1134   108.7   0   Oregon Territory
65   58   61   WASNG   PX   1006   117.1   0   Washington
51   66   68   WASST   PX    957   112.5   0   Washington Territory
83   64   69   STANF   PX    954   119.1   0   Stanford
43   70   70   ARIZN   PX    948   115.7   0   Arizona

Arizona Province and Senora Riena are +3-0 in the division, California +2-0. There are those who claim AzP hasn't been tested yet: that will come in their next game in two weeks, against California. A trip to UCLA and a home tie against SCALF follows. UCLA plays California next week, and finishes against SCALF on 1 December.

Next week's televised games

A bonkers new schedule means that there are two rounders divisional finals scheduled for next Saturday night, when The World's series should be starting. These sponsors are crazy. If either or both of those matches ends early, expect additional coverage.

Fr 1400 South Florida -v- Rutgers
Sa 1700   Match tbc (live)
Su 0730 Tennessee -v- Alabama
Su 1030 Colorado -v- Arizona
Su 1400   Match tbc

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