September 2, 2010 • 33 mins
Established in 1998 as a way to determine college football rankings, the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) is a complex statistical system. In this episode, Josh and Chuck tackle the complex variables -- and math! -- behind the BCS rankings.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know?
From House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant
that makes the Stuff you Should Know the College Football edition. Yes,
(00:24):
our first sportscast. Ever, I think we've never done it, dude,
really yeah, because I've always kind of wanted to, but
then I thought we'd be, you know, excluding anyone who's
not a sports fan. But we get a lot of
sports fans who say you should do this. Uh, well,
we'll throw them a bone here. It seems like we
need some sort of heraldry like do do do do you?
(00:50):
I could keep going. I wanted to sing final Count.
I was literally like stopping myself. Well, now we have
to pay a royalty since you name that tune. Buddy. Oh,
before we get started, let's plug fest our college tour. Yeah,
we're gonna do uh it's not exactly college tour, but
it is just oh yeah, that's a trivia tour. It was.
It's a national tour. But there's colleges in these places
(01:12):
where we're going. Yeah, we're going to do um anywhere
between five and seven cities, winding up in Austin as
far as I know. Yeah. Um, And we're kicking it
off October, which is the Wednesday in Atlanta, g A,
which is just down the street. We're actually in it
right now. Some would argue we kicked it off in
New York. Yeah, you could definitely make that case. So
(01:33):
New York brought the goods. Yeah, I wonder if Atlanta
will bring goods similar to New York. And and I'm
talking to you toub Birmingham and uh, Chattanooga, Well definitely.
And what else is close? Um, Charlotte's not too far
off Asheville's three hours. Ashville's got no excuse, and we're
not coming to Ashville. So this is your chance. Well
(01:55):
that's the beauty about the Southeast. Just go to Atlanta
and everybody drives. You just know you have to drive
if you're in the Nobody from Florida is welcome though,
you'll be turned away at the door. Um. So yeah,
that's going to be October, which is a Wednesday. I'm
almost positive it's going to be at Five Seasons Brewery
Brewing Company. Yeah. On the west Side. Um so up
(02:19):
on the roof. Yeah awesome. We'll be throwing more details
up on Twitter and our Facebook fan page stuff you
should know. And our Twitter feed is s Y s
K podcast in case you want to follow us, Um
and Chuck. I guess it's time we should get to
football rankings, right, yeah, this one. Uh, we should just
go ahead and say that the article for this one
(02:39):
on our website is a little out of date. And
college football and the BCS is ever changing, so I
kind of expected that it wouldn't be, you know, really
up to date. It's changed a lot over the past
six years. It's changed a lot over the past six minutes. Actually,
you know, Um, yeah, it's might you know, we're gonna
do our best here. Uh. Not only that, if you
(03:00):
thought the Quantum Suicide podcast was hard to follow, Buddy,
get a pen and piece of paper out right now,
because there's gonna be some detailed equations and afterward there
will be a quiz. Chuck. I tend normally to lean
more towards UM A p the Associated Press over USA
today for accuracy and reporting, right, but I looked at
(03:21):
the n c a A Football rankings today preseason, uh,
and I saw that USA Today has Georgia ranked twenty one,
whereas A P has Georgia ranked twenty three. So I'm
leaning towards USA Today's reporting. Today they both have tech
ring hired to Yeah, it doesn't matter. Let Tech get
the number one spot and then come Thanksgiving will knock
(03:42):
them out of it. It's one of the great joys
in my life when we have a terrible season, but
we may have a good season. It remains to be seen.
I can't say anything. I don't even know who are
starting quarterback is going to be? Is that Aaron Murray?
It's Aaron Murray and Murray Murray. It's like try to now,
I wonder where she'd been. I think she's been in
(04:04):
the same place for several years. No, she did, I think,
so we should probably look that up there too, Anne Murray,
if you're not dead, we apologize. We've greatly exaggerated your
so chuck before the BCS, right, there was a streat
line in a John Travolta movie, and I can't believe
these words are coming out of my mouth. But why
(04:26):
you sweet? That's that's my impression. No, the um that
movie was Michael. I think it was where he played
like a kind of down to earth angel who like
drugs and boozing and womenizing. You saw it, okay, so
it was like kind of a cute movie. But there
was one thing that he said that I've always thought
was very clever was that he told somebody in that
(04:47):
movie that he invented lines. And before then people were
just standing around, like bumping into each other and didn't
know what to do. So I kind of have the
same impression of college football season and their end pre BCS.
Everybody's kind of bumping into everybody else. There was a
distinct possibility that you had a number of teams claiming
(05:09):
the number one spot in no way to resolve that.
And you know, we humans are very much into saying
you are clearly number one. And the BCS, while it
had a rockie start at first, has kind of fulfilled
that spot. Right It's got a pretty good UM record
the last six or ten years, right well, according to
the BCS and ESPN, Yeah, well we might as well
(05:30):
go ahead and say, um. The BCS claims that in
the twelve years since it's been around, there twelve or
twelve according to their formulas, and there nine for twelve
according to like coaches polls as far as matching up
the two best teams to play for the national title.
And previous to that, like you said, for decades, teams
(05:52):
played each other in bowl games and then sports writers
voted on a national champion, which is kind of made up.
It's beyond ridiculous. If you think the BCS predict, let's
that's even more ridiculous. Yeah, and um, well, let's talk
about how the BCS is calculated. Right, Well, what are
what are the BCS. There's five games before there were
twenty five bowl games? Is that correct? Uh, they're twenty
(06:13):
nine games aside from the BCS games before. Now now
there's twenty nine excluding the BCS games. Okay, but before
I understand that they were like twenty five bowl games
and they were all important because there was no BCS.
Well important to varying degrees, right, But it's almost like
playing musical chairs with eight kids, but with nine chairs,
(06:36):
you know. So, Um, the BCS comes in and says, hey,
we're going to make sure the clear winners established, and
we're going to do so by establishing that we're gonna
say these Bowl games are actually the important ones, right,
and they are what they are, the Sugar Bowl, the
Rose Bowl, the Orange Bowl, and the Fiesta Bowl, and
they all have different sponsors that kind of change, and
(06:59):
we're not paid by any of them, so we're not
going to mention. Huh. Well, three of the four of
these in this article are wrong. That's how much they've changed.
You know. I think Tostitos is the only one that's
still actively sponsoring the Fiesta Bowl and the There's big
money involved in these things, right, There's payouts that go
directly to the schools involved and then also to their conferences. Right, Yeah,
(07:21):
should we break that down? Let's do it? How that works? Uh?
Last year, the payout for the National title game was
seventeen million dollars per team, so thirty what is that for?
Thirty four million bucks? But the team doesn't get all
of that, It is split. You get a participation fee,
and then after the participation participation fee is taken out,
(07:44):
the rest of the money is split among all the
teams in the conference. So the SEC is loaded with talent.
They send let's say eight teams to bowls. So that's
a lot of money coming to schools like Vanderbilt in
Kentucky that may not go to of all, so they
love it. I think I probably already know the answer
to this, right, But are you one of those people
(08:05):
who when George is not in a game, you still
root for the SEC. I root for all SEC teams
except for Florida, thank you, and uh boy, Tennessee is
tough for me to get behind. Trouble rooting for Tennessee
as well. But if it was like Tennessee versus USC,
I would certainly root for Tennessee. But I can never
(08:27):
root for Florida no matter what happens. Now, I can't either, Chuck,
and I'm glad to hear you say that. I also
have trouble rooting for Tech. Some people are like, well,
it's a Georgia team, so if George is not playing,
then I root for Tech, And I'm like, you're a
communist at don't root for Tech. They're sort of neutral.
Like I root for their basketball team because I liked
them back in the day, but not not for football.
(08:48):
And my brother works there, so I gotta keep it
on the you know, up and up. That's very nice
of you keep it in the family. So, Chuck, what
should we talk about next? Well, the BCS is um
is not a body. It's an event which consists of
these football games, and it's managed by the UM Bowl,
(09:10):
the BCS, subdivision conferences and these are the big boys, right,
But don't you get the And I was surprised to
hear this. There's an ESPN article that you sent me
giving it background background of the BCS, and it said,
like two nine pole showed se of n c a
a coach's favor keeping the BCS in place over a playoff. Right.
(09:32):
That kind of flies in the face of information that
I've had, like anecdotally, you know, I mean, I know,
I've never asked Mark Rick, you know, on the spot,
but I get the impression that there's a lot more
people that want playoffs than don't, definitely, and that the
BCS is something of an entity and it's not just
you know, this this panel that's you know, created by
(09:54):
this democracy, that it's more like an iron fist and
if you don't like it, they'll you'll be c Is
that not the case? How well? They say they're not entity,
but I bet they have an office. I bet they
kind bet people work there, and I bet there's just
iron desks for their iron fists. I should know, though,
I did say that the BCS conferences were who make
up this this body. We also have to include Notre
(10:18):
Dame in there because you actually get to vote, although
you don't include Notre Dame as much as you used to. No,
I mean they're still in there though. They get their
participation included UM as an independent, as does Army and Navy,
which is interesting too. Yeah, a Notre Dame gets three
votes in Army and Navy get one each. Right, Well,
that's votes for UM. Those are nominations for the Harris
(10:40):
Interactive Football Poll. This is going to be all over
the place. It is, but it's okay, we're making sense
so far. I mean, the BCS came around in ninety eight.
It established that there's five bowls. We sent the bowls, right, Well, yeah,
but four plus the national title game? Right, And it's
not just like, okay, here's the rankings and then the
(11:01):
season's over, so one versus to you go play two
versus three, ugo play three versus or four versus five.
It doesn't happen like that. But that's kind of counterintuitive
until you realize that the BCS algorithm is the most
complex algorithm ever created by man and it's actually composed
of a number of different algorithms spitting out numbers and
(11:22):
then those numbers are factored in. So I think, Chuck,
we put it off long enough and we can't any longer.
Let's talk mathematics and statistics. Okay, yes, Uh, you're gonna
have to explain some of this, but um, because math
is not my strong talk about the subjective pulse. How
about that I was told there would be no math.
I'll try to handle the math as best as possible,
but it's gonna be like that one kind of breathalyzer
(11:44):
that I thought I understood. Well, Uh, things have changed, Josh.
Since it was originally the BCS was set up a
certain way, and then in two thousand and two and
two thousand four a lot of changes took place. It
used to be UM four fact jurors that weighed into
the BCS ranking, and now there are only three factors.
(12:04):
The A P I'm sorry, the USA today A Coaches poll. Right.
The AP pole was replaced um before the two thousand
four season, I think by the Harris Interactive Pole. And
then the last third is a very complex computer ranking system. Uh.
An average of six computer rankings are averaged and that
(12:27):
is the last thirty three and the third percent. Right.
And these UM computer rankings are basically independent groups or
people who say, yeah, we're following football and we have
a pretty good algorithm, and here's our contribution. UM. There
used to be I think eight, and now there's six. UM.
So you've got guys like Richard Billingsley, who's just a
(12:49):
businessman I love it and apparently likes to to come
up with college rankings in his spare time. Their statisticians
and mathematicians, right, and businessmen and businessmen. Yeah, so weird.
It is weird. Maybe his business is accounting, but UM,
so they'll they'll take into account. For example, the Billingsley
report uses the strength of the opponent final score UM,
(13:11):
and the win lose records of the teams before and
after the game. Right. Combine all these together and you
create a numerical value. Right. Some other people or some
other UM computer rankings systems like UM. Who else is
There's Seattle Times, which is run by a guy named
Jeff Anderson who's a political science graduate student. Was and
(13:34):
I guess he's just a political scientist. Um. And Chris Hester,
who's a sportswriter and um, these two get together and
they take quality of opponent and strength of schedule. The
problem is, Chuck, is you can't just go, yeah, Boise
States doing pretty good, So we're gonna give them a
five for strength of schedule or strength of opponent or
quality of opponent, that kind of thing. Um, what they
(13:58):
have to take into account are wide factors like let's
say you win. Yeah, it's not just good enough that
you're going to win. Who exactly did you beat? And
how do you quantify who you beat? Well, you say
where you play, right, So we have to look at yours,
not only your opponent's schedule, but your opponent's opponent's schedule,
(14:21):
and then you you put numerical values onto those, right,
the win loss, and then you calculate that, and you
come up with another numerical value that's called strength of schedule.
And to get down to the nitty gritty, the strength
of schedules calculated like this, You've got your opponent's schedule, Chuck,
you play Boise State. Boise State has been doing pretty good.
(14:42):
I'm not playing there, dude, so you won't catch me
on a blue football field. You Well, well, there they
came and visited you, but you beat them between the hedges.
So you've got UM two times s O, and s
O is your opponent's schedule. Boise States schedule, you've got
two times that. Plut. They're Boise States opponents schedules, all
(15:03):
of them calculated to wins and losses. So it's two
times your opponents schedule plus Boise States opponents schedules equals
strength of schedule. Okay, that's just one component in some
computer rankings, and strength of schedule I think used to
be a standalone component, but now it's just factored in
(15:23):
with the rest. And they also threw out the margin
of victory. That used to be a factor as well,
but they could you remember that was a big deal
when coaches were running up the score. Florida would try
and put like sixty points on a team, you know,
against like Louisiana Lafayette, and uh, they were like, you
know what, that's not really too cool. That really shouldn't
factor in. So that was thrown out right the scripts
(15:44):
Howard UM poll, which I don't think is used any longer.
UM used to have a penalty actually for running up
the score before it was thrown out. Yeah, part of
their computer ranking was if you ran up the score,
you were penalized, which is good because guys like Steve
Spurrier used to need to be held in check. Now
he's holding himself in check. Look at you. That's good.
(16:08):
So is that all for the computer ranking? Third or
you still got something on that? No? I think I'm
I'm good okay. Uh, then you have, like I said,
one third is the USA today, Uh, coach's poll and
that is literally coaches voting. Um, not all of them
always vote. I think there's a hundred and fourteen potential votes,
(16:30):
but there may be a hundred and six people vote
one week. Remember Steve Spurrier got some criticism at one
point because like he failed to vote in like some
really important week a couple of years back or something
like that, and he explained that he did and his
assistant lost a vote or something like that. I can't
remember what it was. But that is factored in as well.
They still don't divide by the same number, you know,
(16:50):
they'll they'll factor it down by the number of votes
that the number of possible votes. Yes, okay, to make
them more accurate. I've also heard accusations that in coaches polls, UH, specifically,
they have their kids vote sometimes, like they just can't
be bothered to vote, so they'll just be like fill
this out for me, will you, because they know their
kids watch some games or whatever. And that that's why
(17:12):
human polls are so fallible. That a lot of coaches
don't vote, and the coaches that appear to a vote
haven't necessarily voted themselves, and even if they have, they're
not completely informed. Because TCU horned frogs, I like frogs,
that's how it ends up. Yes, well that's how TCU
ended up in the top. Ever, I guess so because
of Ralph Wigham UM. And then you have the Harris
(17:35):
Interactive Poll, and that um, like I said, replaced the
eight people and they ranked them each week from late
September to the end of the season. And I'm sorry
that has a d and fourteen participants. That was the
one fourteen I was thinking of, And UM, sorry I
didn't correct you, right, And they're not just coaches, they're
former coaches, student athletes, administrators, some media. And that is
(17:59):
where Notre Dame get to say, because you get to
nominate who was on this committee to vote for the
Interactive poll, and each conference see these where Notre Dame
gets away with something. In my opinion, each conference gets
ten nominations and Notre Dame gets three, Army gets one,
and Navy gets one. Yeah, so like the Big twelve
twelve teams get ten nominations, Notre Dame gets three all
(18:21):
by themselves. Right, Notre Dame has always gotten some sort
of weird free ride for some reason. Why we're gonna
hear about it. Yeah, but it's still I mean, it's true.
They they there's a lot of favoritism towards that team,
and I dare anybody to prove otherwise. Well, they haven't
been great recently, but they are. They still one of
the most favored, one of the most legendary teams. Yes,
(18:43):
just because Ronald Reagan played for you doesn't mean you're
a great team in two thousand and ten. You know, hey,
you're preaching the choir, my friend, so Chuck. When you
take these things together, the Harris Interactive Poll, the Coaches poll,
and the computer rankings numbers that you crunched together and
created one number. That's the third or third and third, right, Um,
the most you can get is one correct at one point? Oh,
(19:07):
actually at one point oh oh. The lowest score. You're
looking for a low score here, right, low score means
high ranking. This is where it gets a little hinky.
Sorry to steal your word, but in the article explicitly
says that you want the lowest score. Right, Yes, But
in this other material that we've gotten from the BCS site,
(19:29):
it looks like the the the higher the score, the
closer to a one point oh, the higher you're ranked.
Here's why I say that, chuck um in. In the
coach's poll, right, coaches vote from one to five and
assign each team ranking in reverse order. So if you're
(19:50):
number one, you get twenty five points. If you're in
twenty five place, you get one point, Right, so you
would want more points. Correct, Yeah, But here's here's where
I think it gets worked out if I'm correct and
understanding this. What happens is, let's take the Harris poll.
For instance. You take the total score of all your votes,
(20:10):
and you divide that by two thousand, eight hundred and fifty,
which is the maximum number that anyone can receive if
all one D fourteen voting members rank that same team
number one. So let's say everybody ranks Alabama number one,
a one fourteen that they get two thousand, eight hundred
and fifty total points, they divide that by two thousand,
(20:31):
eight hundred and fifty, and so they end up getting
a one. Okay, okay, So if you got um, if
you divided I guess what one? If you had a
one and you divided that by two thousand, eight hundred
and fifty, I see, it would be much lower, right,
And the coach the coaches poll is the same thing.
They just divided by fourteen seventy five because that's the
(20:53):
maximum number. So at least I'm right in saying that
the best you could possibly get from the b CS
formula is a one point zero, I believe. And it
kind of follows that same thing, like you have a
one in anything less would be like a point nine
to oh or a point eight seven three? Right, yes, okay, yeah,
(21:15):
that's exactly right. A plus B plus C divided by
three would be point right okay, okay, all right, And
see this is really confusing. It's like giving birth to
a watermelon, except with your head a square Japanese watermelon,
which would be even worse, especially if the edges were sharp. So, ladies,
when you're like, you know, if you're not into this.
(21:37):
I'm not saying that not all ladies are into it,
but whoever's not into college football, and you poo poo it,
think about how complex the system is that they've worked out.
It's not just a bunch of guys sitting around drinking
beer smashing each other's heads in. It's very complex, right,
But I mean to the guys who are sitting around
smashing each other's heads in with beer being drunk around them,
(21:58):
it's still like I'm ranked twenty three. Yeah, true, you know, Okay,
so chuck, it sounds like we made it through the
math part. Yeah, what else is left? Uh? Well, that's
sort of it. I mean, at the end of the year,
the math determines your ranking. And we should point out
(22:18):
that the BCS ranking, which determines who plays in these
BCS Bowls and National title game, that doesn't start getting ranked.
They don't do like preseason rankings or even early season
that starts in mid October. Right, the preseason rankings are
a p in USC today. Yeah right, and all sorts
of other rankings. You know, there's all kinds of people
that are like the BCS can't conceivably start because the
(22:41):
computer rankings have to take in like strength of schedule,
and you can't you can't determine that until somebody has
a winner a loss against them, right, Uh, unless you're
ranking by last year, right, Yeah, exactly. So mid October
is when the BCS rankings start to come out, and
that's about halfway through the football season, so they have
enough data at that point. I think that's why. Wait,
(23:01):
so check. You used to be the n c A
Football League, the conference, the whole thing was called Division
one A, and now it's called the Football Bowl Subdivision programs.
Whether you like it or not, Yeah, exactly. Do you
feel like we should have a playoff? Uh? Oh boy.
I think that they should work a playoff system into
(23:24):
the existing system somehow, and a lot of a lot
of people think that. I agree. I don't think that
there should be like um wild cards or anything like that,
although I think you need them mathematically, but I think
that you have to still place an emphasis on the
regular season, and it's possible to do that with with
a playoff system as well. Yeah. That's one of the
(23:45):
arguments against the playoff is that they some people say
that it will render the regular season. BC supporters say
will render the regular season not as important, And I
don't understand that logic because you still have to play
those games to get ranked high to get in the tournament.
They're not It's not like the basketball. They're not gonna
include sixty four football teams. They're gonna I mean, I've
heard different proposals from like sixteen teams to like the
(24:08):
final eight teams battle it out. Finally, eight teams would
be fine with me. Anything, anything where you determine it
on the football field would be fine with me, because
it's the only sport that it's not determined by a
bracket of some sort. One of the reasons why we
may never see a playoff is that the revenue associated
with bowl games has increased by like two thousand percent
(24:30):
since the BCS was instituted. So well, I think you
can still work within that system. I mean, you can
still call them bowl games and everything. You could just
put it in the form of a bracket. It would
add games, which would add more money. Um. Another reason
against it, they argue, is like risk of injury and
their student athletes, so they don't want to drag it
on into their academic year. But come on, it's all
(24:53):
about the dough it's this college athletics, but everyone knows
it's about the money. Um. I did read a UM
I read a few arguments today, like four and against
and one writer I think he was from Slate. He
calculated from his calculations. Um, he thinks only sevent of
(25:13):
n C Double A Division one eight teams even have
a shot to compete for the national title by his calculation.
Each year. Well, if you're not a BCS school, then
you're kind of out the door to begin with, Like
boise State may have a chance that they were on
the table this year, but that's a rarity, so that
takes you down to and then he says, uh, if
(25:36):
you don't start the season ranked number twenty or higher,
then you're almost mathematically eliminated. So that takes you down
to sevent can even compete for the national title. But
I also say, I mean, there's both sides to the
coin there. I also say, if you're you know, I'm
not gonna pick on Boisey State because they are a
good football team. But let's say you're like Colorado Appalachian
(26:00):
State who beat Michigan that what two years ago? Remember
that that was awesome. They in Michigan paid them like
a million dollars to come to Michigan. Michigan pound on
them and that. But teams like that, I mean, I
kind of don't want to hear their argument that they
should be competing because they're not big boys. They're not
playing in the SEC. They're not playing in uh the
(26:23):
Big ten or the Big twelve. Yeah, but if you're not,
then you'll never attract talent. You can never get there.
It's a self defeating system. Yeah, So, I mean it's
very exclusive and elitist. Really from the schools with the
most money are the ones that get to be in
it and can perpetuate that that good program, the winning
program through more and more money. Yeah, yeah, you're right.
(26:45):
I did see another guy that said that he thought
they should do like um, I think it was a
sixteen team pool and and the top twelve BCS schools, Like,
you get your automatic if you win the SEC, you're in,
If you win the Big ten, you win, if you're
in the Big twelve year in. So after all your
automatic bids make the rest like the last four or
(27:05):
whatever at large bids. So you can still have the
Cinderella teams in there with the possibility, and you know
answered on the football field, if you can beat them,
great because boys State beat Oklahoma a few years ago.
Remember in that ball game. Remember the statue of liberty play.
It's crazy. They pulled out a play from like the nineties.
It was beautiful and one that was um I think
(27:25):
was that to three years ago. It was like the
greatest football season of all time. It was just all
over the place number UM Missouri was like number one
for a little while. There was like twenty different teams
number one. Yeah. Yeah, it's exciting. It's like three years ago. Right,
it's not very exciting. Like when you start the season
number one, you run the table unless you go to
that school. We should mention too though. There was one
(27:47):
change about um geez. Just about a month ago. Uh,
the BCS announced that teams that are ineligible for postseason
play are removed from the computer rankings and all six
of the formula was so basically this is like the
USC rule. Oh yeah yeah. Because USC's on probation now,
they can't play in a bowl game for the next
(28:09):
like two years or something, and so they said, well,
we can't factor them in if they are the number
eight ranked team, if they can't even play in the postseason, right,
But not only that, if you're not eligible. I got
the impression like, once you've reached once it's statistically impossible
for you to be eligible through your losses, they start
taking you out of the rankings, and everybody below you
goes up one rank. No, I think if you, I
(28:30):
think that means if you're ineligible from like crime, yeah,
from from being a banned from postseason play, I'm pretty sure.
And as far as the code the human polls go, uh,
they said earlier this summer that the polls will not
include teams that are prohibited from the n t A.
So they went the same route. So but by USC
(28:51):
and there is the BCS. We could re record this
in probably twenty thirty minutes, and um, it would be
entirely different. Um. If you to know more about the BCS,
you should probably go to BCS dot com. There's a
handy search bar there, I'm sure. And just give us
a little while to get this article up to snuff. Okay, yeah,
we probably got something wrong here and there too. I
(29:13):
was just I hope we talked fast enough so that
where no one noticed. I have them in my head,
my friend Scott Galvin, um with his arms crossed, just
like shaking his head. He's in the sound booth right
behind you. Actually, like I could feel it. Actually, all right, Well,
thanks for listening to me and talk about college football. Um,
for whatever reason you want to, you should go to
(29:33):
house stuff works dot com. There's a handy search bar there.
Make something up and type it in and it will
take you to a beautiful new place. Just spell it correctly,
or also won't take you anywhere. Right. Yeah, Um, that
brings us. Then I guess to listener mail. Yes, Josh,
this is gonna be a two parter because it's long.
We heard from a prisoner about our prison email, and
(29:56):
he gave us lots of good stuff, and I told
him I was going to read it. It's an anonymous
because he is a straight shooter. Now he's on the level,
doing very good in his profession, a square, and nobody
in his profession knows that he was arrested for dealing math,
and so he wants to keep it that way. Does
he work here, Yes, he does. It's Jonathan Strickland. Uh, guys.
(30:19):
I was arrested in the mid nineties for selling an
ounce of meth to an undercover narc in Nevada. I
was set up by a friend who had gotten arrested
on a similar charge. Decided that he would snitch rollover
and uh some uh some people so they would get probation. Unfortunately,
under Nevada zero tolerance policy, I had no priors. I
was twenty two and I was looking at twenty five
(30:41):
to life for my first defense. Did he include uh
in there? Or was that you? That was me? To
make a long story short, I jumped bail rand Oregon
and lived on the lamb for three years. This is
the real deal. It sounds like hippie Rob. It is
not hippie Rob. He got tired of living life on
the lamb, obviously, hired a lawyer, turning self in like
a good guy, and managed to get the charges dropped
(31:03):
to level two trafficking, enter to plea deal. And the long,
long story short, he was in for I think three years. Uh,
And I just have a couple of prison ted bits
on this end, and then we'll do the next part
in the next podcast. He was not in a new
prison that had the cards to keep track of commissary accounts.
They were given paper slips sort of like at a
sushi restaurant, and we would turn them in once or
(31:24):
twice a week. We would pick up our order in
the next day or so. Items available were personal hygiene
items tooth basted, deodorant, shampoo. If you could not buy
your own, you could get the state issued stuff. But
that stuff was absolute garbage and I should mention too.
We got another email from someone that said that Bob
Barker's company, just looking it up makes prison. So yeah,
(31:46):
is that true. I'm looking it up as hopefully at
the end of this you'll know, because that would be
really weird. Get your pet spade and neutered, and I
will make your prison soup for you. UH. Cigarettes were available,
both packs of cigarettes like Cammel and Marlborough, as well
as loose tobacco and rolling papers. Packs of cigarettes were
called tailor's short for tailor made. They're expensive and out
(32:08):
of reach for most inmates. UH. Financially, having Tailor's was
a status symbol, and their rarity made them great bargaining chips. Interestingly,
most gray market trading he reserves the term black market
for contraband, where items purchased out of the commissary. Things
you could get with purchased commissary items for trade were
limited only by the creativity of the inmates. For example,
(32:31):
a pack of cigarettes a week. You could pay somebody
to iron your clothing for you, so you would always
look as nice as possible for visits. If you wanted
to write somebody a letter, you could pay one of
several talented artists to custom decorate your envelope with roses
or balloons or whatever else you could imagine. Basically, it
was like on demand customary stationary, and it was actually
(32:51):
a high service demand in prison. So that is the
end of part one. Josh, we're gonna leave hanging for
part two. So Chuck, do you want the answer about
Bob bark greatly. There is a guy named Bob Barker
who makes prison toiletries, but he's not Bob Barker of
Crisis right according to Snopes at least. Okay, So thank
(33:11):
you very much Chuck for part one. I myself, I'm
very excited about part two, and I'm glad I don't
have to wait until next Thursday to hear it. I
get to hear it in about thirty forty minutes. If
you want to send us an email about Bob Barker,
your favorite college football team, or your mom's home cooking.
(33:31):
We want to hear about it. Send it to Stuff
Podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more on
this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff
works dot com. Want more how stuff works, check out
our blogs on the house. Stuff works dot com home page.
(33:54):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready, are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know?
From House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant
that makes the Stuff you Should Know the College Football edition. Yes,
(00:24):
our first sportscast. Ever, I think we've never done it, dude,
really yeah, because I've always kind of wanted to, but
then I thought we'd be, you know, excluding anyone who's
not a sports fan. But we get a lot of
sports fans who say you should do this. Uh, well,
we'll throw them a bone here. It seems like we
need some sort of heraldry like do do do do you?
(00:50):
I could keep going. I wanted to sing final Count.
I was literally like stopping myself. Well, now we have
to pay a royalty since you name that tune. Buddy. Oh,
before we get started, let's plug fest our college tour. Yeah,
we're gonna do uh it's not exactly college tour, but
it is just oh yeah, that's a trivia tour. It was.
It's a national tour. But there's colleges in these places
(01:12):
where we're going. Yeah, we're going to do um anywhere
between five and seven cities, winding up in Austin as
far as I know. Yeah. Um, And we're kicking it
off October, which is the Wednesday in Atlanta, g A,
which is just down the street. We're actually in it
right now. Some would argue we kicked it off in
New York. Yeah, you could definitely make that case. So
(01:33):
New York brought the goods. Yeah, I wonder if Atlanta
will bring goods similar to New York. And and I'm
talking to you toub Birmingham and uh, Chattanooga, Well definitely.
And what else is close? Um, Charlotte's not too far
off Asheville's three hours. Ashville's got no excuse, and we're
not coming to Ashville. So this is your chance. Well
(01:55):
that's the beauty about the Southeast. Just go to Atlanta
and everybody drives. You just know you have to drive
if you're in the Nobody from Florida is welcome though,
you'll be turned away at the door. Um. So yeah,
that's going to be October, which is a Wednesday. I'm
almost positive it's going to be at Five Seasons Brewery
Brewing Company. Yeah. On the west Side. Um so up
(02:19):
on the roof. Yeah awesome. We'll be throwing more details
up on Twitter and our Facebook fan page stuff you
should know. And our Twitter feed is s Y s
K podcast in case you want to follow us, Um
and Chuck. I guess it's time we should get to
football rankings, right, yeah, this one. Uh, we should just
go ahead and say that the article for this one
(02:39):
on our website is a little out of date. And
college football and the BCS is ever changing, so I
kind of expected that it wouldn't be, you know, really
up to date. It's changed a lot over the past
six years. It's changed a lot over the past six minutes. Actually,
you know, Um, yeah, it's might you know, we're gonna
do our best here. Uh. Not only that, if you
(03:00):
thought the Quantum Suicide podcast was hard to follow, Buddy,
get a pen and piece of paper out right now,
because there's gonna be some detailed equations and afterward there
will be a quiz. Chuck. I tend normally to lean
more towards UM A p the Associated Press over USA
today for accuracy and reporting, right, but I looked at
(03:21):
the n c a A Football rankings today preseason, uh,
and I saw that USA Today has Georgia ranked twenty one,
whereas A P has Georgia ranked twenty three. So I'm
leaning towards USA Today's reporting. Today they both have tech
ring hired to Yeah, it doesn't matter. Let Tech get
the number one spot and then come Thanksgiving will knock
(03:42):
them out of it. It's one of the great joys
in my life when we have a terrible season, but
we may have a good season. It remains to be seen.
I can't say anything. I don't even know who are
starting quarterback is going to be? Is that Aaron Murray?
It's Aaron Murray and Murray Murray. It's like try to now,
I wonder where she'd been. I think she's been in
(04:04):
the same place for several years. No, she did, I think,
so we should probably look that up there too, Anne Murray,
if you're not dead, we apologize. We've greatly exaggerated your
so chuck before the BCS, right, there was a streat
line in a John Travolta movie, and I can't believe
these words are coming out of my mouth. But why
(04:26):
you sweet? That's that's my impression. No, the um that
movie was Michael. I think it was where he played
like a kind of down to earth angel who like
drugs and boozing and womenizing. You saw it, okay, so
it was like kind of a cute movie. But there
was one thing that he said that I've always thought
was very clever was that he told somebody in that
(04:47):
movie that he invented lines. And before then people were
just standing around, like bumping into each other and didn't
know what to do. So I kind of have the
same impression of college football season and their end pre BCS.
Everybody's kind of bumping into everybody else. There was a
distinct possibility that you had a number of teams claiming
(05:09):
the number one spot in no way to resolve that.
And you know, we humans are very much into saying
you are clearly number one. And the BCS, while it
had a rockie start at first, has kind of fulfilled
that spot. Right It's got a pretty good UM record
the last six or ten years, right well, according to
the BCS and ESPN, Yeah, well we might as well
(05:30):
go ahead and say, um. The BCS claims that in
the twelve years since it's been around, there twelve or
twelve according to their formulas, and there nine for twelve
according to like coaches polls as far as matching up
the two best teams to play for the national title.
And previous to that, like you said, for decades, teams
(05:52):
played each other in bowl games and then sports writers
voted on a national champion, which is kind of made up.
It's beyond ridiculous. If you think the BCS predict, let's
that's even more ridiculous. Yeah, and um, well, let's talk
about how the BCS is calculated. Right, Well, what are
what are the BCS. There's five games before there were
twenty five bowl games? Is that correct? Uh, they're twenty
(06:13):
nine games aside from the BCS games before. Now now
there's twenty nine excluding the BCS games. Okay, but before
I understand that they were like twenty five bowl games
and they were all important because there was no BCS.
Well important to varying degrees, right, But it's almost like
playing musical chairs with eight kids, but with nine chairs,
(06:36):
you know. So, Um, the BCS comes in and says, hey,
we're going to make sure the clear winners established, and
we're going to do so by establishing that we're gonna
say these Bowl games are actually the important ones, right,
and they are what they are, the Sugar Bowl, the
Rose Bowl, the Orange Bowl, and the Fiesta Bowl, and
they all have different sponsors that kind of change, and
(06:59):
we're not paid by any of them, so we're not
going to mention. Huh. Well, three of the four of
these in this article are wrong. That's how much they've changed.
You know. I think Tostitos is the only one that's
still actively sponsoring the Fiesta Bowl and the There's big
money involved in these things, right, There's payouts that go
directly to the schools involved and then also to their conferences. Right, Yeah,
(07:21):
should we break that down? Let's do it? How that works? Uh?
Last year, the payout for the National title game was
seventeen million dollars per team, so thirty what is that for?
Thirty four million bucks? But the team doesn't get all
of that, It is split. You get a participation fee,
and then after the participation participation fee is taken out,
(07:44):
the rest of the money is split among all the
teams in the conference. So the SEC is loaded with talent.
They send let's say eight teams to bowls. So that's
a lot of money coming to schools like Vanderbilt in
Kentucky that may not go to of all, so they
love it. I think I probably already know the answer
to this, right, But are you one of those people
(08:05):
who when George is not in a game, you still
root for the SEC. I root for all SEC teams
except for Florida, thank you, and uh boy, Tennessee is
tough for me to get behind. Trouble rooting for Tennessee
as well. But if it was like Tennessee versus USC,
I would certainly root for Tennessee. But I can never
(08:27):
root for Florida no matter what happens. Now, I can't either, Chuck,
and I'm glad to hear you say that. I also
have trouble rooting for Tech. Some people are like, well,
it's a Georgia team, so if George is not playing,
then I root for Tech, And I'm like, you're a
communist at don't root for Tech. They're sort of neutral.
Like I root for their basketball team because I liked
them back in the day, but not not for football.
(08:48):
And my brother works there, so I gotta keep it
on the you know, up and up. That's very nice
of you keep it in the family. So, Chuck, what
should we talk about next? Well, the BCS is um
is not a body. It's an event which consists of
these football games, and it's managed by the UM Bowl,
(09:10):
the BCS, subdivision conferences and these are the big boys, right,
But don't you get the And I was surprised to
hear this. There's an ESPN article that you sent me
giving it background background of the BCS, and it said,
like two nine pole showed se of n c a
a coach's favor keeping the BCS in place over a playoff. Right.
(09:32):
That kind of flies in the face of information that
I've had, like anecdotally, you know, I mean, I know,
I've never asked Mark Rick, you know, on the spot,
but I get the impression that there's a lot more
people that want playoffs than don't, definitely, and that the
BCS is something of an entity and it's not just
you know, this this panel that's you know, created by
(09:54):
this democracy, that it's more like an iron fist and
if you don't like it, they'll you'll be c Is
that not the case? How well? They say they're not entity,
but I bet they have an office. I bet they
kind bet people work there, and I bet there's just
iron desks for their iron fists. I should know, though,
I did say that the BCS conferences were who make
up this this body. We also have to include Notre
(10:18):
Dame in there because you actually get to vote, although
you don't include Notre Dame as much as you used to. No,
I mean they're still in there though. They get their
participation included UM as an independent, as does Army and Navy,
which is interesting too. Yeah, a Notre Dame gets three
votes in Army and Navy get one each. Right, Well,
that's votes for UM. Those are nominations for the Harris
(10:40):
Interactive Football Poll. This is going to be all over
the place. It is, but it's okay, we're making sense
so far. I mean, the BCS came around in ninety eight.
It established that there's five bowls. We sent the bowls, right, Well, yeah,
but four plus the national title game? Right, And it's
not just like, okay, here's the rankings and then the
(11:01):
season's over, so one versus to you go play two
versus three, ugo play three versus or four versus five.
It doesn't happen like that. But that's kind of counterintuitive
until you realize that the BCS algorithm is the most
complex algorithm ever created by man and it's actually composed
of a number of different algorithms spitting out numbers and
(11:22):
then those numbers are factored in. So I think, Chuck,
we put it off long enough and we can't any longer.
Let's talk mathematics and statistics. Okay, yes, Uh, you're gonna
have to explain some of this, but um, because math
is not my strong talk about the subjective pulse. How
about that I was told there would be no math.
I'll try to handle the math as best as possible,
but it's gonna be like that one kind of breathalyzer
(11:44):
that I thought I understood. Well, Uh, things have changed, Josh.
Since it was originally the BCS was set up a
certain way, and then in two thousand and two and
two thousand four a lot of changes took place. It
used to be UM four fact jurors that weighed into
the BCS ranking, and now there are only three factors.
(12:04):
The A P I'm sorry, the USA today A Coaches poll. Right.
The AP pole was replaced um before the two thousand
four season, I think by the Harris Interactive Pole. And
then the last third is a very complex computer ranking system. Uh.
An average of six computer rankings are averaged and that
(12:27):
is the last thirty three and the third percent. Right.
And these UM computer rankings are basically independent groups or
people who say, yeah, we're following football and we have
a pretty good algorithm, and here's our contribution. UM. There
used to be I think eight, and now there's six. UM.
So you've got guys like Richard Billingsley, who's just a
(12:49):
businessman I love it and apparently likes to to come
up with college rankings in his spare time. Their statisticians
and mathematicians, right, and businessmen and businessmen. Yeah, so weird.
It is weird. Maybe his business is accounting, but UM,
so they'll they'll take into account. For example, the Billingsley
report uses the strength of the opponent final score UM,
(13:11):
and the win lose records of the teams before and
after the game. Right. Combine all these together and you
create a numerical value. Right. Some other people or some
other UM computer rankings systems like UM. Who else is
There's Seattle Times, which is run by a guy named
Jeff Anderson who's a political science graduate student. Was and
(13:34):
I guess he's just a political scientist. Um. And Chris Hester,
who's a sportswriter and um, these two get together and
they take quality of opponent and strength of schedule. The
problem is, Chuck, is you can't just go, yeah, Boise
States doing pretty good, So we're gonna give them a
five for strength of schedule or strength of opponent or
quality of opponent, that kind of thing. Um, what they
(13:58):
have to take into account are wide factors like let's
say you win. Yeah, it's not just good enough that
you're going to win. Who exactly did you beat? And
how do you quantify who you beat? Well, you say
where you play, right, So we have to look at yours,
not only your opponent's schedule, but your opponent's opponent's schedule,
(14:21):
and then you you put numerical values onto those, right,
the win loss, and then you calculate that, and you
come up with another numerical value that's called strength of schedule.
And to get down to the nitty gritty, the strength
of schedules calculated like this, You've got your opponent's schedule, Chuck,
you play Boise State. Boise State has been doing pretty good.
(14:42):
I'm not playing there, dude, so you won't catch me
on a blue football field. You Well, well, there they
came and visited you, but you beat them between the hedges.
So you've got UM two times s O, and s
O is your opponent's schedule. Boise States schedule, you've got
two times that. Plut. They're Boise States opponents schedules, all
(15:03):
of them calculated to wins and losses. So it's two
times your opponents schedule plus Boise States opponents schedules equals
strength of schedule. Okay, that's just one component in some
computer rankings, and strength of schedule I think used to
be a standalone component, but now it's just factored in
(15:23):
with the rest. And they also threw out the margin
of victory. That used to be a factor as well,
but they could you remember that was a big deal
when coaches were running up the score. Florida would try
and put like sixty points on a team, you know,
against like Louisiana Lafayette, and uh, they were like, you
know what, that's not really too cool. That really shouldn't
factor in. So that was thrown out right the scripts
(15:44):
Howard UM poll, which I don't think is used any longer.
UM used to have a penalty actually for running up
the score before it was thrown out. Yeah, part of
their computer ranking was if you ran up the score,
you were penalized, which is good because guys like Steve
Spurrier used to need to be held in check. Now
he's holding himself in check. Look at you. That's good.
(16:08):
So is that all for the computer ranking? Third or
you still got something on that? No? I think I'm
I'm good okay. Uh, then you have, like I said,
one third is the USA today, Uh, coach's poll and
that is literally coaches voting. Um, not all of them
always vote. I think there's a hundred and fourteen potential votes,
(16:30):
but there may be a hundred and six people vote
one week. Remember Steve Spurrier got some criticism at one
point because like he failed to vote in like some
really important week a couple of years back or something
like that, and he explained that he did and his
assistant lost a vote or something like that. I can't
remember what it was. But that is factored in as well.
They still don't divide by the same number, you know,
(16:50):
they'll they'll factor it down by the number of votes
that the number of possible votes. Yes, okay, to make
them more accurate. I've also heard accusations that in coaches polls, UH, specifically,
they have their kids vote sometimes, like they just can't
be bothered to vote, so they'll just be like fill
this out for me, will you, because they know their
kids watch some games or whatever. And that that's why
(17:12):
human polls are so fallible. That a lot of coaches
don't vote, and the coaches that appear to a vote
haven't necessarily voted themselves, and even if they have, they're
not completely informed. Because TCU horned frogs, I like frogs,
that's how it ends up. Yes, well that's how TCU
ended up in the top. Ever, I guess so because
of Ralph Wigham UM. And then you have the Harris
(17:35):
Interactive Poll, and that um, like I said, replaced the
eight people and they ranked them each week from late
September to the end of the season. And I'm sorry
that has a d and fourteen participants. That was the
one fourteen I was thinking of, And UM, sorry I
didn't correct you, right, And they're not just coaches, they're
former coaches, student athletes, administrators, some media. And that is
(17:59):
where Notre Dame get to say, because you get to
nominate who was on this committee to vote for the
Interactive poll, and each conference see these where Notre Dame
gets away with something. In my opinion, each conference gets
ten nominations and Notre Dame gets three, Army gets one,
and Navy gets one. Yeah, so like the Big twelve
twelve teams get ten nominations, Notre Dame gets three all
(18:21):
by themselves. Right, Notre Dame has always gotten some sort
of weird free ride for some reason. Why we're gonna
hear about it. Yeah, but it's still I mean, it's true.
They they there's a lot of favoritism towards that team,
and I dare anybody to prove otherwise. Well, they haven't
been great recently, but they are. They still one of
the most favored, one of the most legendary teams. Yes,
(18:43):
just because Ronald Reagan played for you doesn't mean you're
a great team in two thousand and ten. You know, hey,
you're preaching the choir, my friend, so Chuck. When you
take these things together, the Harris Interactive Poll, the Coaches poll,
and the computer rankings numbers that you crunched together and
created one number. That's the third or third and third, right, Um,
the most you can get is one correct at one point? Oh,
(19:07):
actually at one point oh oh. The lowest score. You're
looking for a low score here, right, low score means
high ranking. This is where it gets a little hinky.
Sorry to steal your word, but in the article explicitly
says that you want the lowest score. Right, Yes, But
in this other material that we've gotten from the BCS site,
(19:29):
it looks like the the the higher the score, the
closer to a one point oh, the higher you're ranked.
Here's why I say that, chuck um in. In the
coach's poll, right, coaches vote from one to five and
assign each team ranking in reverse order. So if you're
(19:50):
number one, you get twenty five points. If you're in
twenty five place, you get one point, Right, so you
would want more points. Correct, Yeah, But here's here's where
I think it gets worked out if I'm correct and
understanding this. What happens is, let's take the Harris poll.
For instance. You take the total score of all your votes,
(20:10):
and you divide that by two thousand, eight hundred and fifty,
which is the maximum number that anyone can receive if
all one D fourteen voting members rank that same team
number one. So let's say everybody ranks Alabama number one,
a one fourteen that they get two thousand, eight hundred
and fifty total points, they divide that by two thousand,
(20:31):
eight hundred and fifty, and so they end up getting
a one. Okay, okay, So if you got um, if
you divided I guess what one? If you had a
one and you divided that by two thousand, eight hundred
and fifty, I see, it would be much lower, right,
And the coach the coaches poll is the same thing.
They just divided by fourteen seventy five because that's the
(20:53):
maximum number. So at least I'm right in saying that
the best you could possibly get from the b CS
formula is a one point zero, I believe. And it
kind of follows that same thing, like you have a
one in anything less would be like a point nine
to oh or a point eight seven three? Right, yes, okay, yeah,
(21:15):
that's exactly right. A plus B plus C divided by
three would be point right okay, okay, all right, And
see this is really confusing. It's like giving birth to
a watermelon, except with your head a square Japanese watermelon,
which would be even worse, especially if the edges were sharp. So, ladies,
when you're like, you know, if you're not into this.
(21:37):
I'm not saying that not all ladies are into it,
but whoever's not into college football, and you poo poo it,
think about how complex the system is that they've worked out.
It's not just a bunch of guys sitting around drinking
beer smashing each other's heads in. It's very complex, right,
But I mean to the guys who are sitting around
smashing each other's heads in with beer being drunk around them,
(21:58):
it's still like I'm ranked twenty three. Yeah, true, you know, Okay,
so chuck, it sounds like we made it through the
math part. Yeah, what else is left? Uh? Well, that's
sort of it. I mean, at the end of the year,
the math determines your ranking. And we should point out
(22:18):
that the BCS ranking, which determines who plays in these
BCS Bowls and National title game, that doesn't start getting ranked.
They don't do like preseason rankings or even early season
that starts in mid October. Right, the preseason rankings are
a p in USC today. Yeah right, and all sorts
of other rankings. You know, there's all kinds of people
that are like the BCS can't conceivably start because the
(22:41):
computer rankings have to take in like strength of schedule,
and you can't you can't determine that until somebody has
a winner a loss against them, right, Uh, unless you're
ranking by last year, right, Yeah, exactly. So mid October
is when the BCS rankings start to come out, and
that's about halfway through the football season, so they have
enough data at that point. I think that's why. Wait,
(23:01):
so check. You used to be the n c A
Football League, the conference, the whole thing was called Division
one A, and now it's called the Football Bowl Subdivision programs.
Whether you like it or not, Yeah, exactly. Do you
feel like we should have a playoff? Uh? Oh boy.
I think that they should work a playoff system into
(23:24):
the existing system somehow, and a lot of a lot
of people think that. I agree. I don't think that
there should be like um wild cards or anything like that,
although I think you need them mathematically, but I think
that you have to still place an emphasis on the
regular season, and it's possible to do that with with
a playoff system as well. Yeah. That's one of the
(23:45):
arguments against the playoff is that they some people say
that it will render the regular season. BC supporters say
will render the regular season not as important, And I
don't understand that logic because you still have to play
those games to get ranked high to get in the tournament.
They're not It's not like the basketball. They're not gonna
include sixty four football teams. They're gonna I mean, I've
heard different proposals from like sixteen teams to like the
(24:08):
final eight teams battle it out. Finally, eight teams would
be fine with me. Anything, anything where you determine it
on the football field would be fine with me, because
it's the only sport that it's not determined by a
bracket of some sort. One of the reasons why we
may never see a playoff is that the revenue associated
with bowl games has increased by like two thousand percent
(24:30):
since the BCS was instituted. So well, I think you
can still work within that system. I mean, you can
still call them bowl games and everything. You could just
put it in the form of a bracket. It would
add games, which would add more money. Um. Another reason
against it, they argue, is like risk of injury and
their student athletes, so they don't want to drag it
on into their academic year. But come on, it's all
(24:53):
about the dough it's this college athletics, but everyone knows
it's about the money. Um. I did read a UM
I read a few arguments today, like four and against
and one writer I think he was from Slate. He
calculated from his calculations. Um, he thinks only sevent of
(25:13):
n C Double A Division one eight teams even have
a shot to compete for the national title by his calculation.
Each year. Well, if you're not a BCS school, then
you're kind of out the door to begin with, Like
boise State may have a chance that they were on
the table this year, but that's a rarity, so that
takes you down to and then he says, uh, if
(25:36):
you don't start the season ranked number twenty or higher,
then you're almost mathematically eliminated. So that takes you down
to sevent can even compete for the national title. But
I also say, I mean, there's both sides to the
coin there. I also say, if you're you know, I'm
not gonna pick on Boisey State because they are a
good football team. But let's say you're like Colorado Appalachian
(26:00):
State who beat Michigan that what two years ago? Remember
that that was awesome. They in Michigan paid them like
a million dollars to come to Michigan. Michigan pound on
them and that. But teams like that, I mean, I
kind of don't want to hear their argument that they
should be competing because they're not big boys. They're not
playing in the SEC. They're not playing in uh the
(26:23):
Big ten or the Big twelve. Yeah, but if you're not,
then you'll never attract talent. You can never get there.
It's a self defeating system. Yeah, So, I mean it's
very exclusive and elitist. Really from the schools with the
most money are the ones that get to be in
it and can perpetuate that that good program, the winning
program through more and more money. Yeah, yeah, you're right.
(26:45):
I did see another guy that said that he thought
they should do like um, I think it was a
sixteen team pool and and the top twelve BCS schools, Like,
you get your automatic if you win the SEC, you're in,
If you win the Big ten, you win, if you're
in the Big twelve year in. So after all your
automatic bids make the rest like the last four or
(27:05):
whatever at large bids. So you can still have the
Cinderella teams in there with the possibility, and you know
answered on the football field, if you can beat them,
great because boys State beat Oklahoma a few years ago.
Remember in that ball game. Remember the statue of liberty play.
It's crazy. They pulled out a play from like the nineties.
It was beautiful and one that was um I think
(27:25):
was that to three years ago. It was like the
greatest football season of all time. It was just all
over the place number UM Missouri was like number one
for a little while. There was like twenty different teams
number one. Yeah. Yeah, it's exciting. It's like three years ago. Right,
it's not very exciting. Like when you start the season
number one, you run the table unless you go to
that school. We should mention too though. There was one
(27:47):
change about um geez. Just about a month ago. Uh,
the BCS announced that teams that are ineligible for postseason
play are removed from the computer rankings and all six
of the formula was so basically this is like the
USC rule. Oh yeah yeah. Because USC's on probation now,
they can't play in a bowl game for the next
(28:09):
like two years or something, and so they said, well,
we can't factor them in if they are the number
eight ranked team, if they can't even play in the postseason, right,
But not only that, if you're not eligible. I got
the impression like, once you've reached once it's statistically impossible
for you to be eligible through your losses, they start
taking you out of the rankings, and everybody below you
goes up one rank. No, I think if you, I
(28:30):
think that means if you're ineligible from like crime, yeah,
from from being a banned from postseason play, I'm pretty sure.
And as far as the code the human polls go, uh,
they said earlier this summer that the polls will not
include teams that are prohibited from the n t A.
So they went the same route. So but by USC
(28:51):
and there is the BCS. We could re record this
in probably twenty thirty minutes, and um, it would be
entirely different. Um. If you to know more about the BCS,
you should probably go to BCS dot com. There's a
handy search bar there, I'm sure. And just give us
a little while to get this article up to snuff. Okay, yeah,
we probably got something wrong here and there too. I
(29:13):
was just I hope we talked fast enough so that
where no one noticed. I have them in my head,
my friend Scott Galvin, um with his arms crossed, just
like shaking his head. He's in the sound booth right
behind you. Actually, like I could feel it. Actually, all right, Well,
thanks for listening to me and talk about college football. Um,
for whatever reason you want to, you should go to
(29:33):
house stuff works dot com. There's a handy search bar there.
Make something up and type it in and it will
take you to a beautiful new place. Just spell it correctly,
or also won't take you anywhere. Right. Yeah, Um, that
brings us. Then I guess to listener mail. Yes, Josh,
this is gonna be a two parter because it's long.
We heard from a prisoner about our prison email, and
(29:56):
he gave us lots of good stuff, and I told
him I was going to read it. It's an anonymous
because he is a straight shooter. Now he's on the level,
doing very good in his profession, a square, and nobody
in his profession knows that he was arrested for dealing math,
and so he wants to keep it that way. Does
he work here, Yes, he does. It's Jonathan Strickland. Uh, guys.
(30:19):
I was arrested in the mid nineties for selling an
ounce of meth to an undercover narc in Nevada. I
was set up by a friend who had gotten arrested
on a similar charge. Decided that he would snitch rollover
and uh some uh some people so they would get probation. Unfortunately,
under Nevada zero tolerance policy, I had no priors. I
was twenty two and I was looking at twenty five
(30:41):
to life for my first defense. Did he include uh
in there? Or was that you? That was me? To
make a long story short, I jumped bail rand Oregon
and lived on the lamb for three years. This is
the real deal. It sounds like hippie Rob. It is
not hippie Rob. He got tired of living life on
the lamb, obviously, hired a lawyer, turning self in like
a good guy, and managed to get the charges dropped
(31:03):
to level two trafficking, enter to plea deal. And the long,
long story short, he was in for I think three years. Uh,
And I just have a couple of prison ted bits
on this end, and then we'll do the next part
in the next podcast. He was not in a new
prison that had the cards to keep track of commissary accounts.
They were given paper slips sort of like at a
sushi restaurant, and we would turn them in once or
(31:24):
twice a week. We would pick up our order in
the next day or so. Items available were personal hygiene
items tooth basted, deodorant, shampoo. If you could not buy
your own, you could get the state issued stuff. But
that stuff was absolute garbage and I should mention too.
We got another email from someone that said that Bob
Barker's company, just looking it up makes prison. So yeah,
(31:46):
is that true. I'm looking it up as hopefully at
the end of this you'll know, because that would be
really weird. Get your pet spade and neutered, and I
will make your prison soup for you. UH. Cigarettes were available,
both packs of cigarettes like Cammel and Marlborough, as well
as loose tobacco and rolling papers. Packs of cigarettes were
called tailor's short for tailor made. They're expensive and out
(32:08):
of reach for most inmates. UH. Financially, having Tailor's was
a status symbol, and their rarity made them great bargaining chips. Interestingly,
most gray market trading he reserves the term black market
for contraband, where items purchased out of the commissary. Things
you could get with purchased commissary items for trade were
limited only by the creativity of the inmates. For example,
(32:31):
a pack of cigarettes a week. You could pay somebody
to iron your clothing for you, so you would always
look as nice as possible for visits. If you wanted
to write somebody a letter, you could pay one of
several talented artists to custom decorate your envelope with roses
or balloons or whatever else you could imagine. Basically, it
was like on demand customary stationary, and it was actually
(32:51):
a high service demand in prison. So that is the
end of part one. Josh, we're gonna leave hanging for
part two. So Chuck, do you want the answer about
Bob bark greatly. There is a guy named Bob Barker
who makes prison toiletries, but he's not Bob Barker of
Crisis right according to Snopes at least. Okay, So thank
(33:11):
you very much Chuck for part one. I myself, I'm
very excited about part two, and I'm glad I don't
have to wait until next Thursday to hear it. I
get to hear it in about thirty forty minutes. If
you want to send us an email about Bob Barker,
your favorite college football team, or your mom's home cooking.
(33:31):
We want to hear about it. Send it to Stuff
Podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more on
this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff
works dot com. Want more how stuff works, check out
our blogs on the house. Stuff works dot com home page.
(33:54):
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