Just so we're all on the same page

Randomness is the greatness of sports. Overcoming the randomness is what elevates the "Best Team" to greatness not some statistical formula.

Sport is about people acheiving or, better yet, overacheiving in pressure filled situations on the field of play. Sports is Joe Willie Namath. Sports is Villanova. Sports is UCLA's run. Sports is the Steel Curtain. Sports isn't a fucking computer formula.

 

I actually stood and saluted while reading this.

 

I thought playoffs were a horrible way of deciding the best team???

 

If this is the best way, why even play the games at all? Just let the computer crown the champ.

 

You may want to stop. It looks like you're owning yourself.

 

BigVito:
On one hand I find it funny that you're manipulating the idiot sheep who think you're being serious, but it's hard to justify the dishonesty just for the comedic element.


gottalaff:
If it looks that way to you, it's because you lack the intelligence to follow along.


Shrapnel:
Were you not aware that before the BCS they did crown national champions based on the votes? The top two teams rarely played each other in their bowl games.

They are, and the more rounds of any playoff you introduce, the worse it gets. The main problem is that people like you are ignorant of basic concepts like probability. I'll quote a previous explanation in case you missed it the first time:

To expand on that, in the BCS system we have just two teams playing in that "playoff." So in that hypothetical listed above, we know that Team A is the "best team" and that they will beat Team B 53% of the time. That means 47% of the time the "best team" won't win, but at least the "second best team" is declared the victor.

Now continue that to a four team playoff between A, B, C, and D. If Team A would have to beat Team D and then Team B in that scenario to win the tournament, they would have a 30.7% chance of doing so. So expanding from a two team playoff to a four team playoff has meant that in this hypothetical, the "best team" wins 16.3% less often. And as noted, if you expand to an eight team playoff and have Team A facing Teams H, D, and B then Team A has only a 20% chance of winning the tournament.

This is basic, basic stuff for anyone who has had any education at all in probability. Unfortunately it seems like hardly any of you actually have. The reason the regular season doesn't suffer from this problem is because it isn't a process of elimination. Probabilities change dramatically based on whether you take choices out of the pool or leave them in for additional iterations.

 

I think BigVito pretty much nailed it.

 

Vito has been married for a while. He hasn't nailed anything in years.

 

Brushed by it closely?

 

But do we really know those two are the best teams all the time?

Also...your point is that playoffs are used because of money. The BCS is all about money (ABC had the 8yr/$550mil contract ending in 2006, Fox's deal was for $300+mil, ESPN will be paying $125mil/yr starting in 2011). All that for the rights to televise 5 games/yr?

What about non-revenue generating sports? Why would they continue to use playoffs? (basically every Title9 sport)

How many title disputes have you seen in NCAAbasketball? NBA? NFL?