re: Intellectual minds of the Rant unite to solve one of the great issues of time

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My challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to create a mathematical system that spits out an end number telling that we can sort and rank and agree to.

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I have done this myself. Coming up with a formula is easy. It's deciding on the inputs and their weight that becomes highly contentious.

Here is my formula for Football:

40%: All-time AP Points (1936-2016)
20%: All-time Wins (1869-2016)
20%: All-time Winning Percentage (1869-2016)
20%: All-time National Championships (AP or UPI/Coaches only)

The Controversies:
Many fans don't value the AP in the way that it deserves, so they howl at the 40% value. But the AP Poll is an annual ranking of the programs each and every year, so of course its highly valuable. It also has a built in Strength of Schedule component. That's why a team like Toledo can win 11 games and be lucky to finish #24 or #25 in a season... yet a team like Florida can go 8-5 and still finish in the Top 15. People will also complain it doesn't go back long enough, but I think 1936 is plenty far back.

All-time wins (20%) and all-time winning percentage (20%) will be accused of being redundant, but it isn't. You have to include all-time wins to give credit to those programs who have been around forever. A program like Florida State will get plenty of points in the Winning Percentage department, but there ought to be some factor to penalize them for not existing before the 1950s. Got to give some credit to those programs who were winning in the 1800s, and that's why All-Time Wins must be included.

Championships:
National Titles only. And no fictional titles. This is why major polls from the polling era are the only ones of value. Many people will complain about not including conference titles. But not all conferences are equal, so if you are going to compare programs from different conferences you can't include them.

The Mathematicss:
Here's the deal, ranking teams 1-128 in each category doesn't work. Each ranking spot is worth 1/128th of a point, and sometimes there are larger gaps between groups. For instance with all-time wins: Texas has 891 and Nebraska has 889. They are so statistically close, they are essentially tied. Just ranking Texas #3 in that category and Nebraska #4 in that category doesn't do them justice. Move down just a little bit further, and you find #8 Penn State with 867 wins and #9 Tennessee with 829 wins.... that's a gap of 38 wins between teams right next to each other. You can't have a system that treats the gap between #3 Texas and #4 Nebraska the same as it does #8 Penn State and #9 Tennessee, when those gaps are far different.

To overcome this obstacle, you take the #1 team's totals... in this case Michigan with 935 wins... and divide every other team's total wins by this number. This creates a fraction. Every team is judged by how they compare to the #1 team in each category. So it actually spits out these results:

#1 Michigan- 1.000

#3 Texas- 0.953
#4 Nebraska- 0.951

#8 Penn State- 0.927
#9 Tennessee- 0.887

Now those gaps in performance are properly accounted for... which a simple 1-128 ranking of each category cannot produce.

Do this for each category and then multiply it by the weight each category was given.

Here are the results:

1. Alabama- 0.9763
2. Oklahoma- 0.9113
3. Notre Dame- 0.8988
4. Ohio State- 0.8860
5. Michigan- 0.8120
6. USC- 0.8111
7. Nebraska- 0.7747
8. Texas- 0.7550
9. Penn State- 0.6673
10. Tennessee- 0.6649
11. LSU- 0.6403
12. Miami- 0.5951
13. Auburn- 0.5835
14. Georgia- 0.5775
15. Florida State- 0.5720
16. Florida- 0.5717
17. Michigan State- 0.5186
18. UCLA- 0.5020
19. Clemson- 0.5018
20. Arkansas- 0.4828
21. Texas A&M- 0.4791
22. Washington- 0.4755
23. Georgia Tech- 0.4662
24. Minnesota- 0.4662
25. Pittsburgh- 0.4594

Other SEC:
28. Ole Miss- 0.4290
39. Missouri- 0.3882
56. S. Carolina- 0.3117
62. Kentucky- 0.3007
65. Miss. St.- 0.2954
80. Vanderbilt- 0.2703

FYI- The weakest overall Power 5 program is Iowa State... coming in at #104. Indiana is #98. Vanderbilt at #80 makes them the the 3rd worst Power 5 program.

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BHMKyle

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Good stuff Kyle. What about basketball? Got anything there?

Auburn just lost to Missouri. So they are disqualified forever

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BHMKyle

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I agree with your assessments

Football

Number of Consensus National Titles (AP, UPI, BCS, ESPN, CFB Playoff)
Number of CFB Playoff Appearances
Number of All NCG Appearances
Number of All other National Titles (Dunkel, Williamson, CFA, Publications, Polls, Associations)

Number of All-Time NCAA Victories
Number of All-Time SEC Victories
All-time NCAA Winning %
All-time SEC Winning %

Number of SEC Titles
Number of SECCG Appearances

Number of Bowl Appearances
Number of Bowl Victories
Number of NYD Bowl Appearances

Number of Top 5 Final Rankings
Number of Top 10 Final Rankings
Number of Top 25 Final Rankings

Number of Heisman Winners
Number of Heisman Runner-Ups
Number of Heisman Finalists

Number of All-Americans
Number of All-SEC players
Number of SEC POYs
Number of Draddy Award (Academic Heisman) Winners
Number of Outland, Biletnikof, etc Winners

Number of NFL HOFers
Number of NFL All-Pros
Number of All-time NFL Draft Choices

Number of Top 10 Recruiting Finishes (compilation of Rivals, Scout, ESPN, etc,)
Number of Top 10 Finishes in National Attendance

Reputation for Mascot
Reputation for Fight Song
Reputation for Marching Band
Brand Reputation
Logo/Helmet/Uniform Reputation
Stadium,Tailgating,PreGame Rep

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For Basketball, it should go something like this:

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First Round: 1 point
Second Round: 2 points
Sweet 16: 4 points
Elite 8: 8 points
Final 4: 16 points
Title Game: 32 points
Title: 64 points