re: ESPN Conference Rankings...SEC #2?

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We created this system to grade conferences based equally on two key components, the quality of the upper tier schools AND the depth of the conference. The AP (or Coaches) poll is a good proxy for the strength of the top schools in each conference. On any given week there are roughly 35-45 schools given a positive voting number, that is, at least one 25th place vote. This means about two-thirds of FBS schools are treated equally and given zero AP points. So, only conferences with these elite schools will get any points at all and only the elite of the elite will receive the major points given out if you can make the top ten.

The second aspect of this system is designed to proxy the depth of the conference. Computer ratings are great for this purpose as they always will rate at least all FBS schools. Thus if you are a very top heavy conference with bad schools near the bottom of your standings, computer ratings will heavily penalize you.

A simple statistical process called "normalization" is then used to put the AP poll and the computer rating averages on the same scale with their 50/50 weights.

Hopefully this sheds a little more light on our methodology. Suggestions are always welcome and debate always encouraged.

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