Minor Error in 12/05 Football Rankings
Shortly after the announcement of the bowl pairings on December 5, Jerry Palm
(of College RPI), who
verifies the Colley Matrix rankings independently each week of the
football season, identified a small discrepancy in the Colley Matrix rankings which interchanged #9
LSU with #10 Boise State, and #17 Alabama with #18 Nebraska. After
about an hour of collaboration, Mr. Palm and Wes Colley identified that the cause of the
problem was that the score data resource used by Colley Matrix had simply not included the
Appalachian State vs. Western Illinois FCS playoff game in its online
database.
The switch of Alabama and Nebraska in the Colley Matrix rankings does
not impact the final BCS rankings of those teams. However, because
Boise State's and LSU's (originally) reported BCS ratings were so
similar (0.6104 and 0.6167), the switch of LSU and Boise State in the
Colley Matrix rankings is just enough to slip Boise State ahead of
LSU, by an incredibly slim 0.0004 rating points.
While these changes have absolutely no impact on the bowl pairings
already announced, or the qualifying eligibility of any team, Colley
Matrix regards that, as a matter of science, it is important to get
the correct values on the record. We have therefore informed the BCS
of the error, and we thank Jerry Palm for bringing this to our
attention.
We apologize for any confusion and any inconvenience this may have
presented.