Ctf... Although I understand what you mean, even a rating system ultimately devolves to opinion, since all incorporated factors owe their relative weights to the opinion of their worth.
Ctf... Yeah, I'm inclined to agree that many people (and not just mefive, by any means) have difficulty discerning opinion from fact.
"SU (or Indiana or UNC or any number of others) is a great team, the best in the country." That's an opinion. It may be an opinion shared by many people, but it remains an opinion. Even if any of said teams wins the NCAA crown, it will still be an opinion, albeit one credibly supported by the title.
Here's the thing with SOME people that insist that every rating system that doesn't re-assess eavery team every week; To a man, these people predicate their throwing out of the traditional systems as being irrelevent because they start "based on opinion". In other words, they are saying that no poll should be based on the rankings that were given (or considered) before the season started. I contend that these pre-season rankings are NOT complete and total garbage. These pre-season rankings may not have the insight of actually having watched these teams played, but they certainly take into account some VERY measurable info. While there is no way of knowing how well incoming freshmen and transfers will play, these polls certainly are taking into account the returning players, how they performed during the previous season, and how that will efftect the team. SOME folks here are wating to disregard all ratings that don't start with "Saragin" based strictly on this reasoning. These same SOME people are choosing to disregard all non-Saragin ratings basically because it serves their needs. It's not like there is no value to these pre-season polls. Sure there will be some teams that were over-rated and some that wre under-rated. But, by no means, are these polls completely irrelevant because of it.
Is there any way to just block somebody from this site? I am sick and tired of reading the exact same things form somect people. New content makes for better posts. Repeating yourself does not.
DICTIONARY.COM------------------ POLL-- A sampling of OPINIONS on a subject . What it doesn't say is what the pollsters base their opinions upon . For that you would have to POLL the pollsters
@Will ---- Polls are based on opinions ------------Rankings involve some type of mathmatical system , And there are NO PERFECT SYSTEMS .So just throw out your OPINION on both and debate it until you wish to stop . Be like the doc , spend twelve hours a day trying to get others to think as you do .
With all the different option you could have gone with, this... "2.5 acres equal 1 hectare." is what you picked. Who uses that word hectare. You should have went with 16 ounces equals 1 pint....that's a fact...the more pints the better my chances...that's opinion. Jack
@syracuse1976------------ In Central America all acerage amounts are advertised in the conversion to hectares and you can purchase them , at least in Codta Rica , for a whole lot of Colones .
** GOD-- I'm gone 5-6 hours & comr back to this same "discussion" of Polls , opinions, ,etc... Guys-- No matter What they are-- They Only include or reflect Whats Already Happened or whats happening Now... What they can NOT do & what I care about ...is What Will Happen When it counts (March/April) .. So then .. what real value Do they have ???? SO what Parrish or Pom-pom thinks or If "doc" thinks IU is #1 or Ice Station Zebras think Cuse is "real" or ..etc-- Good for them !! What does it Mean ?? ZIP!! One of you please warm up your PC & Tell me with certainty whats Going to happen in NCAA final - Then you've got Something !! Until then- Why bother ???
@EZ. Yeah, I gotta apologize about that last post. While I think my jest got out there, I was in class and my writing was horrible. I almost had to whip out a Cp'Tain Crunch ring to decypher it. haha. I do actually know the difference between a pool and a rating system. I kinda like to use both when I come up with my personal opinion. While I don't lay claim to any personally made super-computer rating systems, I do feel like I'm not too biased. I mean, I certainly like seing SU at the top, but like pretty much all other folks (and their opinions), I would have them ranked at #1 regardless. Really, the whole point of my previous post was to mention that 1) I feel like there IS some value to ratings that include opinion and 2) it get's tedious reading through 1 poster's constant re-wording of the same post over and over. I enjoy keeping up with all the debates on this thread, but reading the same useless info from the same single poster get's annoying. I have a feeling that you agree! haha
Say what you will about them hattie, at least the KenPom and Sagarin ratings are designed to be predictive in nature. Gamblers (who are a helluva lot more reliant on predictions than that knucklehead weatherman over at WHAS) have found them to be very useful tools. That should tell you something about those rankings in particular.
No system is perfect, but you'll find Sagarin and KenPom do a much better job predicting than the Coaches or AP writers.
