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Department of Mathematics,
University of California San Diego

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Food For Thought Seminar

James Hall

UCSD

Random Walker Rankings for BCS Football Teams

Abstract:

Division I (BCS) college football is the only major sport in the United States where a champion is named without a playoff system. Much of a team's fate in the BCS rests on its ranking, which is generated through a combination of computer and human polls. In this talk, a computer method of ranking teams using random walkers will be explored. A basis procedure will be presented, and then more complicated examples in which different factors (such as score differential) will be considered. Original work by Thomas Callaghan, Peter J. Mucha, and Mason A. Porter.

January 7, 2010

10:00 AM

AP&M 7321

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