International Journal of Human Movement and Sports Sciences Vol. 1(1), pp. 13 - 17
DOI: 10.13189/saj.2013.010102
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Champion Determining System: Do Playoffs Work?

Mark Swanstrom^*, Charlie Penrod
School of Business, Northwestern State University of Louisiana, Natchitoches, 71497, Louisiana, United States

ABSTRACT

Almost everyone -- including fans, analysts, and politicians -- seems to complain about the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) and its method for determining the national champion of college football. While people clamor to let teams win it "on the field" in a playoff system, the reality is that upsets happen and sometimes the best team doesn't win. This paper examines the results of a hypothetical league where each team is randomly assigned a power score so that the "best" team is known. It then simulates games using the teams' power scores to determine the odds of winning each game. The actual winner and margin of victory of each game is randomly determined based on the odds for each game. This process is followed to create an entire season of games and one hundred seasons are simulated in this paper. The champion for each season is determined using both a quantitative formula and a playoff. The performance of the different methods is determined by how well it does in choosing the "best" team as the champion. Results indicate that a quantitative formula does a better job of choosing the best team as the champion than does the playoff system.

KEYWORDS
Sports Economics, BCS, Playoffs, Competition, Quantitative Analysis

Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Mark Swanstrom , Charlie Penrod , "Champion Determining System: Do Playoffs Work?," International Journal of Human Movement and Sports Sciences, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 13 - 17, 2013. DOI: 10.13189/saj.2013.010102.

(b). APA Format:
Mark Swanstrom , Charlie Penrod (2013). Champion Determining System: Do Playoffs Work?. International Journal of Human Movement and Sports Sciences, 1(1), 13 - 17. DOI: 10.13189/saj.2013.010102.