From: v262xxve@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Timothy C Pitts)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college
Subject: Re: FSU and Miami
Date: 14 Dec 92 16:26:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <1992Dec14.142303.24384@mlb.semi.harris.com>, dhead@comanche.ess.harris.com writes...
#Along the same lines, if you judge who is best between two teams based on
#one game on one day, then clearly Iowa State must be better than Nebraska.

We do not judge teams based on single games.  We judge teams based on
seasons made up of 11 or more single games.  The game between two teams is
only one piece of information by which we argue which is the better team.
Between Miami and FSU, we have several relevant data.  First, Miami has
beat every team it has faced.  Most of these were beat rather handily, only
Florida State, Penn State, Arizona, and Syracuse (all bowl-bound teams) 
managed to stay close.  On the other hand, Florida State has beat almost
every team it has faced, only Miami, Clemson, and Georgia Tech were capable
of keeping it close (FSU lost to the only bowl-bound team of the three).
In addition, FSU managed to beat handily such bowl-bound teams as NCState,
UNC, Wake Forest, and Florida.  Thus, I would argue with these numbers that
the records are relatively equivalent, save for one thing:  FSU has one loss
and Miami has none.  Since the goal for any team on any Saturday is to win,
we should judge these teams based on how well they accomplished their goals
and Miami was one better than FSU this year.  (Note that if the schedules
are not equivalent, such an argument might not be so strong, but it seems 
you'll be hard-pressed to argue that FSU's schedule is *so* much stronger
than Miami's to make FSU seem the better team to the non-Bowden worshippers
among us).

Even if Miami were to lose to Alabama on NYD (and FSU were to beat Nebraska),
I would argue that Miami is ``better'' than FSU.  In virtually any system,
the first tiebreaker (after record) is head-to-head record (and rightfully 
so).  Why should we exempt FSU from such an intuitive requirement just 
because it has Bonehead Bobby at its helm?  Wasn't it your same Saint Bowden
that argued that FSU was better than Miami only three years ago when Miami
won the NC with a loss to FSU (and FSU had two losses that year to boot, 
compared to Miami's single one)?  My how we change our point of view when the
shoe is on the other foot (and indeed, FSU seems to have far less reason to
support its claim this year than Miami did that one)!

#If Miami is better than FSU for beating them, then anyone who claims this
#to be true is also saying by the same argument that Iowa State is better
#than Nebraska.

How so?  It seems to me that Miami's primary claim to being ``better'' than
FSU is an 11-0 record, the win over FSU being only a supporting fact behind
that claim.  I hardly think there would be many Miami fans arguing that
Miami was better if the Canes were sitting around with a 4-7 record this 
year and one of those wins was over FSU (though certainly there would be 
some of us mocking you out for losing to such a pathetic team as ours).

___

Timothy C. Pitts             
Canada US Trade Center
Department of Geography
University at Buffalo        
V262XXVE@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college