The Glitch That Stole Christmas From The Pac-10

C E Wynn Teasley,Martin J Hornyak

doi:10.19030/jber.v3i3.2755

Abstract

The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) employs a multi-criteria decision model (MCDM) to determine eligibility to play in the most elite college football bowls at the end of the season.&nbsp; MCDM&rsquo;s are widely used in business and government to make important decisions, including those with tremendous financial impacts.&nbsp; The BCS college bowls have the biggest payouts involving several million dollars.&nbsp; This year, the PAC-10 could have been the first football conference to place two teams in the BCS bowl.&nbsp; What a Merry Christmas that would have been!&nbsp; The payout would have been $2.75 million or $275 thousand per team.&nbsp; Unfortunately, due to the use of a faulty MCDM that distorts the relationship between those football programs considered, a glitch in the BCS formula stole the Rose Bowl prestige and the money from the PAC-10 during the Christmas holidays.&nbsp; Using appropriate multipliers, the economic impact in PAC-10 communities could have been very significant.&nbsp;&nbsp; The implication for future competition through enhanced athletic facilities, for example, could have a sustained economic impact for several years in those communities.&nbsp; It will be demonstrated in this paper that had the BCS employed a valid and consistent algorithm for determining a final score, even with the BCS&rsquo;s own data, the University of California would have a higher score than the University of Texas and the PAC-10 would have benefited by $2.75 Million, and they would have a much merrier Christmas than they had from playing in the Holiday Bowl.

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