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Old 11-26-2007, 04:37 PM
Post-Oak Post-Oak is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 899
Default Re: Calculating LSU\'s Odds to win National Title

[ QUOTE ]
Well, while LSU's obviously eliminated now, I just wanted to keep the spirit of this thread going by giving some rough numbers for the remaining teams chances to win the championship:

West Virginia: -104
Ohio State: +315
Missouri: +327
Other: +7000

The initial asssumptions there are that WVU's 95% to beat Pitt and Oklahoma's 58% to beat Missouri. Then, for simplicity's sake, I figured Oklahoma to play for the championship when WVU and Missouri both lose since they seem far and away most likely (probably ~85-90%).

I set the championship lines at:
Ohio State vs. West Virginia -3 (spread/running QB and team built on speed getting a 3 pt. matchup edge vs. team that had trouble with those and is perceived as slow)
Missouri -1.5 vs. West Virginia
Missouri -1 vs. Ohio State
Oklahoma -6 vs. Ohio State

My ML numbers won't be super accurate, but if you see West Virginia at +130 or the no on Missouri at -280, I think you can feel pretty safe pounding it.

[/ QUOTE ]

The latest Pinnacle moneylines give these percentages for each team to win.

WVU 96.4%
Missouri 40.8%

If both these teams lose (2.1%), I think LSU will have the inside track to getting back into the title game. In other words, if LSU beats Tenn in the SEC title game, I think they would get in ahead of Oklahoma.

Using these assumptions, let's estimate the chances that each team makes the title game.

WVU 96.4%

Missouri 40.8%

Ohio State

WVU wins, Missou wins 39.3%
WVU wins, Missou loses 57.1%
WVU loses, Missou wins 1.5%
WVU loses, Missou loses 2.1%

This means Ohio State makes it 60.7% of the time. 57.1% of the time, they play WVU. Only 1.5% of the time do they play Missouri. 2.1% of the time they play someone else.


LSU

We'll say that LSU will make it if they beat Tennessee and both WVU and Missou lose. They can only wind up playing Ohio State.

vs Tenn (Atlanta, GA) -7.5 71.9%

3.6% X 59.2% X 71.9% = 1.5%


Oklahoma

We'll say that Oklahoma will make it if WVU loses, Oklahoma beats Missou and LSU loses.

3.6% X 59.2% X 28.1% = 0.6%


Here's the probability of each matchup.

WVU vs Ohio St 57.1%
WVU vs Missou 39.3%
Missou vs Ohio St 1.5%
LSU vs Ohio St 1.5%
Oklahoma vs Ohio St 0.6%


Am I sure that LSU would be chosen as the 2 loss team to play in the BCS title game? No. I have only read one article analyzing the 2 loss scenario, and this is what was suggested. It's tough to say which 2 loss team would make it. However, it's easy to use the numbers given to adjust for other possible scenarios. For example, if you believe that Oklahoma will always make it ahead of LSU, than just bump them up to 2.1% and LSU down to 0%.

A couple of notes...

1. If LSU makes it, I am gonna flip the [censored] out

2. IMO, the Missouri/Oklahoma line should be closer to pick. I don't understand why it is -3.
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