A Slightly Different Take on Georgia Tech 2009

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(Anybody out there receive a souvenir piece of these posts?)

With two (or three) games left in Georgia Tech season and so far, just a "1" in the loss column, there's many an eye turning on North Avenue toward the possibility of a BCS title game.

It's been well-documented the reasons why such a reality is probably far from it, but just for funzies, I thought I'd throw out one alternate view: Jeff Sagarin's.

Sagarin is a professor at Indiana University (Go Hoosiers) who, in recent years, has been out at the forefront of the movement to apply mathematics and statistics to college sports. He's actually been doing the stuff for USA Today since 1985.

His numbers are taken quite seriously in some circles, partially because they tend to put less weight in a team's star power or national prominence and more in its statistical performances, dovetailed with things like strength of schedule, records versus top 10 opponents, etc.

(You can find a link to his latest standings, which will be important to our conversation soon, by clicking here .)

So, fans of the bee, I offer you both good news and bad regarding Mr. Sagarin's latest rankings.

First, the bad news: Sagarin has every undefeated team and two-loss squads Oregon and USC ahead of Tech in his top 10, where the Jackets come in ninth. The reason for this, you ask?

Well, that's the good news: USC and Oregon rank ahead of Tech in no small part because they have stronger schedule rankings (seventh and sixth, respectively).

Why is that good news? Because outside of a pair of two-loss teams that, should Tech win out, would almost assuredly not pass them in the overall standings, the Jackets have the strongest schedule ranking in the top 10. They come in 12th, five spots ahead of LSU and 13 spots ahead of the next closest contender after that, Alabama.

Comparatively speaking, Florida owns the 42nd-best schedule, Texas 52nd, Cincinnati 67th and Boise State a paltry 82nd.

Obviously, this is just one man's math. But for Tech fans, it's something of an argumentative lifeboat.

The greatest knock on Georgia Tech down the stretch is that its schedule is weak, primarily by virtue of the ACC's lowly national standing at present. Sagarin's numbers would seem to defy that logic.

This is not a way of saying Georgia Tech should or will get a shot at the BCS title over say, undefeated TCU or a one-loss Texas team. It's simply another view. As I said, it's one man's math.

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