#SECBias

Outstanding article from accfootballrx.com.

#SECBias


"From the AP College Football website article "As SEC Dominates Polls, Calls of SEC Bias Rise":

Duck fans in Oregon and Buckeye backers in Ohio are united. Seminoles in the Florida panhandle and Sooners in the Oklahoma panhandle are rallying around a common cause. 

As the Southeastern Conference was trending last weekend after becoming the first league to hold four of the top five spots in the AP Top 25, fans of other conferences had an angry response: #SECBias.

The article acknowledges that SEC teams have won 7 of the last 8 BCS Championships (but not the most recent one!), but also that fans have pointed a finger at the AP writers themselves who are accused of trying to "make sure [the] first playoff has 4 SEC teams." In defense of the AP, most of the voters are from outside of the SEC footprint (though the AP did not provide information about the alma maters of those voters).

Jerry Palm of CBS.com says he sees bias in the preseason polls, but hasn't noticed an SEC bias in the middle of the season. Of course, by this point, the damage caused by those overinflated preseason polls may already be done...

I've documented in this blog how SEC teams don't fall as far when they lose as teams in other conferences. However, the AP article adds that they may also get a boost when they beat other SEC teams. For example, Mississippi State rose from unranked to #1 by beating three top-10 SEC teams. One of those - LSU - is currently ranked 24th (some would say overrated at that). Another of them was Texas AM, which itself

shot up the rankings after an opening-night romp at South Carolina, but is now unranked and on a three-game losing streak.

Coincidentally, Alabama rose to #4 after beating that same Texas AM team 59-0. Guys, can't we just admit that the Aggies are not that good?

Further down that same AP article suggested that there is, in fact, no bias at all. Their reasoning?

According to research done by STATS, SEC teams have risen an average of 2.8 places in the rankings after winning conference games this season. 

By comparison, Big 12 teams rose an average of 3.1 places, and Pac-12 teams have moved up 2.3 spots.

However, commenters on that article were all over the obvious flaw in that logic:

most SEC teams are ranked high from the get go and is hard to rise... Alabama wins and move up 1 spot [e.g. from 5th to 4th]...

Similar logic explains why SEC teams appear to fall just as much as other conferences. In the analysis, the researcher assumed all "unranked" teams were ranked 26th. Therefore, an ACC team ranked 25th in the preseason poll can only fall one spot... that skews this kind of analysis dramatically.

The AP article writer himself made this ironic admission right after the above statement:

For ACC teams, the gain is less than half spot (0.4) mostly because the league has had few teams ranked this season and Florida State, the preseason No. 1, had nowhere to go but down.

Yeah, that's pretty much why we're all saying your analysis is bogus, dude.

Then there is this article from Rolling Stone: "The Worldwide Cheerleader..."

In the Rolling Stone article, it begins with the premise that you would think ESPN should want to promote all of their properties equally, right? (Maybe promote the ACC a little more, since its games are not shared with CBS?). Of course, the facts do not support that assumption at all...

They're not just whistlin' Dixie, either - the Stone provides examples:

...two different broadcasters on the network, analyst Brock Huard and anchor Cassidy Hubbarth, proclaimed that Florida State – one of only two teams in this week's AP top five not in the SEC – "barely escaped," "struggled" and took Wake Forest "down to the wire" in a game it won 43-3. 

...consider the way ESPN covered a pair of wins against Tennessee earlier this season. The first, a 24-point margin of victory for the Big 12's Oklahoma, was characterized on Twitter as "Oklahoma holds on to beat Tennessee 34-10." [Emphasis added.] The second, a three-point win, 35-32, for the SEC's Georgia, was positioned, "Dawgs run away from Vols."

Yeah, that doesn't sound misleading at all... right...

The article also addresses ESPN's pro-SEC bias when it comes to covering news of players' off-field problems. Here are a few quotes:

ESPN's coverage of off-the-field transgressions by athletes is patently inconsistent across conferences, with clear de-emphasis of violations committed by athletes in the SEC and hyperscrutiny of those outside it. 

Exhibit A is, of course, Jameis Winston, who can't pass gas it seems without ESPN calling for his suspension. The Rolling Stone points out that even when Winston is investigated and found innocent, as in the case of the 2,000 autographed items, ESPN still paints him in a bad light.

a statement issued on October 17th by FSU declaring it has found no evidence that Winston received compensation in return for over 2,000 autographed items was spun with the following headline: "FSU: No evidence yet of payment." The word "yet" does not appear anywhere in athletic director Stan Wilcox's actual statement, and its addition is both crucial and arguably reckless.

The Rolling Stone article goes on to show the contrast when an SEC player gets into even worse trouble. For example, when Alabama linebacker D.J. Pettway was kicked off the team in 2013 for his involvement in a violent robbery, Head coach Nick Saban was quoted by ESPN as saying "he was satisfied with the way he handled his punishment". What was the punishment? 11 months at a junior college in Scooba, MS.

Or what about Auburn QB Nick Marshall, who was cited in July for possession of a small amount of marijuana - an actual crime. Marshall's punishment was a half-game suspension, drawing no criticism from ESPN; meanwhile the 4-letter network raked Winston over the coals when received the same penalty over a publicly shouted obscenity – not a crime.

What will it take to stop this foolishness? Since this is an issue with the service provided by college football, a little "customer feedback" might be most appropriate - click here."