Look at the front pages of espn.com and usatoday.com. Both have the Gators waxing the Cocks as their front page story. The Texas victory – a defensive gem on the road in challenging weather – barely merits a link on either page.

The only thing more surprising about how actively the media are fellating Florida is how little they are pushing USC’s case for the MNC game.

here’s what i pulled from wiki

“Elo chess,” is presumably based on the Elo rating system used internationally to rank chess players. This system uses only wins and losses, with no reference to the victory margin. The other system, “Predictor,” takes victory margin into account. For that system, the difference in two teams’ rating scores is meant to predict the margin of victory for the stronger team at a neutral venue. For both systems, teams gain higher ratings within the Sagarin system by winning games against stronger opponents, factoring in such things as home-venue advantage. For the Predictor system, margin of victory (or defeat) factors in also, but a law of diminishing returns is applied. Therefore, a football team that wins a game by a margin of 7-6 is rewarded less than a team that defeats the same opponent under the same circumstances 21-7, but a team that wins a game by a margin of 35-0 receives similar ratings to a team that defeats the same opponent 70-0. This characteristic is highly regarded by many as it recognizes “comfortable” victories, yet reduces a team’s incentive to run up the score.

I think predictor factors in only past games, but uses the margin of victory to reasonably compare teams to each other as a measure of how they would perform if they played on a neutral field. Thats what i read from it anyway. I dont believe that the Predictor actually factors in future games not yet played, or projects how teams will finish.

that having been said, Sagarin swears by his Predictor ratings over the EloChess, noting them to be more reliable and a better indicator of team strengths.