As mentioned on my previous page, OAF was developed in the summer of 2002. Since I was attempting to design an algorithm that would objectively approximate how the polls evaluated teams at the end of a season, I did not think of using this "system" to predict outcomes until December of 2002. Since post season bowl games are typically held at a neutral site, concerns related to considering home field advantage could be ignored which is imperative since OAF is a ranking (and not a rating type of) system. So, I studied how the seven computer systems used in the BCS formula did predicting those 28 bowl games as well as the "Las Vegas line", the majority team selected by the "BCS seven", and OAF. As it turns out, OAF performed really well that year compared to the others (even better than I would have guessed as described later on) and so I continued this "experiment" over the next two years.

I learned about Kenneth Massey's comparison page (listed on the previous web page) and downloaded the rankings of all those systems for 2002 to find the BCS seven "full rankings". I have now exported the rankings of all those systems into an Excel spreadsheet and have analyzed how all of those systems have done since 2002. (Summaries for those years are contained below, and full pages, with rankings for each team in a bowl game, for each and every system, along with which bowl games which system correctly/incorrectly predicted, are on separate pages. These pages are quite large, and probably will take some time to download if you are really interested in seeing them).

As the table below summarizes, there are quite a few systems on that comparison page, and 38 of them are included in each of the eight years, so how well those systems have performed is summarized a little further down this page. In 2002, only 2 of the 78 systems had 18 right (OAF was one of them!), and that year is strange in the sense that 80% of the systems correctly chose the right team in 14 of the 28 games, but in 12 of the other 14, the correct team was selected in less than 20% of the games. (There were 9 games were all systems were unanimous in their selection, and 6 games went according to plan, and the other 3 must be considered as "upsets". There were 26 systems with 14 correct predictions, and a different 26 systems with 15 right, which is why the median came out as 14.5. The number in the parentheses are the counts for those totals.)

OAF correctly predicted 18 out of 28 games in each of the first three years it existed, which as it turns out, was outstanding in 2002, but only average in 2003 since that was the median number of correct predictions that year. In 2004, there were only 5 systems with more than 18 correct predictions, and 6 others with exactly 18 right. In 2005 OAF underperformed, as it was the first year it didn't achieve 18 correct (only 15-13 ), but it can back strong in 2006 with 22 right out of 32 games, leaving it as the 4th largest overall total of correct predictions of the 43 systems that have appeared on Massey's page from 2002-2008. 2007 was a little lackluster, with only 19 wins, but OAF responded by correctly picking 20 winners in 2008, which tied for 16th overall in 2008, and OAF hit the median total (17) in 2009. As of 2009, OAF was tied for the 4th highest total of correct selections from 2002-2009 (of those same 40 systems). Two systems were not present on Massey's web page in 2010, and OAF was tied for last with 16 right, so it has now dropped into a tie for 10th place of the 38 systems 'active' from 2002-2010.

Year LV Line # sys. Avg. # right MAX. Median MIN. 100% 0% > 80%  < 20%  > 50%
2002 15 78 14.6 18(2) 14.5(52) 11(2) 6 3 14 12 14
2003 19 97 17.8 21(6) 18(31) 14(4) 2 1 12 3 18
2004 15 99 15.8 22(1) 16(32) 11(1) 4 3 10 5 14
2005 17 104 15.654 21(1) 16(20) 13(5) 1 0 10 7 15
2006 23 99 20.555 24(1) 21(29) 15(1) 3 1 15 6 22
2007 24 116 19.354 28(1) 20(24) 12(2) 1 2 16 8 20
2008 22 109 17.03 26(1) 16.5(36) 12(1) 1 0 11 9 16
2009 17 121 17.15 24(1) 17(25) 13(3) 2 0 10 11 17
2010 24 129 20.81 26(1) 21(36) 16(2) 3 1 15 8 22

Here are the summaries for the previous years. (All the large data files that were used to construct the tables below can be found at: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010.)

# with X wins X Systems  with that many wins in 2010.
1 26 BDF      
0 25        
0 24        
16 23  Many!      
27 22

   More still!

     
36 21        
23 20        
17 19        
6 18        
1 17        
2 16        
129          

 

# with X wins X Systems  with that many wins  in 2009.    
24 1 PBI          
23 1 KLK          
22 2 KAM, PFZ        
21 6 ARG, DP, MKV,TRX, GRL, KMV    
20 9 CPA,DES, GM,GUN, MAR,MAU ,MRS,WLK, CTW
19 10 ACR, BIL, CPR,DKC, HOW,IMS, RWP,RT, SLN,MRK  
18 20            
17 25            
16 17            
15 15            
14 12            
13 3            

 

         
# with X wins X Systems with that many wins in 2008.
26 1

NUT

     
25 0        
24 5 BAS, CPA, DUN, LAW MOR  
23 1

KAM

     
22 4 DEZ, BRN, ERD, PIG    
21 4 ACR, MKV,  PFZ, STH    
20 3 ASH, OAF, RTB    
19 8        
18 9        
17 15        
16 21        
15 23        
14 11        
13 3        
12 1        

 

# with X wins X Systems with that many wins in 2007
1 28 KAM      
0 25-27        
2 24 KLK,TRX      
8 23 CPA,FEI, LAW,MKV ,PFZ,REI, SLT,SQ
7 22 BEM,BOB ,DP,RTH, SAU,SOL, WEL
18 21        
24 20        
15 19        
17 18        
13 17        
3 16        
5 15        
1 14        
0 13        
2 12        

 

# with X wins X Systems with that many wins  in 2006.        
                 
1 24 ARG              
9 23 WLK,HOW, PSR,WLF, RW,CNF, FEI,MAA, Avg.Rank      
16 22 CLA, D1A, COF,IMS, MAS,ASH, DOL,MAT, RTR,BPI, RPI,ROH, GBE,MEA, MOR,OAF
29 21                
19 20                
17 19                
6 18                
1 17                
1 15                

 

# with X wins X Systems with that many wins in 2005.  
           
1 21   DWI      
1 20   CPA      
2 19   TRX,PFZ      
7 18   COF,IMS, BAS,TOY, GRS,BDF,

CPR

20 17          
20 16          
26 15          
22 14          
5 13          

 

# with X wins X Systems with that  many wins in 2004  
           
1 22 MCK        
0 21          
2 20 ACU,BAS        
2 19 DWI,CMV        
7 18 COF,DAN, KEE,KLK, CGV,OAF, COL  
14 17          
32 16          
22 15          
13 14          
4 13          
1 12          
1 11          

 

# with X wins X Systems with that many wins in 2003
       
6 21 WAT,DOL, MCK,MAR, KGR,KAM
7 20 HER,COF, GRN,SEL, BIL,LAZ, BRN
18 19        
31 18        
16 17        
10 16        
5 15        
4 14        

 

# with X wins

X Systems with that  many wins in 2002
       
2 18 OAF, KEL    
2 17 CRD,RAN      
12 16        
26 15        
26 14        
7 13        
1 12        
2 11        

(KEL and RAN only appear on Massey's rating page in 2002.)

 

Below is the table for all 37 entries that appear on Kenneth Massey's comparison page from 2002 to the present (and the "average" of all systems present"):
(Underlining implies one of the top totals that year, appearing in bold implies close to the top. The Las Vegas line had 176 right during these nine years.)
An alphabetical list (by rating system acronym) of all systems appearing on Massey's pre-bowl comparison rating pages can be found directly beneath the table below.

System name as listed  Acronym Total 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
on compare.htm                      
Kambour KAM 174 13 21 16 15 19 28 23 22 22
PerformanZ PFZ 173 15 18 15 19 20 23 21 22 20
Coffey COF 171 14 20 18 18 22 21 18 18 22
Claassen CLA 169 16 18 16 17 22 20 19 18 23
Born BRN 167 14 20 14 17 21 20 22 18 21
Moore MOR 166 15 17 15 15 22 17 24 18 23
Howell HOW 166 16 18 15 16 23 20 16 19 23
Dolphin DOL 165 15 21 17 17 22 21 17 17 18
Marsee MAR 164 14 21 16 17 19 20 15 20 22
McCormick MCK 163 16 21 22 16 20 20 15 14 19
Overtake&Feedback OAF 163 18 18 18 15 22 19 20 17 16
Bassett BAS 163 11 18 20 18 18 19 24 14 21
Whitlock WLK 162 14 18 16 14 23 21 15 20 21
Billingsley BIL 160 14 20 17 17 20 16 15 19 22
Pigskin PIG 160 13 19 16 17 17 17 22 18 21
Maurer MAU 159 13 19 17 15 20 17 17 20 21
Wilson WIL 158 15 18 16 15 20 21 15 17 21
Ashburn ASH 157 14 17 15 14 22 19 20 16 20
Sagarin SAG 157 14 19 15 15 20 21 17 15 21
Avg. Rank All Sys. Avg.Rank 157 14 18 14 15 23 20 16 16 21
Rothman RTH 157 14 18 15 15 19 22 18 15 20
Bihl BIH 157 15 19 15 14 20 18 18 16 22
Mark MRK 156 15 18 16 16 20 17 15 19 20
Self SEL 156 14 20 16 14 18 21 18 16 19
Colley COL 155 16 14 18 16 21 21 16 13 20
Anderson AND 155 15 14 16 14 21 21 16 18 20
Solecismic SOL 155 15 17 16 15 19 22 15 15 21
Mease MEA 155 16 16 16 16 22 18 17 15 19
Massey MAS 155 14 19 15 15 22 18 16 18 18
Welch WEL 155 15 15 16 16 22 22 15 15 19
CSL CSL 155 16 17 15 16 21 17 15 16 22
Sagarin Elo SE 154 14 18 13 16 20 20 15 17 21
DeSimone DES 154 15 17 17 17 18 17 12 20 21
MJS Standings MJS 154 15 15 16 17 21 19 15 14 22
Massey BCS MB 153 14 19 15 14 19 20 15 17 20
Sorenson SOR 153 14 18 15 15 20 20 17 15 19
Wobus WOB 153 16 18 14 15 21 18 16 15 20
Wolfe WOL 148 15 17 12 16 21 18 14 16 19

 

System Abbrev. 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Total games Pct.
# games 28 28 28 28 32 32 34 34 35 279    
Overall Massey Average 14 18 14 15 23 20 16 16 21 157 279 56.27
AB3       13 21         34 60 56.67
ABC       14 21 19 14 15 21 104 195 53.33
ACR             21 19 23 63 103 61.17
ACU     20 17 19 19 18 18 20 131 223 58.74
ALB               17 19 36 69 52.17
ALD               18   18 34 52.94
AND 15 14 16 14 21 21 16 18 20 155 279 55.56
ARG 15 19 16 16 24   15 21 23 149 247 60.32
ARM 14 18 17 16 21     16   102 178 57.30
ASH 14 17 15 14 22 19 20 14 20 155 279 55.56
AUS                 22 22 35 62.86
BAS 11 18 20 18 18 19 24   21 149 245 60.82
BCD   17 17 14 19 18 14   22 121 217 55.76
BCM     15 15           30 56 53.57
BCS   17 14 15 21 18 15     100 182 54.95
BD   16 13             29 56 51.79
BDF       18 19 15 19 18 26 115 195 58.97
BEM         23 22       45 64 70.31
BIH 15 19 15 14 20 18 18 16 20 155 279 55.56
BIL 14 20 17 17 20 16 15 19 22 160 279 57.35
BMC 16 19     19 15     20 89 155 57.42
BOB   18 13 17 20 22 19 17 22 148 251 58.96
BPI         22 20 19 18 23 102 167 61.08
BRN 14 20 14 17 21 20 22 18 21 167 279 59.86
BSR           18       18 32 56.25
BSS             16 16 19 51 103 49.51
CA           17 16 14   47 100 47.00