Glenn Watson's OSCAR College Football Ranking iPad App

OSCAR (Original System for Computer Assisted Ranking) is an iPad App that uses James Howell's database to generate rankings for any date in history (among other things).

OSCAR uses an iterative algorithm that looks at the results of games played prior to the rankings date. The algorithm has 4 free parameters:

  1. Political Correctness - when set to zero, the algorithm looks only at the margin of victory; when set to infinity, it looks only at who won the game.
  2. Half Life - the weighting of previous games is damped exponentially according to how long ago they were played.
  3. Previous Seasons Damping Factor - controls the weighting given to games from previous seasons.
  4. Bowl Game Boost Factor - gives extra weighting to bowl games.
The app comes loaded with 6 versions of the algorithm: Default, Early Season, Late Season, Power Rankings, Predictive and Politically Correct. Each of these has its own set of values for the 4 free parameters above.

For futher information see screen snapshot, instructions, algorithms and FAQ.

<- Parent Directory

Glenn Watson / webmaster AT oscarcollegefootball DOT com