Question: What counts as a "winning team"?

[ponyboy]

He does. But you wouldn't understand.

[redpony]

If you go to the race track and bet $5 dollars, lose it on the first race, bet another $5 and win then you have won $5 and lost $5 and are even. Can you actually honestly say you had a 'winning' day at the track?

It depends on how you understand the stats.

Sorry I forgot to mention the odds on first race were 20:1 and the second 5:1. guess that changes everything.

[smurzer]

Stata don't lie. Most people just don't understand them.

Do you have any stats to prove that most people just don't understand them?

STATS... 60% of the time, they work every time.

[Rebel10]

He does. But you wouldn't understand.

So you understand?

[ponyboy]

I'm stupider than you.

[35straight]

So.... are we a winning team that is also sometimes a losing team. Got it. Man this stat stuff sure is easy.


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[mr. pony]

We need to stop playing 12-game regular seasons. That'll fix it!

[SMUer]

How many extra wins should we be crediting using your definition of a "winning team," ponyboy?

BTW, I agree with your definition; a "winning team" is 7-5 at the end of the regular season. A "mediocre" one 6-6.

[ponyboy]

My definition of a winning season includes the entire season, i.e. the bowl game too. I think those who throw around 6-31 also use the same definition.

I have no idea how much the clarification in definition would change the final result. My goal was more to point out that you could throw around numbers like 155 or 4,213 and they're meaningless without something to compare to. 6-31 *sounds* bad, sure. But is it really? You could go on soul bending searches for the real answer -- or you could just google "Sagarin." It will tell you how your team performed vis a vis other teams. It even gives rankings.

[Stallion]

Get off your [deleted] and do it yourself-the information is most certainly not "meaningless". You want to make a point then prove it.

[ponyboy]

I'm sorry I hurt your feelings.

[Mustangs_Maroons]

PB - i agree with your assertion that a bowl win should count as in the equation of determing the overall record and if it's a winning record or not. Notice, I said "not". If you are .500, that is technically not a winning season.

Where we disagree (among many other things) is that 6-31, or 8-29 or 7-30 are abysmal records, no matter how you spin it, slice it. It's a terrible record. If you want to take into account our conference, it makes it even that much worse. It's not like we're playing in the SEC and we have to face Alabama, Georgia, Auburn, LSU, etc. Our toughest game is against the Aggies.

I don't think we do ourselves a disservice by scheduling A&M and 2/3 Big 12 teams to begin our schedule, but I also think we should be more competitive now so that we should not be so afraid of starting out 0 and 4. But, we are so afraid that we have to schedule out of the game against Baylor and tried to schedule out of A&M, but we couldn't. Let's not camoflauge the real issue here that Jones expects us to lose to these teams (his words, not mine) and does not put in the recruiting efforts to help improve our talent level. He needs to stop complaining and get to work on the recruiting trail. Why should we schedule patsies just to allow him to get wins against low-level talent and still get blown out by the schools in P5 conferences? No, get some testicles and tell him that while the OCC schedule needs to be eased, it should be done to complement our efforts to build back our program, not as the only means of superficially make us look like we're an average team.

[PSCA]

I was taught many years ago that there are 3 kinds of liars in the world

1) A liar
2) A damn Liar
3) And a Statistician ... you can cut/paste ... pick and choose those you want, and argue both sides of the same coin. Our government does it all the time.

FYI, I heard months ago from a reliable source that would know, that A&M came to us and offered $1mm for SMU to opt out of the game ... we said no. More specific .. The AD's office said no

[SMU 86]

We need to stop playing 12-game regular seasons. That'll fix it!

[Mustangsabu]

I was taught many years ago that there are 3 kinds of liars in the world

1) A liar
2) A damn Liar
3) And a Statistician ... you can cut/paste ... pick and choose those you want, and argue both sides of the same coin. Our government does it all the time.

FYI, I heard months ago from a reliable source that would know, that A&M came to us and offered $1mm for SMU to opt out of the game ... we said no. More specific .. The AD's office said no

That is not true. Check your source...