Garbage in, garbage out

It'll be a bit longer before we start getting weekly BCS standings updates, but the computer ratings which comprise a significant chunk of the national title formula have been coming out each week. As always, they're pretty silly. Check out the Massey Ratings. I understand all the data is not in yet, but any formula that can conclude that four weeks into this season UNLV is #11 and South Carolina is better than Oklahoma, Ohio State, Penn State and Florida is a pretty stupid setup.

Darryl Gross, the athletic director for Syracuse, has gone public to say football coach Greg Robinson's job is in jeopardy as a result of the Orange being awful. That's fine, but Gross should be the next guy out the door. Robinson was the defensive coordinator at Texas for one season. Before that he spent years as a mediocre NFL assistant. There was nothing at all that made Robinson a logical choice for the Syracuse job, or any college head coaching job for that matter. When an AD hires a guy with no ties to the school or geographic area who then fails miserably, there's a price to pay for that. Florida offensive line coach Steve Addazio worked at Syracuse when they weren't awful and is hoping to get this job, although I have no idea what his chances will be.

Former American Idol second place finisher Clay Aiken has announced he's gay. This is being treated as big news for some reason. The part of that story I find funny is the accompanying poll, where 96 percent of those voting say they were not surprised by the news. Based on the numbers at the time I saw it, that means at least ten thousand people with computer access had no idea Clay Aiken was gay. Presumably they also felt bad for Liberace never being able to find the right girl to setle down with.

Speaking of music, a commenter on yesterday's post responding to my thoughts on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame argues that Metallica is better than R.E.M. based on number of records sold. I don't buy that line of thinking. New Kids On the Block sold 70 million records, but that doesn't make their music any good. Put four of my favorites - let's go with Warren Zevon, John Hiatt, Ben Folds and Marshall Crenshaw - together and they haven't sold as many CDs as Zamfir, master of the pan flute. Chuck Berry's only number one hit was "My Ding-A-Ling" - think he feels like it's his best tune? Sales figures reflect just that - the ability of a record company to sell recorded music, not how good an artist is.