This web site and these rankings could not be possible without with encouragement and support of so many people. Everyone in my family is obvious and they know the impact so I’ll leave them out here. While it would be impossible to name everyone who has directly or indirectly impacted these ratings, there are a few acknowledgments that are very important:
Mrs. Wargo – I can count on one hand the number of great teachers that I’ve had over the course of my eighteen years of schooling. In fact, I’ve had more that nearly derailed me from pursuing my passion, then ones that truly helped. My 7th/8th grade math teacher was a special one. I was probably a pain in the ass to teach. Mrs. Wargo found a way to push and challenge me like no other math teacher did before or after her. She was, by far, the best math teacher that I ever had.
Ben Ogorek – Ben was a classmate of mine at NC State and is my polar opposite when it comes to statistics. He is a theory guy and I am solely focused on the applied side of the discipline. Even though he knows almost nothing about sports, Ben was the one who introduced me to the Bradley-Terry method which is the crux for all the ratings that I do today. I learned more about statistics from Ben then I did in any one class that I took in college.
Kenneth Massey – There are a lot of clever people out there with brilliant rating systems, but I would still judge Massey as the best of them. Kenneth is kind enough to host a comparison of all known computer rankings that are up-to-date on his web site. A special thank you to Kenneth for his efforts and making the rankings available to everyone: College Football Ranking Comparison.
Todd Beck – Todd runs a site called The Prediction Tracker. This site aggregates all of my picks and the picks of many other statisticians and computer geeks across the web and tracks the results. His tracker lends credibility to DRatings and many others. Todd, thank you for your efforts, they are greatly appreciated.