Running Up Score Not Helping Ohio State

In the last two weeks, Ohio State has outscored its two hapless Big Ten opponents, 119-14. Did that improve its prospects of landing in the BCS Championship Game?

In a word: No. In fact, Ohio State's blowout wins have hurt more than helped.

Granted, Urban Meyer is in an unenviable position. He's damned if he does and he's damned if he doesn't. The Ohio State coach is staring at a distinct possibility of going 25-0 over two seasons without being able to play for the national championship in either. The fourth-ranked Buckeyes have four games remaining, with three for certain against unranked and uninspiring opponents.

But if Meyer was running up the score with the intention of helping his team's BCS cause, he was going about it the wrong way. He should've first consulted the following manual (the Cliff Notes version of Manipulate the Scores for Dummies):

1. Computers won't be impressed by inflated scores because ...

in 2002, the BCS decreed that margin of victory (MOV) be removed entirely as a component in the BCS computer rankings. Since the BCS never checks, we don't know if this is done for certain, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the computer operators have held up their end of the bargain. Since a 31-point victory is worth exactly the same as a 1-point victory in the "eyes" of the computers, running up the score has no impact on the computer rankings.

(FULL ARTICLE @ BLEACHER REPORT)