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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/Sufficient-Two-1138 on 2024-12-06 15:43:59+00:00.
Late in the evening on December 6th, 2010 the BCS had to send out a revised ranking after Jerry Palm, the proprietor of CollegeBCS.com (now at CBS Sports), spotted an error in Wes Colley’s computer ranking. Colley had failed to include the score of the Western Illinois-Appalachian State FCS playoff game in his data set. That omission distorted the BCS rankings. LSU and Boise State were swapped at No. 10 and No. 11, and Alabama and Nebraska were swapped at No. 17 and No. 18.
Of the six computer rankings the BCS uses, Colley Matrix was the only one available to the public – or to the conferences that run the BCS. When Jon Solomon of The Birmingham News examined the lack of transparency for an October 2010 story, BCS coordinator Bill Hancock didn’t seem to think it was a problem. Hancock explained to Solomon that the mathematicians behind the computer rankings checked one another’s work “with a fine-tooth comb.” Solomon wrote his October story because Jerry Palm had already discovered errors in the Colley Matrix due to miscoding the FCS results.
Article from December 7th reporting on the memo sent on December 6th indicating the mistake.