Questions

• Who are you (you biased SOB!)?
• Why do you do this?
• Are you nuts? This seems like a lot of work!
• How do you make money at this?
• Why don't you get a real job?
• Can you send me the data in a different format?
• When are you going to track other sports (Baseball, Soccer, Curling, etc)?
• Has the site won any awards or ever been reviewed?
• Can we do a link exchange?

Answers

Brief Bio: My name is Jerry Palm. I am a 1985 graduate of Purdue University, where I majored in Computer Science.

As for my biases, obviously I am a Purdue fan. I had season football tickets for 15 years (counting the four I spent in the marching band). I do not like Indiana, although they are rarely a threat to anyone besides themselves in football. I root for the Big Ten in bowl games. However, none of that has anything to do with the ratings or the bowl projections. The ratings are based on a formula which I did not create. I do the best I can to filter out my biases about teams and conferences when doing bowl projections. Bowl selection people do not care who I like, so my biases are not useful in that process.

I have always been a college sports fan and a stats geek. I had already been doing the basketball RPI for about five years when the BCS came into existence. It was a simple thing for me to adapt my basketball database to figure the BCS as well.

The pre-season set up can be time consuming, but once the season is under way, I only spend about two hours a week on basic maintenance. Writing takes as long as it takes me to think of things and type them.

You don't make a ton of money on the internet these days unless you have a sex site. (Hey, there's a thought! "Offensive Linemen of the Big Ten!" Uh, never mind.)

This site makes money through subscriptions and advertising. For more information on how to subscribe, see the front page of the site.

Believe it or not, this is my real job, although I do some computer consulting on the side.

No, sorry. I do not send out the BCS or any of the supporting information in any other format. I also do not make available the programs or database setup. Feel free to download or print what you can off the pages, but I generally do not have time for special requests.

When the BCS was created in 1998. The strength of schedule piece was much like the RPI's, so it was easy for me to follow. In 1999, I started posting the BCS, schedules, results and standings on CollegeBCS.com.

Now that I have started tracking women's basketball (beginning with the 1999-2000 season), I am covering as many sports as I can reasonably handle.

I have never seen a formal review of the BCS part of this site, but in November, 1999, Dave Caldwell of the Dallas Morning News called me "a god." I may put that on my business cards. In 2001, Andrew Bagnato of the Chicago Tribune called this site "a must for sports fans." I guess that was a good review.

You are welcome to link to my site if you wish, but I don't participate in link exchanges. I get so many requests that the upkeep would be too much for me. Sorry.