David Rothman (August 9, 1935 – June 12, 2004) was an American statistician, public policy advisor, and the creator of a computerized college football ranking system.

Rothman was the founder and executive director of the Foundation for the Analysis of Competitions and Tournaments (FACT), an organization and computer ranking used to select college football national champions.

The NCAA recognizes Rothman (FACT) as a "major selector" of college football national championships for the years 1968–2006. The Bowl Championship Series, for the 1999–2001 college football seasons, used FACT as one of the computer polls used to select participants for the BCS National Championship Game.

Education and career

Rothman graduated from the University of Wisconsin.

Rothman spent many years working as a private-sector aerospace statistician for companies like Lockheed Corporation, Agbabian Associates, and Rocketdyne. Through Rocketdyne, he was part of the enormous scientific technical talent pool utilized by NASA to achieve the Apollo program Moon landing. Through Agbabian Associates, he was part of the scientific technical talent pool utilized by NASA to analyze the mechanical structure used in the space shuttle reloading facility called the Vehicle Assembly Building.

College football rankings

According to Rothman, he first began ranking college football teams in 1963 using a precursory computer ranking formula. In the spring of 1970 or 1971 he developed the current ranking method used for FACT.

Rothman and his college football computer ranking system were discussed in a February 1968 issue of Time magazine.

In 1991 Sports Illustrated covered the bottom 10 teams on his list. At the time, the 0–6 Dr. Martin Luther College Lancers were ranked last out of 677 college football teams.

Rothman would eventually conduct his college football rankings as the executive director of the Foundation for the Analysis of Competitions and Tournaments (FACT), an organization he founded.

Bowl Championship Series

David Rothman's ranking system was a computerized mathematical ranking system fully developed by himself. It was unbiased and gained notice and popularity from Bowl Championship Series (BCS) administrators, his peers and the public. His system has the advantage that it was readily available to anyone who asked to use it, and it was nonproprietary.

Rothman would have liked his system to have been widely used in tournaments in college sports such as basketball and football, where standings of teams were available and coaches and schools could reproduce rankings quickly. This system only used the margin of the score and the name of the team to arrive at a ranking. He believed that the BCS organization could rely on his system because it was adequate and sufficient, and convinced them to use his system as one of the computer ranking systems used in determining their championship game participants.

In 2002, when the revised BCS rules required all participating computer rankings to remove any weighting toward margin of victory, Rothman opted to drop out of the BCS, rather than make the necessary changes in his system. Rothman's system by design was indirectly incorporating margin of victory. Rothman believed that it was evident that the success and validity of his system, which performed on a predictive basis, arose because he used the margin of victory as a factor.

FACT National Champions

The Foundation for the Analysis of Competitions and Tournaments selected the following NCAA Division I college football national champions. The NCAA has designated FACT as one of its “major selectors” of national championship teams for the seasons of 1968 through 2006.

Season Champion(s) Record Coach 1968 Ohio State 10–0 Woody Hayes 1969 Penn State 11–0 Joe Paterno Texas 11–0 Darrell Royal 1970 Nebraska 11–0–1 Bob Devaney Notre Dame 10–1 Ara Parseghian Texas 10–1 Darrell Royal 1971 Nebraska 13–0 Bob Devaney 1972 USC 12–0 John McKay 1973 Ohio State 10–0–1 Woody Hayes 1974 Oklahoma 11–0 Barry Switzer 1975 Ohio State 11–1 Woody Hayes Oklahoma 11–1 Barry Switzer 1976 Pittsburgh 12–0 Johnny Majors 1977 Arkansas 11–1 Lou Holtz Notre Dame 11–1 Dan Devine Texas 11–1 Fred Akers 1978 Alabama 11–1 Bear Bryant Oklahoma 11–1 Barry Switzer USC 12–1 John Robinson 1979 Alabama 12–0 Bear Bryant 1980 Florida State 10–2 Bobby Bowden Georgia 12–0 Vince Dooley Nebraska 10–2 Tom Osborne Pittsburgh 11–1 Jackie Sherrill 1981 Clemson 12–0 Danny Ford 1982 Penn State 11–1 Joe Paterno 1983 Auburn 11–1 Pat Dye Nebraska 12–1 Tom Osborne 1984 Florida 9–1–1 Galen Hall 1985 Oklahoma 11–1 Barry Switzer 1986 Miami 11–1 Jimmy Johnson Penn State 12–0 Joe Paterno 1987 Miami 12–0 Jimmy Johnson 1988 Notre Dame 12–0 Lou Holtz 1989 Miami 11–1 Dennis Erickson Notre Dame 12–1 Lou Holtz 1990 Colorado 11–1–1 Bill McCartney Georgia Tech 11–0–1 Bobby Ross Miami 10–2 Dennis Erickson Washington 10–2 Don James 1991 Washington 12–0 Don James 1992 Alabama 13–0 Gene Stallings 1993 Florida State 12–1 Bobby Bowden 1994 Nebraska 13–0 Tom Osborne Penn State 12–0 Joe Paterno 1995 Nebraska 12–0 Tom Osborne 1996 Florida 12–1 Steve Spurrier 1997 Nebraska 13–0 Tom Osborne 1998 Tennessee 13–0 Phillip Fulmer 1999 Florida State 12–0 Bobby Bowden 2000 Oklahoma 13–0 Bob Stoops 2001 Miami 12–0 Larry Coker 2002 Ohio State 14–0 Jim Tressel 2003 LSU 13–1 Nick Saban 2004 USCThe FWAA stripped USC of its 2004 Grantland Rice Trophy and vacated the selection of its national champion for 2004. The BCS also vacated USC's participation in the 2005 Orange Bowl and vacated USC's 2004 BCS National Championship and the AFCA Coaches' Poll Trophy was returned.ref1, ref2 11–0Record reflects vacated wins against UCLA and against Oklahoma in the BCS Championship game on January 4, 2005 as mandated by the NCAA . Pete Carroll 2005 Texas 13–0 Mack Brown 2006 Florida 13–1 Urban Meyer Ohio State 12–1 Jim Tressel

Years in which FACT was incorporated into the Bowl Championship Series computer rankings.

References

External links FACT College Football Standings FACT Source Code