Transitivity Doesn't Work in College Football

One of the great things about college football is that almost anything can happen on any given Saturday. Upsets and surprises abound. All you need is a bag of pretzels and a six pack of frosty beverages to go along with your TV, and your Saturday afternoons in the fall are complete.

But one thing you have to learn - and you can't read the national media to learn this - is that transitivity doesn't work in college football. Let's back up a minute.

The Dictionary.com definition of transitivity is as follows: Of or relating to a relationship between three elements such that if the relationship holds between the first and second elements and between the second and third elements, it necessarily holds between the first and third elements.

Put simply, if A is greater than B, and B is greater than C, then A is greater than C. It works great if you're talking strictly about numbers, but, when you add the human element along with turnovers, penalties, injuries, etc, you can't compare one set of college football games to try to determine the outcome of another set.

Already, band wagon sports writers are telling us that West Virginia is, once again, a great team after manhandling Mississippi State over the weekend. These same guys jumped off the wagon when South Florida surprised the Mountaineers in Tampa three weeks ago. But here's the logic they're using: Auburn beat Florida at home. Mississippi State beat Auburn at home. So, now that West Virginia beat the Missippi State team that beat Auburn that beat Florida, everyone's got the coonskin caps on again. That's a bunch of hooey. Do you believe, since Wofford College beat the Appalachian State team that beat Michigan at home, that the mighty Wofford Terriers could dispense with the Wolverines on any give Saturday? Of course not. Why? Because you and I know that transitivity does not work in college football.

The West Virginia team that beat the Mississippi State team that beat Auburn that beat Florida still has the toughest part of its schedule remaining: at Rutgers, Louisville, at Cincinnati, UConn and Pittsburgh. I'm betting the Mountaineers stumble at least one more time.