Talk:College football's ten most victorious programs
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A fact from College football's ten most victorious programs appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on October 11, 2007. |
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Folks, I don't understand the the "Pct." column in the table. I'm assuming that it means "Percent". If so, exactly how are those percentages calculated? For example the Michigan row, we have these values:
| Team | Years | Won | Lost | Tied | Pct. | Total Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan | 127 | 860 | 282 | 36 | .745 | 1,178 |
How are these percentages calculated? I thought that percent is "part over total times 100%". O.k. then when I calculate the percentage for Michigan I get: 860 / 1178 = 0.730 and now times 100%, 73.0%. Not the value of .745 that is shown in the table! I didn't run the numbers of the other teams.
Also, I thought that a percentage should be something like 73.0%, a number like .730 is not technically a percentage. (O.k., so I'm being Mr MathGuy picky here...)
Thoughts? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.37.90.56 (talk) 12:01, 11 October 2007 (UTC)
This is Mr MathGuy again. O.k., I see it now, at the bottom of the table it states that a tie is counted as 1/2 win and 1/2 loss. Figuring that in, makes the numbers come out right.
However, the Mr. MathGuy in me says, a percent should be something like 74.5%, not .745 Sorry, just being picky.
- Hello, sorry I wasn't watching the page when you asked your original question, but I'm glad you saw the note that explains how ties are counted. Do you think we need to make that more prominent somehow?
- With respect the .745 vs 74.5%, this is fairly standard in American sports statistics, for whatever reason. In baseball for instance, a hitter who gets a hit 50% of the time is said to be "batting .500". In this case, the .745 nomenclature is used by the main underlying source, the NCAA record book. I think it is best to stick with the nomenclature used by the source. Johntex\talk 14:32, 11 October 2007 (UTC)
