Case closed.

but considering that he’d left the Bengals for the Seahawks, he may win more often there than he did in the ‘nati…but not as much as he may have had he stayed in the ’nati…which means that he may be in SEA long enough to be part of a winner there, too. He can count on the $, but not on which team will win, even if it’s supposed to.

Whether it was being the face of the franchise in person or the voice of the franchise over the phone, that had to have sent a poor message to Housh. I know I would have chosen Seattle, even if I knew that Seneca Wallace would be my QB, over Tarvaris Jackson.

The odds reflect the collective impression of the ENTIRE country (of betters, not of all fans, but betters are putting their $ where their mouth is, so it is a good filter to ascertain a person’s true impressions).

The Vegas odds give you a GENUINE and ACCURATE measure of how the rest of the country views the relative strength of your team — much more so than what a particular sportswriter says in a weekly column to generate interest and entertain us.

Perhaps I was not as clear as I should have been. Each individual bet reflects a gambler’s judgment as to the relative strength of a team (putting aside those fools who bet their money on teams they “want” to cheer for). “I think the Rams are strong enough to get within 9 points of the vikes at St. Louis, so I am going to put $300 down on the Rams.” Boom, pow — there you have it, a power ranking of sorts by that particular gambler.

The Vegas odds are set to arrive at an equilibrium — the midpoint so to speak — among ALL the people in the world who place bets in Vegas on the outcome of a particular matchup. Thus, the Vegas odds tell us that the “collective judgment” of everyone in the world who is willing to put their money where their mouth is is that the Vikes are 9 points more powerful than the Rams when playing at St. Louis.

When the Vikes play the Ravens at the Metrodome, the Vegas odds will tell us what the collective judgment of the gambling world is at that time as to the relative “power” of those two teams.

My argument is that the “power ranking” reflected by Vegas odds is much more illuminating for 2 reasons: a) it is the product of a HUGE sample size, not just one sportwswriter at a keyboard; and b) it reflects cold, objective and GENUINE assessments of each better, and is not tainted by whatver other agenda a particular sportswriter may have (eg, “I have to say something different than what that guy over at ESPN wrote in his power ranking coilumn” or “I have to say something controversial so people will read my column so I can keep my job and pay my rent” etc.).

Of course, it is more fun to argue over whatever a talking head says on the TV or in a weekly column. You can’t argue with Vegas odds — there is no one to direct your venom at.

At least divisionally, strength of competition should wash out, as each team will play the same opponents.
So, while that may not be reflected between divisions or conferences, it does impact the final product.
My rankings are a simple math formula and PD works as a good determinate for teams.