According to Wikipedia, my go-to source for all things mathematics, the transitive property can be defined as,
In mathematics, a binary relation R over a set X is transitive if whenever an element a is related to an element b, and b is in turn related to an element c, then a is also related to c.
In mathematical syntax: , but also shorter .
In English, "My team is better than your team, because we beat 'x,' who beat 'y,' who beat UVA." Via the transitive property, I have deduced that Virginia Tech is indeed better than Stanford, and only worse than one team in college football. This fact squarely places Virginia Tech among the truly elite in college athletics.
Here's how it's done:
- Virginia Tech defeated Pittsburgh
- Pittsburgh defeated UVA
- UVA defeated (surprisingly) BYU
- BYU defeated Texas
- Texas defeated Kansas State
- Kansas State defeated ULL
- ULL defeated Nicholls State
- Nicholls State defeated Northwestern State
- Northwestern State defeated Southern
- Southern defeated Prairie View A&M
- Prairie View A&M defeated Stephen F. Austin
- Stephen F. Austin defeated Montana State
- Montana State defeated Northern Arizona
- Northern Arizona defeated UC Davis
- UC Davis defeated Southern Utah
- Southern Utah defeated South Alabama
- South Alabama defeated Tulane
- Tulane defeated North Texas
- North Texas defeated Ball State
- Ball State (who also beat UVA) defeated Toledo
- Toledo defeated Eastern Washington
- Eastern Washington defeated Oregon State
- Oregon State defeated Utah
- Utah defeated Stanford
Therefore, Virginia Tech is better than Stanford via the transitive property...
Also worth noting is that Virginia Tech is only worse than one team in the country. In case you can't figure this one out yourself...
- Virginia Tech lost to Alabama
- Who has lost to nobody
Clearly this is an indication of Virginia Tech's superiority in college football. It is my hope that the BCS numbers will reflect kindly on these facts.
Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum UVA is quietly worse than,
- UVA lost to Ball State
- Ball State lost to North Texas
- North Texas lost to Tulane
- Tulane lost to South Alabama
- South Alabama lost to Southern Utah
- Southern Utah lost to UC Davis
- UC Davis lost to Portland State
- Portland State lost to Cal Poly
- Cal Poly lost to Yale
- Yale lost to Dartmouth
- Dartmouth lost to Holy Cross
- Holy Cross lost to Monmouth
- Monmouth lost to St. Francis
- St. Francis lost to Central Connecticut State
- Central Connecticut State lost to Sacred Heart
- Sacred Heart lost to Wagner
- Wagner lost to Merrimack (Division II school)
- Merrimack lost to LIU Post (DIvision II school)
As you can see, UVA is not only one of the worst teams in the FBS, but also the FCS and Division II. Therefore, they deserve to have their athletic funding stripped and should be relegated to Division III.
Isn't math fun?