The Semifinal Round of the 2015-16 PiRate Ratings Computer Simulated Playoffs have been played, and the Final Four has now been whittled down to two.
In case you are wondering why Michigan St., Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Stanford are the Final Four teams, this season’s simulation used the Football Championship Series format of 24 teams. Michigan St. defeated Baylor and Iowa to make it to the semifinals. Ole Miss defeated Houston, Clemson, and North Carolina, as the Rebels were the #16 seed and had to win a play-in game to make it to the Sweet 16. Oklahoma defeated Michigan and Ohio St., while Stanford got here by knocking off Florida St. and Alabama.
Here are the Final Four Semifinal Results.
| Semifinal Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | F | FD | Rush | Pass | Total |
| #16 Ole Miss | 3 | 14 | 7 | 3 | 27 | 18 | 129 | 268 | 397 |
| #5 Michigan St. | 0 | 7 | 10 | 0 | 17 | 17 | 161 | 158 | 327 |
| #3 Oklahoma | 0 | 3 | 21 | 7 | 31 | 22 | 154 | 247 | 401 |
| #7 Stanford | 7 | 6 | 0 | 7 | 20 | 17 | 169 | 158 | 327 |
This sets up Simper Bowl IX at Arlington, Texas, next week. 16th-seed Ole Miss will play 3rd-seed Oklahoma.
Fear not ye of computer simulation tremors. Next week, we will run our annual 100 sims on the playoff games–the real ones where that sugar-addicted dude Larry Culpepper will be lurking around somewhere.
The Pi-Rate Ratings 