[Hoot Gibson]

Fearing and loathing AI is like fearing an electric drill. It's a tool that is only dangerous in the hands of a monster. I am using AI to build a computer program. The program will operate in a similar way that CalPreps and Massey have worked for years and an AI will probably play no other role than making its development easier. The main difference between those programs and mine is that I was able to build a useful application over the course of a couple of days instead of working on it for weeks or months.

After researching this application and looking through the current Massey ratings, I have concluded that Massey probably manually assigns his early-season rankings and then uses his application to make adjustments. The Massey ratings seem way too accurate to have been generated objectively, without taking into account graduation losses, transfers, recruiting, and incoming freshman talent. It is what the owner of Bluegrass Rivals' main competitor likes to call the "magic number" that computer systems rely on for initial rankings. I would rather use an objective application and be saddled with some early, ridiculous rankings than inject my own personal bias into the program. The result is a Taylor County team being ranked 20th overall this week and 8th in 4A, just ahead of Johnson Central.

One more thing, if my application has any team shown in the wrong classification, which it almost certainly does, it will probably be the result of a typo. I manually entered the classifications for 2024 and 2025 from the KHSAA website. I am going to try to get the Ohio 2023 and 2024 scores and team classifications into the program today. Every state has its own system of recording high school football schedules and game scores. Configuring that part of the application is my biggest remaining task. Getting the Ohio and Indiana data imported into the program should make the ratings of teams like Trinity, St. X, Highlands, and other teams that often play Ohio and Indiana teams much more accurate.