Puzzle 1

[WreckinCrew]

The following puzzle is sometimes referred to as a "game chain" - comparing scores of teams against common opponents to predict an outcome of a fictitious game, based on scores only.
Below are scores from a fictitious college football season.
Based on these scores, if Harvard were to play Mississippi after all the games listed were played, who would win and by how much?


Mississippi 27     Nebraska 13
Harvard 17         Notre Dame 16
Nebraska 14        Ohio State 10
Notre Dame 24      Connecticut 21
Ohio State 10      Baylor 7
Connecticut 28     Minnesota 24
Minnesota 35       Baylor 3

[Archangel]

too...many...variables

Mississippi by 4

[RSshruew]

Dah Bears!

[RSshruew]

Harvard by 19

[RS-genpip]

Do you know the answer?

[RS-genpip]

Miss by 3

[RSthorn]

numbers make me angry

[RS-H2o]

New England by 13..wait nevermind

[WreckinCrew]

I will give the explanation based on the facts offered in the original post.

Minnesota beat Baylor by 32, and Ohio State beat Baylor by 3.  So Minnesota would beat Ohio State by 29.

Nebraska beat Ohio State by 4.  Since Minnesota would have beaten Ohio State by 29, they would beat Nebraska by 25.

Mississippi beat Nebraska by 14, so Minnesota would beat Mississippi by 11.

Connecticut beat Minnesota by 4, so Connecticut would beat Mississippi by 15.

Notre Dame beat Connecticut by 3, so Notre Dame would beat Mississippi by 18.

Harvard beat Notre Dame by 1,

so HARVARD WOULD BEAT MISSISSIPPI BY 19


Now you have an idea how the lines are set by bookies for betting sports.

Congrats Shruew on a correct answer

[Archangel]

Hmm, shruew are you a bookie?

[WreckinCrew]

LOL, he works for me.

[RSshruew]

Math ftw!

 

[Rom]

Math can suck me. Fkcn sh!t.
My teacher was just talking how she hated math in high school, and one day 'it just clicked'. Oh, well, fantastic for youz! I guess my freakin' clicker is brokeded.
Now she has a masters in Physics and some other degree in some type of math.

Anyway - I still don't get how the above works. Is there some kind of rule or pattern?

[RSshruew]

Rom:

Team A beats Team B by 4 points
Team B beats Team C by 6 points
Implies Team A beats Team C by 10 points

[Rom]

It does? I see what you did, but I don't see how it implies that at all. I guess it's just a game, and that's how it works. Cool.