Steve Pugh is the designer, creator, and publisher of “Compughter Ratings”, an advanced mathematical model used to rate sports teams in various competitive sports.  The model uses a "least squares" method to generate initial ratings estimates and then employs a "maximum likelihood" technique to produce the final ratings.

Pugh holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Mathematics from Virginia Tech and is a member of the Pi Mu Epsilon National Honorary Mathematical Society.  He is currently employed as a Senior Manager in Information Technology at Capital One Financial and has over 15 years of experience in the IT field.

Pugh's research in the field of mathematics began in 1994 when he worked as a Research Assistant at the Interdisciplinary Center for Applied Mathematics in Blacksburg, Virginia.  Under the direction of Dr. John Burns and funded by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Steve published Finite Element Approximations of Burgers' Equation in September, 1995. 

Pugh's interest in computer-generated sports ratings began in 2005 as a culmination of hobbies: sports, mathematical modeling, and computer programming.  The initial objective was simply to gain insight into the mathematical techniques utilized to rate the past performance of college football teams.  In early 2006, Pugh began leveraging the generous expertise of Kenneth Massey (www.masseyratings.com) to help shape his ideas and sharpen his techniques.  Mr. Massey is also a graduate of the Mathematics Department at Virginia Tech and his computer ratings model has been used in the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) computer ratings since its inception.  Without Mr. Massey’s contributions and guidance, the “Compughter Ratings” model would not exist in its current form.

The “Compughter Ratings” results for NCAA College Football were first published nationally on Massey's College Football Ranking Comparison site in December, 2007.  These results are in no way associated with the BCS.

Credits

CompughterRatings.com wishes to recognize and acknowledge the following for their significant contributions which make this site possible:

- Web Service Host/Provider: ITX Design, LLC
- Website Design and Maintenance: Steve Pugh
- Data: Yahoo! Sports, Kenneth Massey, Peter Wolfe
- Bloggers: Taylor Howsmon (College Football), Jeremy Moreland (NFL)
- Photography: Marcus Hyde Media, David Aldridge
- Sports Glamour Modeling: Shawn Dillon, Kaecee Severance
- Sponsor: Steve Czaban, Fox Sports Radio