A fun alternative use of TopoSort is assessing a team's improvement (or ruin) and more fairly judge if a coach should be on the hot seat. For example, a team's record may not change much from one year to the next, but the quality of games might.
Mike Stoops at Arizona was often mentioned in hot seat discussions over the last three years, largely because Arizona hadn't made a bowl game in his 3rd and 4th year (2006 and 2007) before finally coming through in 2008. Looking at the ranking of the Wildcats over Stoops's tenure, we see them finish 66th in 2004, then 48th, 37th, 35th and 36th. The Cats were playing a lot of strong opponents tight and winning some of those games, a clear indication that their level of play had come a long way from the prior three years (70th, 77th, 95th) which ended with players walking out on coach John Mackovic. The numbers also support that Arizona got shafted out of a bowl in 2006, and the no-bowl discussion should never have happened.
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