blogpoll

...or, at least, the time to try to join the BlogPoll is now. If you've got a college football blog with posts a plenty and a track record stretching back unto the dawn of time -- 2007 -- please email me to be considered. You can read this on the "Join" page, or you can read it here...

These are the requirements for entrance:

Be a sports blog with a focus on college football.

90% of your posts should be about sports and you should have college football content every week. It's okay if you're, say, a regional sports blog with a focus on a few teams as long as one of the teams you cover regularly is a college football team. Deadspin or The Big Lead... not so much. Those blogs acknowledge college football's existence, they don't focus on it.

Post regularly for at least six months.

No exceptions. What's regular? Three or four posts a week of actual content. What's actual content? Something other than brief links to items.

Have some technorati authority or a readership.

If no one is reading your blog or linking to it by the end of six months, chances are you're not one of the top 50-100 college football blogs, and the poll will not grow beyond those numbers, ever. If you've got ten or so comments on every post or some incoming links or you can point to some Sitemeter numbers that indicate you get triple-digit hits, that will suffice.

(Note: this requirement is much laxer for non-BCS blogs, since the potential audience for a Fresno State blog or a Navy blog is smaller.)

Don't be crowded out.

Do you cover Georgia or Michigan? Uh... you're going to have a tough time getting in because those schools have a huge, thriving constellation of blogs and the poll has a strict cap on the number of blogs representing a particular school. You'll have to hope one of the current members goes "blip."

If your blog meets all those requirements it will be considered for entry. A lot of factors go into each individual decision, as by this point the poll just can't accept every qualified blog. We're trying to find dedicated voters with excellent blogs who are geographically distributed across the country. Sometimes it's a tricky balance, and sometimes we have to turn down a blog for reasons other than its quality. Apologies in advance if this turns out to be you.

Previously: Preseason; Week 2; Week 3; Week 4; Week 5; Week 6; Week 7; Week 8; Week 9; Week 10; Week 11; Week 12; Week 13; Week 14.

Note: if you see last week's poll it's a cache thing, I think. Refresh should cure it.

Hurray, that's the poll hurray. If you're interested, you can see all the individual ballots here.

Yes, that's Michigan #2. Full disclosure: last night I sent out an email reminding voters that, unlike the other polls out there, the BlogPoll has a specific mandate to rank the teams in order of who is "best," whether you arrive at that conclusion by resume or another method, and that rematch concerns should not influence voting. (This would seem fairly straightforward since the BlogPoll isn't, you know, able to set up a rematch. But one of the oddest things about the BCS-aftermath articles were quotes from AP voters like this:

AP poll voter Michael Vega of The Boston Globe said he wasn't against a rematch but found it hard to justify one this time.

"I had to reconcile a fundamental problem with giving Michigan a chance to win the national championship when it didn't even win a conference championship," he said.

Uh... for a newspaper guy you're not up on current events, Mr. Vega.)

We do have two voters who succumbed to minor Harris-ism by breaking up the OSU-Michigan-UF trifecta in the first three spots: 50-Yard Lion ranks Michigan behind both Florida and LSU while Bevo Sports has LSU #2, Michigan #3, and Florida #4.

Another discrepancy of note: Wisconsin keeps creeping up despite having proven little in the other polls, but BlogPollers knocked the Badgers down a slot behind Oklahoma. Also, USC was hurt less by its loss than in other polls.

Risers: It was mostly just sliding up where others fell, but Wake Forest did leap Virginia Tech to become the highest-ranked ACC team. As mentioned, Oklahoma leapt Wisconsin.

Fallers: USC took a four-spot tumble after gacking against UCLA, as did Rutgers. Georgia Tech finally slouched its way out of the poll.

Wack Ballot Watchdog: Suspended this week.

Now on to the extracurriculars. First up are the teams which spur the most and least disagreement between voters as measured by standard deviation. Note that the standard deviation charts halt at #25 when looking for the lowest, otherwise teams that everyone agreed were terrible (say, Eastern Michigan) would all be at the top.

Ballot math: First up are "Mr. Bold" and "Mr. Numb Existence." The former goes to the voter with the ballot most divergent from the poll at large. The number you see is the average difference between a person's opinion of a team and the poll's opinion.

Mr. Bold is Eagle in Atlanta, and it's easy to see why: USC plummets from #2 to ... wait for it ... #17 after their UCLA loss. Rutgers also drops nine after a triple overtime loss at West Virginia, who re-enters the poll at #21, three spots behind Rutgers. Having all those teams so low makes a lot of other teams berry, berry high and results in "Mr. Bold."

USC... #17? Can we get an explanation on that?

Mr. Numb Existence is Double Extra Point again. For the fourth time. Uncanny or a cynical attempt to get attention? You make the call!

Next we have the Coulter/Krugman Award and the Straight Bangin' Award, which are again different sides of the same coin. The CKA and SBA go to the blogs with the highest and lowest bias rating, respectively. Bias rating is calculated by subtracting the blogger's vote for his own team from the poll-wide average. A high number indicates you are shameless homer. A low number indicates that you suffer from an abusive relationship with your football team.

The CK Award is also Eagle In Atlanta's. Going for a clean sweep of the nasty ones, he is. Boston College #19 doesn't seem too offensive, though.

Straight Bangin' Award is Burnt Orange Nation for the second straight week for ranking the Longhorns a spot worse than the poll at large. This is probably not a sign of mental illness. Moving on.

Swing is the total change in each ballot from last week to this week (obviously voters who didn't submit a ballot last week are not included). A high number means you are easily distracted by shiny things. A low number means that you're damn sure you're right no matter what reality says.

Mr. Manic-Depressive is Badger Sports. Why? They forgot about Oklahoma last week.

Mr. Stubborn is Frank McGrath, who bumped last week's losers do wn only a tiny bit.

Previously: Preseason; Week 2; Week 3; Week 4; Week 5; Week 6; Week 7; Week 8; Week 9; Week 10; Week 11; Week 12; Week 13.

Note: if you see last week's poll it's a cache thing, I think. Refresh should cure it.

Hurray, that's the poll hurray. If you're interested, you can see all the individual ballots here.

A BlogPoll salute to the Mountaineers, who saw the chaos of last week's rankings and promptly fixed the problem by losing to South Florida.

Risers: USC didn't move up a spot but they did solidify their hold on #2 by whomping Notre Dame. Last week we had a virtual tie at #2; this week USC has a 0.6 PPB lead.

Fallers: Voters were brutal to last week's losers: ND down seven, West Virginia down six, Texas down six, Georgia Tech down seven, and BC down eight and hanging on by the tippiest tips of their tippy toes to #25. Only Arkansas was given some grace.

Wack Ballot Watchdog:

• The Atlantic Coast Chronicles freakin' hates Auburn: #19. He hated them more last week: they're up a spot.
• Somebody is very wrong about Boise State. We have voters throwing them everywhere from #5 to #24.
• EDSBS gets the most outstanding flippity-flop this week, dropping Georgia Tech 14 spots after remembering that Reggie Ball is the quarterback.
• Um... Pitch Right has Wisconsin, Boise State, and Oklahoma ahead of Florida. The Sooners are #4, which doesn't hold water even if you credit them with a win in the infamous onside kick game.
• Black Shoe Diaries is still holding on to Oregon.
• Eagle In Atlanta has Virginia Tech seventh. Um.

Now on to the extracurriculars. First up are the teams which spur the most and least disagreement between voters as measured by standard deviation. Note that the standard deviation charts halt at #25 when looking for the lowest, otherwise teams that everyone agreed were terrible (say, Eastern Michigan) would all be at the top.

Ballot math: First up are "Mr. Bold" and "Mr. Numb Existence." The former goes to the voter with the ballot most divergent from the poll at large. The number you see is the average difference between a person's opinion of a team and the poll's opinion.

Mr. Bold is FSU's Tomahawk Nation. By this point in the season the really weird stuff has been hammered out on the field and the winners in this category usually have a large number of teams slightly off instead of massively weird opinions on specific teams. This is the case here: Corey has Boise and Rutgers three or four spots high, Auburn and Arkansas low, etc. Definitely weird opinions are Nebraska #12, up nine after clubbing a 2-10 Colorado team, Hawaii #15, and Notre Dame way down at #19.

Mr. Numb Existence is Double Extra Point for the third time this year, which is a BlogPoll record. (This is like holding a D-I record at Florida International, granted, though you don't have Ned watching your back.)

Next we have the Coulter/Krugman Award and the Straight Bangin' Award, which are again different sides of the same coin. The CKA and SBA go to the blogs with the highest and lowest bias rating, respectively. Bias rating is calculated by subtracting the blogger's vote for his own team from the poll-wide average. A high number indicates you are shameless homer. A low number indicates that you suffer from an abusive relationship with your football team.

The CK Award is the property of Texas blog Bevo Sports for keeping Texas #15 in the face of two straight losses, albeit with a starting quarterback who either warn't playing or warn't right.

Straight Bangin' Award has only one contender this week, -- the other four entrants are noise -- Burnt Orange Nation, which is of course also a Texas blog. Our most gung-ho positive and kill-me-now negative voters both support the same team.

Swing is the total change in each ballot from last week to this week (obviously voters who didn't submit a ballot last week are not included). A high number means you are easily distracted by shiny things. A low number means that you're damn sure you're right no matter what reality says.

Mr. Manic-Depressive ... holy crap. That's a lotta movement on Eagle In Atlanta's ballot. Former #8 WVU plummets out of the poll entirely, which has to be an oversight, right? No offense to the fine bloody-e yed folks at TCU, but when they're in the poll and WVU isn't it looks like someone pulled the old Herbstreit. Even aside from the Mountaineer drop, EIA goes nuts: VT #7, up six. UL #8, up 9. Rutgers #9, up five. Green and red all over the place. Um. Yow.

Mr. Stubborn is ND's Catholic Packer Fan, who serenely moved Georgia Tech up a spot after their loss to Georgia, left Arkansas at #6, and gave light slaps on the wrist to most other losers. He's about forgiveness.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Ohio State	--
2	Southern Cal	--
3	Michigan	--
4	Florida	1
5	LSU	7
6	Louisville	1
7	Arkansas	3
8	Oklahoma	2
9	Notre Dame	3
10	Wisconsin	2
11	Rutgers	--
12	Auburn	5
13	California	1
14	Texas	5
15	West Virginia	2
16	Boise State	--
17	Virginia Tech	4
18	Brigham Young	2
19	Wake Forest	3
20	Nebraska	3
21	Hawaii	3
22	Tennessee	3
23	Georgia Tech	8
24	Texas A&M	2
25	Penn State	1

Saw a lot this weekend: A&M-Texas, Arkansas-LSU, USC-ND, bits of Wake-Maryland, WVU-USF once it was clear WVU was in trouble, Florida-FSU, Clemson-South Carolina, BC-Miami. Let's hear it for spreading games out over three days.

Notes:

• I've decided Wisconsin goes no further forward than the tail end of the top ten until their bowl game. Their best win is Penn State. After that... Purdue? Thanks to their embarrassing nonconference schedule and missing OSU, we have desperately few data points on Wisconsin and it would be the height of conveyor-belt mania to stick them above Arkansas or Notre Dame just because they happen to play more than one good team in a year.
• Wooo LSU! Okay: I've been a skeptic all year, but with everyone else losing and LSU claiming a couple quality wins, they bounce way up.
• The rest seems pretty standard to me, except maybe the PSU vote at #25. But whatever.

Previously: Preseason; Week 2; Week 3; Week 4; Week 5; Week 6; Week 7; Week 8; Week 9; Week 10; Week 11; Week 12.

Note: if you see last week's poll it's a cache thing, I think. Refresh should cure it.

Hurray, that's the poll hurray. If you're interested, you can see all the individual ballots here.

Momentary dissent about Ohio State is quashed, obvs. Michigan and Southern Cal are virtually tied for second place. Very little happens otherwise.

Risers: VaTech got a healthy bump by stoning Wake. Everyone else slid up conveyor-belt style.

Fallers: Wake and Rutgers were hammered for being hammered, Rutgers by an unranked (but decent!) Cincinnati team.

Wack Ballot Watchdog:

• Everyone is probably sick of hearing about WVU and UL, but I am at a loss how you can justify UL behind the Mountaineers, especially by huge margins. Frank McGrath has WVU #12, UL #18. Eagle In Atlanta has WVU #8, Louisville #17. Conquest Chronicles has WVU #7, UL #14. The Nittany Notebook has WVU #9, Louisville #13. Anyone care to explain the reasoning here?
• Is Georgia Tech a top ten team (EDSBS has them at nine) or #24 (Dawg Sports)? Probably neither.
• Bevo Sports really likes LSU. Lots: #3.
• Not exactly wack, but there's a remarkable amount of consensus on Notre Dame: about half the voters have them #6.

Now on to the extracurriculars. First up are the teams which spur the most and least disagreement between voters as measured by standard deviation. Note that the standard deviation charts halt at #25 when looking for the lowest, otherwise teams that everyone agreed were terrible (say, Eastern Michigan) would all be at the top.

Ballot math: First up are "Mr. Bold" and "Mr. Numb Existence." The former goes to the voter with the ballot most divergent from the poll at large. The number you see is the average difference between a person's opinion of a team and the poll's opinion.

Mr. Bold is Dawg Sports, who was extremely kind to Rutgers, leaving them in the top 10 at #8. Also standing out as desperately weird: Auburn #6. Please repeat after me, Kyle: the SEC is not that good. Four of the top ten teams in the country do not play in it. I will post more pictures of Scarlett Johansson.

There's also some foofery at the bottom (a vote for Navy over Wake? BC languishes at #25?) that makes no the sense to me.

Mr. Numb Existence is Dan Shanoff, who managed to hew the closest to the poll's overall opinion despite the indefensible notion of #6 WVU and #9 Louisville. The horror!

Next we have the Coulter/Krugman Award and the Straight Bangin' Award, which are again different sides of the same coin. The CKA and SBA go to the blogs with the highest and lowest bias rating, respectively. Bias rating is calculated by subtracting the blogger's vote for his own team from the poll-wide average. A high number indicates you are shameless homer. A low number indicates that you suffer from an abusive relationship with your football team.

The CK Award belongs to Rocky Top Talk for placing the Vols #13, inexplicably up seven after last week. Was beating Vanderbilt that impressive? Evidently, as our second Tennessee blogger checks in third on the list.

Straight Bangin' Award is Ramblin' Racket's. He placed Georgia Tech a point lower than the poll average -- better than last week's winner but not by much. Notable: RR won the first CK award by a wide margin for putting GT #7 in the preseason. As Gregg Easterbrook might say, this has a deep and abiding significance, if only we knew what it was.

Swing is the total change in each ballot from last week to this week (obviously voters who didn't submit a ballot last week are not included). A high number means you are easily distracted by shiny things. A low number means that you're damn sure you're right no matter what reality says.

Mr. Manic-Depressive is Eagle In Atlanta for a second consecutive week. When you bump Rutgers up to #3 and Wake up to #6 and they both lose dismally, this sort of thing happens to your ballot. Everyone else moves wildly, too. Wisconsin has leapt from the mid-20s to #7 in the course of two weeks. Louisville takes the pipe as well... but West Virginia doesn't? The Mountaineers are ranked nine spots ahead of UL?

Mr. Stubborn is Black Shoe Diaries. The inverse of the above: Rutgers and Wake already low and thus not punished extensively. Everyone else remains relatively static.