BlogPoll Revamp 2009 Comment Count

Brian

lions-lol

It is time again to participate in Blogfrica's circle of life. We cull the herd, and then we welcome tiny mucus-covered baby voters onto the great plain of BlogPoll participation.

Three items: if you are on the "add" list and did not get an email from me, you should email me. If you did not hear back from me about not getting in, you should also email me. If you blog about one of the uncovered BCS teams, anyone in the Pac-10, ACC, Big 12, or the great wooly unwashed non-BCS masses, email me today and I'll consider you for last-ditch inclusion. SEC, Big East, and Big 10 blogs are currently out of luck.

And now on with the show:

Outgoing

The following blogs no longer exist and have been excised:

  • SEC Football Talk (Auburn)
  • ACC Football Report (FSU)
  • Old Gold & Blog (Wake Forest)
  • Bears Necessity (Cal)
  • Varsity Blue (Michigan)
  • Around The Oval (OSU)
  • Mountainlair (WVU)

The following blogs didn't participate consistently last year or can no longer participate for reasons of time or conflict of interest and have also been excised:

One blog was cut for years of embarrassing, poll-credibility-damaging homerdom:

Repeat: cut for voting his team too high whenever there was the slightest opportunity to. Do not let this happen to you, good voter. One week, or three, in a season is not an unreasonable thing. Getting or being in contention for the CK Award whenever your team was even plausibly vote-worthy—which hasn't been the case with State very often—is cause for ejection.

Also, Michigan voter Russ Levine fumbled Football Outsiders' blogpoll vote over to ND partisan Brian Fremeau.

Incoming

ACC

Big East

Big Ten

Big Twelve

Pac-10

UPDATE: Hey, awesome I forgot an entire conference!

SEC

Other

Voter Distribution And Stats

The poll swells from 88 blogs last year to 107 this year. Breakdown by conference, with mid-majors regarded as another 12-team conference for purposes of vote balancing:

  SEC ACC Pac 10 Big 12 Big 10 Mid-Majors Big East
Teams 12 12 10 12 11 12 8
Teams Covered 11 8 6 9 11 NA 7
Last Year's Count 21 11 8 13 19 10 6
Removals 2 2 2 1 5 1 1
Additions 2 4 4 3 9 5 8
This Year's Count 21 13 10 15 23 14 13
Blogs Per Team 1.75 1.08 1 1.25 2 1.17 1.63
Last Year's Share 24% 13% 9% 15% 22% 11% 7%
Share Of Total 20% 12% 8% 14% 21% 13% 12%
Ideal Share Of Total 16% 16% 13% 16% 14% 16% 10%
Balance Delta 0.04 0 -0.01 -0.01 0.01 0.02 0.02

The Big Ten and SEC remain over-represented, but less so than last year thanks to an influx of Big East and mid-major voters. Overall, the poll is 22% more balanced this year.

Teams without representation in the major conferences:

  • SEC: Vanderbilt
  • ACC: Duke, NC State, Wake Forest, Maryland
  • Pac 10: Washington, Stanford, UCLA, Arizona
  • Big 10: none
  • Big 12: Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State
  • Big East: Cincinnati

Comments

Blue2000

August 5th, 2009 at 11:57 AM ^

I'm surprised to see Blue-Gray Sky no longer in the blogpoll. I always understood them to be the big kahuna amongst Notre Dame blogs.

Is Frank McGrath's blog still in the mix? Wasn't he the guy who consistently voted Notre Dame ahead of Michigan after the 2006 beatdown? Granted we're all Michigan fans here, but that vote was objectively absurd.

Brian

August 5th, 2009 at 12:13 PM ^

BGS never voted. I tried to give them some leeway but they didn't vote again last year, so I didn't have much choice.

Frank's still around; he's had some weird opinions but nothing close to the level that I'd boot him, especially since he covers a CUSA school. It's really just the persistent exploitative voting that is a cause for ejection.

jamiemac

August 5th, 2009 at 12:08 PM ^

Looks like you got a good crew. I am a nerd, and I read most of those blogs during the season. And, the closet Hokie in me is stoked to see Gobler Country in there.

So, I once told you my goal of blogging and getting into this poll this year. Didnt happen as I figured having only done a few posts and a couple of readers (thanks mom!), I wouldnt waste your time.

Next year, though, I will apply and represent the gambling community in your poll!

Yinka Double Dare

August 5th, 2009 at 12:39 PM ^

Let's wait and see how he votes before we jump on him. Irrational exuberance is one thing. Loony voting in the face of actual games (i.e. facts and evidence) is a completely different thing. I think voters can be homers in every way so long as they don't let it spill too much (and too consistently) into their voting.

Besides, Brian also added The Only Colors, who I expect will make reality-based poll votes. They link to the stat-based analysis sites (KenPom, Football Outsiders, etc) and their posts reflect it -- that's the only Spartan blog/board I ever really look at these days unless someone here links something particularly egregiously retarded.

redcedar87

August 5th, 2009 at 12:35 PM ^

As an MSU fan, I am thrilled to see the Enlightened Spartan get the axe. He is an embarassment to Spartans everywhere.

The Only Colors is a fantastic addition. I'm a bit worried about SpartyMSU, though...

Other Andrew

August 5th, 2009 at 4:34 PM ^

Still there's no quality Washington blog out there? I realize they still suck, but man are Seattle-ites lazy. Or anti-social or something. You'd think someone would start the "Locker Stalker" or another equally silly-named site.