BlogPoll Revamp 2009
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:
- Deadspin (Tennessee – Clay Travis left)
- Texas A&M and Baseball In No Particular Order (A&M)
- TNABACG (Minnesota)
- Blue-Gray Sky (Notre Dame)
- Excuse Me For My Voice (Cal)
One blog was cut for years of embarrassing, poll-credibility-damaging homerdom:
- The Enlightened Spartan (Michigan State)
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
- Gobbler Country (Virginia Tech)
- Eagle All Access (Boston College)
- Anton Azucar (Miami)
- From The Rumble Seat (Georgia Tech)
Big East
- WVU Pressbox (West Virginia)
- The Smoking Musket (West Virginia)
- Simon On Sports (UConn)
- Sox And Dawgs (UConn)
- The UConn Blog (UConn)
- The Bull Gator (South Florida)
- Beat Visitor (Rutgers)
- Eye Of A Panther (Pitt)
Big Ten
- Maize 'n' Brew (Michigan)
- The Wolverine Blog (Michigan)
- The Only Colors (Michigan State)
- SpartyMSU (Michigan State)
- We Will Always Have Tempe (Ohio State)
- Not Qualified To Comment (Illinois)
- Hail To The Orange (Illinois)
- Nittany White Out (Penn State)
- Smart Football (Purdue)
Big Twelve
- Tilting At Windmills (Oklahoma)
- Fantasy College Blitz (Oklahoma State)
- Atomic Teeth (Missouri)
Pac-10
UPDATE: Hey, awesome I forgot an entire conference!
- Bears With Fangs (Cal)
- Coug Center (Washington State)
- Pitchfork Nation (Arizona State)
- House of Sparky (Arizona State)
SEC
- Red Cup Rebellion (Mississippi)
- A Sea Of Blue (Kentucky)
Other
- Over The Pylon (Ball State)
- One Bronco Nation Under God (Boise State)
- Red And Black Attack (Northern Illinois)
- All Pac 10 (Somewhat oddly, Tulsa)
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
August 5th, 2009 at 11:38 AM ^
You spelled babby wrong.
Yes, true, but how is it formed?
August 5th, 2009 at 11:41 AM ^
Pogue gets a fucking vote? Boycott.
August 5th, 2009 at 11:48 AM ^
I'm working with Ohio State fans here. Pogue is bipedal. He's in. (Pogue: you can use that for a testimonial. No charge.)
August 5th, 2009 at 12:50 PM ^
Who is Pogue and why does he want to shave Tempe?
That OSU blog's title is the bane of my Canes existence!
August 7th, 2009 at 12:34 AM ^
Pogue is Sam, is Nick, is Tom, is Jello, is every man and no man. And if he doesn't regularly shave Tempe, then who will? You? Me? I think not. Only Pogue stands alone before a hairless major American city, and our nation will be forever grateful.
August 5th, 2009 at 11:47 AM ^
Is Bruins Nation boycotting the Blog Poll or something?
August 5th, 2009 at 11:49 AM ^
BN dropped out last year for some reason or another. I don't remember why.
August 5th, 2009 at 12:26 PM ^
It no doubt had something to do with Karl Dorrell.
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.
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.
August 5th, 2009 at 12:04 PM ^
where is the Capstone Report?!?!
Also, "Atomic Teeth" = worst blog name ever?
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!
August 5th, 2009 at 12:13 PM ^
If you represent the gambling community, do they label you as a UNLV blog in the poll?
(I'd say Delaware too but Bizarro Michigan isn't 1-A.)
August 5th, 2009 at 12:30 PM ^
The votes will be cast under the name Richard The Fixer, to be emailed while in a hot tub.
I miss Tark the Shark.
August 5th, 2009 at 12:16 PM ^
has MSU going 11-1 for the season, including a 41-20 shellacking of Michigan.
It's great to be optimistic, but...
August 5th, 2009 at 12:33 PM ^
Two years later and they're still collectively riding the high from that Appalachian State game.
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.
August 5th, 2009 at 12:17 PM ^
Nice to see Gobbler Country and Rumble Seat along for the ride.
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...
...the name, but Jolly Green Giants seem like a pretty MSU blog.
http://jollygreengiants.wordpress.com/
I don't think they'd vote MSU#1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! every week or anything.
No more consistent CK jinx for half the season!
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.
UCONN gets three spots? do they even have a football team? like we care what happens at uconn.
...what? sorry, never mind.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:10 PM ^
I have a blog (www.northavenuebulletin.com)
How can I join this bloggers poll?
Comments