was it all a crazy plot to get what he wanted? "A way to exceed expectations is to manage them [laughs]. We were in a situation where it was absolutely unclear what the ultimate decision was going to be and I wanted to make that known that it was unclear and the fan reaction was very helpful and very important."
BlogPoll Week Four
| Rank | Team | PPB | StdDev | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Southern Cal (65) | 24.8 | 0.5 | -- |
| 2 | Oklahoma (3) | 22.9 | 1.5 | -- |
| 3 | Florida (3) | 22.4 | 1.4 | -- |
| 4 | Georgia (1) | 22.2 | 1.7 | -- |
| 5 | LSU (2) | 20.8 | 1.9 |  1 |
| 6 | Missouri | 20.5 | 2.5 |  1 |
| 7 | Texas | 17.8 | 3.0 | -- |
| 8 | Alabama (2) | 16.8 | 3.5 | 2 |
| 9 | Penn State | 15.9 | 2.5 | -- |
| 10 | Wisconsin | 15.9 | 2.8 | 2 |
| 11 | Brigham Young | 14.5 | 2.2 | 2 |
| 12 | Texas Tech | 13.8 | 4.3 | -- |
| 13 | South Florida | 12.7 | 2.8 | 2 |
| 14 | Wake Forest | 12.2 | 3.2 | 3 |
| 15 | Ohio State | 9.2 | 4.9 | 3 |
| 16 | Utah | 9.2 | 3.4 | 3 |
| 17 | Auburn | 8.6 | 4.5 | 2 |
| 18 | Kansas | 6.7 | 3.5 | 2 |
| 19 | Vanderbilt | 5.9 | 4.3 | 2 |
| 20 | Boise State | 5.7 | 3.7 | 6 |
| 21 | TCU | 3.4 | 3.3 | 5 |
| 22 | Oklahoma State | 3.1 | 3.9 | -- |
| 23 | Clemson | 3.1 | 3.6 | -- |
| 24 | Illinois | 2.2 | 3.1 | -- |
| 25 | East Carolina | 2.1 | 2.9 | 11 |
Also Receiving Votes: Colorado(1.9), Nebraska(1.8), Fresno State(1.5), Oregon(1.5), Connecticut(1.3), Virginia Tech(1.3), Kentucky(0.6), Ball State(0.5), Tulsa(0.4), Georgia Tech(0.4), Michigan State(0.4), Miami (Florida)(0.3), California(0.2), Northwestern(0.2), Minnesota(0.2), UNLV(0.1),
Total Ballots: 76
East Carolina's brief run in the top fifteen comes to a crashing halt, though they hang on at the bottom of the poll. Meanwhile, the year of mid-madness continues with poll debuts for TCU and Boise State. With BYU living the high life at #11, there are now four non-BCS teams in the top twenty five with Fresno State on the doorstep.
The rest of the poll is eh about the same: one thing to note is Auburn's relatively minor slide after their loss to LSU.
Wack Ballot Watchdog
I’ve again omitted anything from the resume zealots, such as “Texas #24”. We know the reasons behind these votes and as such they aren’t “wack.”
- Bizarre enthusiasm for Nebraska reigns in the state of Tennessee. Rocky Top Talk ranks the Huskers #12 and Fulmer's Belly puts them #14; no other voter placed NU above #17.
- Foul Balls actually dings Georgia a spot after their road win over Arizona State; their placement of UGA at #11 is three spots worse than any other voter.
- I don't think Black Heart, Gold Pants is a resume voter, so what's with Texas #22?
- From Old Virginia is super enthusiastic about #11 Virginia Tech.
There’s still not much because we have little data. Extracurriculars after the jump.
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.
Ohio State is now your most disagreed upon team, with votes stretching from #9 to #24; Auburn leaps up after their loss as pollsters bring different punishment philosophies to the table.
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.
Last week's prediction was that Doctor Saturday would finally relinquish his hold on Mr. Bold, but it is not so. His margin keeps dropping and we do have a couple non-resume guys creeping in finally, but not yet.
Amongst the ballot's oddities: Vandy #6, ECU #13, Boise #14, no Auburn, Missouri down at #23, etc.
Michigan is the hub of Mr. Numb Existence activity this week and we swear it has nothing to do with the widespread use of sedatives in preparation for the Wolverines' Big Ten campaign.
Michigan Sports Center is your winner. MSC is the Walter Cronkite of the Michigan blogosphere, getting you the news more quickly than this blog does and giving you everything with just-the-facts-ma'am efficiency. And hey, he had a clean sweep with his Big Ten predictions last week.
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 has its first week of fail this year, sparing Utah against a good opponent. As noted last week, Block U's ballot wasn't egregious or anything—margin wasn't huge, BYU was above the Utes, someone else had Utah even higher—but fail is fail.
Prospects don't look good for this week even if it's a double win for Ohio State: OSU is playing Minnesota. Eyyyy Gophers and all that and they are undefeated so far, but… uh… no. We'll see, I guess.
Straight Bangin’ award is Bruce Ciskie's. He's got Wisconsin idling at #17, up one after a bye week. I enjoy Bruce's skepticism because Michigan has to play Wisconsin next week and I'll take any faint hope of victory I can get.
Site note: we've got another post-loss rope-a-dope, this from the Joe Cribbs Car Wash. See what I am saying about this category?
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.
After a one-week hiatus for another resume guy to win this award, DocSat picks up Mr. Manic-Depressive again. It's not hard to see why: LSU went from out of the poll to #6, and that was only one in a vast array of changes.
MOOS takes Mr. Stubborn after not re-ordering anyone in its top 14; surely there had to be some change in opinion given the events of the weekend, no?
BHGP . . .
. . . said that their ballot is purely resume-based starting this week.
"If week 4 is enough data for the AP, it's enough for us. This week,
BHGP switches over to pure resume ranking, and the differences from
last week are stark."
http://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2008/9/23/619870/blogplol-week-4-the-...
September 24th, 2008 at 1:34 PM
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Not quite right.
"With BYU living the high life at #11, there are now four non-BCS teams in the top twenty five with Fresno State on the doorstep."
I think you mean 5. You are forgetting that team that beat us.
"If left isn't right, then right is all you have left. Right?" - Beagly Beagly to the Great Grape Ape
