BlogPoll Week Four Comment Count

Brian
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

Votes by blog here, votes by team here.

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.”

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?

Comments

Lordfoul

September 24th, 2008 at 11:30 AM ^

"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.