Preseason Blogpoll #1

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.

Hey, kids! What's going on? We've all got this poll here. USC is your #1 by an overwhelming margin, as you might expect. The fruitcakes who think USC is not the greatest team in the history of all time (links all go to ballots):

• Falcon Nation voted for LSU.
• Dawg Sports voted for Michigan. (Awww.)
• Cock & Fire and Dump Dorrell went with Texas.
• Bruins Nation and The Bemusement Park went with West Virginia.
• 50-Yard Lion and Frank McGrath voted for Florida.
• The Enlightened Spartan picked Wisconsin.

So there you go.

There are some significant differences between the Blogpoll and the AP:

• Michigan is #3 and Texas #4 with WVU #5 in the Blogpoll; WVU, perhaps bolstered by schedule-rankers (a practice verboten here), is #3 in the AP.
• The only mid-major in the Blogpoll is #22 Hawaii, which is #23 in the AP. TCU and Boise State are #22 and #24, respectively, in the AP.
• Bloggers believe in the OBC: South Carolina is #23 and not present in the AP.
• Bloggers do not believe in Rutgers, ranking them #21. RU is #16 in the AP.
• Despite the first place vote, Wisconsin comes in at #9 instead of #7 in the AP.
• Oklahoma is #6 instead of #8.

Wack Ballot Watchdog:

This chiding is saved for in-season thing. Now everyone's got an opinion that's as defensible as any other (not at all) because no one's played anyone.

Note: the CSS below is messed up. Sorry. Will fix ASAP.

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.

USC is the least divisive team, obviously. Michigan follows, then Texas and Oklahoma. More interesting are the most disagreed-upon teams in the poll: Arkansas, Georgia, Florida State, and South Carolina. Arkansas has all the Nutt trauma, Georgia has a true sophomore QB and no offensive line, Florida State an entirely new offensive brain trust, and South Carolina has a bunch of returning starters plus the OBC.

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 Ramblin' Racket. This is due in no small part to RR ranking GT #10, which also won him the CK Award. Other ballot weirdness, with the caveat that this is a preseason poll and RR is entitled to whatever opinions he desires so long as he can defend them: #5 Cal, #6 Arkansas, #7 Oklahoma State(!!! -- a misclick? must be an OU misclick), #17 Ohio State, #18 Oklahoma (!!! -- not a misclick!), #19 UL, #20 UW. Lucy: 'splain, please.

Mr. Numb Existence is USC blog Conquest Chronicles. As per usual there's not that much to comment on in this category. Congratulations to CC for being most in-tune with the blogger hive mind.

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 for preseason ballot #1 goes to Ramblin' Racket for ranking Georgia Tech #10. I have a long memory for this: Ramblin' Racket won this last year for ranking the Jackets #8. What part of "Chan Gailey Equilibrium" does RR not understand?

Also, for a blog that wants Karl Dorrell run out of town on a rail for being the worst coach in the history of the universe, Bruins Nation sure is enthusiastic about UCLA's chances this year. What's the deal? If he's really that awful a coach how can that ranking be justified?

Straight Bangin' Award continues a rich tradition of being the near-exclusive province of Michigan bloggers -- a bunch of Eeyores, we are -- by going to the M Zone. Michigan is #11 on their ballot. Also note the more philosophically consistent position of Dump Dorrell, if you would.

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.

Swing doesn't exist in the year's first poll.