AP Polls Individual Ballots- Interesting
I was reading an article on ESPN, and was directed to a link which allows you to see the individual polls of all 60 voters. The state of Michigan has 2 people voting, Angelique Chengelis (The Detroit News) and Joe Rexrode (Lansing State Journal). Angelique has Michigan ranked 22, Rexrode has them ranked 24. Michigan clocked in at #23 in the poll.
Here is the link- http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/specials/top25_front/voters.html?SIT…
After looking at all of the polls here are some quick observations.
-Michigan was ranked in 46 of 60 polls. 6 Southern polls, 3 Western polls, 4 Midwest Polls, and 1 East Poll (W.Virginia FWIW) excluded them.
-They got some nice national love. Of the 4 national media members with votes, all of them ranked Mich. Craig James (ABC) and Tom Hart (CBS CSN) had them ranked 12th and 11th respectively.
-Doug Lesmerises (Clev, OH) had Mich ranked 10th
Just thought this was a fun way to see how people around the country view different teams. I really wish this was the case with the Coaches Poll too.
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:02 PM ^
how the heck did oh*o get three poll voters? and i thought the electoral college was faulty.
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:12 PM ^
The AP poll has no bearing on who gets to play in postseason bowls.
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:58 PM ^
But the reality is that voters in the other polls see the AP Poll and are often influenced by the Poll. Thus, going up or down in the AP poll may have a bearing on who gets the BCS bowl bids.
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:00 PM ^
OK, fair enough, but he was making a comparison to the electoral college which directly decides who becomes president.
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:59 PM ^
There are more DI football teams in Ohio than in any other state except Texas so I think 3 is fine. Of course one of those is Herbie and I'd say that's more a national ballot because of all the traveling he does w/ ESPN.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NCAA_Division_I_FBS_football_progr…
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:07 PM ^
It would be pretty cool if someone figured out how to visualize this on a map. Im gonna try and figure out a good way in the next few weeks when ive got some time
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:49 PM ^
You select a team from a drop-down list and it shows a heat map over the United States that says how the polls rated them
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:57 PM ^
Great Idea!!!
I have no idea how to do this, but it would be awesome to do. I think that it would be interesting to see the regional biases that take place as the season goes on.
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:33 PM ^
That sounds like a great idea, I will try and figure out the nuts and bolts soon. If someone beats me to the punch let me know.
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:08 PM ^
Not sure what or how you were planning on doing it, but PHP has a heatmap class you can use that would make it fairly easy. http://www.labsmedia.com/clickheat/heatmap.html
I haven't looked at this closely enough but it seems to me the hardest part is grabbing the poll results and info (poller, location, etc) every week. I'd hate for it to be a manual entry every week, that would be painful. Really, this is the type of thing that AP should be doing themselves or at least opening an API to the information to let third parties do it.
Let me know if you want some help with this, it sounds like a cool project and I do like to code! (nerd)
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:37 PM ^
The only real problem i can see here is that there is not enough coverage for a sample. Does anyone know how many blog poll votes there are? Are there other reputable polls that matter?
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:07 PM ^
How does FSU curb-stomp BYU in Utah and end up 5 spots behind them in the USA Today poll?
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:39 PM ^
I found this pretty perplexing as well. Especially, when the AP poll was so different from the Coach's poll. I can't recall a time when the two polls were so off from each other on a number of different teams.
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:09 PM ^
nice research.
It reminds me of something that someone told me when Rich was hired. Basically a friend told me not to wear the UM gear while traveling through West Virginia. After my initial barrage of jokes (why on earth would I want to travel through West Virginia, I already stick out with all my teeth, wouldn't the sound of my mechanical horse scare them away, etc.), I asked why. He said "Because nobody holds a grudge like a West Virginian."
I laughed it off and said they'll be fine and one day they'll forget Rich was even there, and he said "No way. Those people bring hate to a new level. They'll hate Rich Rod til the day he dies, and his shiny new school too."
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:32 PM ^
Can we avoid using "curb stomp". That is about as pleasing of a mental image as "dick tear" or "Tom Hammond".
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:34 PM ^
I'm not surprised that the West Virginia voter left Michigan out. West Virginians are still angry over Rich Rod leaving, just visit one of their message boards sometime. I'm interested though to see his vote next week should Michigan beat Indiana.
Another voter I found to be quite homerish is this guy: Rich Kaipust Omaha (NE) World-Herald. He too left Michigan out, but somehow managed to put Nebraska at #25. What? My guess is that this is somehow related to 1997.
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:46 PM ^
have Michigan on the verge of the top 10.....thats ludicrous.
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:42 PM ^
Some of these voters may be giving Michigan a bump is the polls for beating ND, while many schools have been rolling over cup cakes early in the season.
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:46 PM ^
WOW, the fact that James and Hart have UM ranked 12th and 11th respectively is amazing. Saturday can't get here soon enough.
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:54 PM ^
A Michigan-WV bowl matchup would be epic.
EDIT: oops, meant this to be a reply to the guy talking about West Virginians holding grudges.
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:24 PM ^
... votes in one giant block, and usually for members of that block in sports (and politics). Theirs is a house united.
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:07 PM ^
I'm not excited about high poll rankings we don't deserve, and other people shouldn't be either (unless it's after the bowls). Yeah, the high rankings are probably from "resume" type voters, but we have many, many chances to lose still, and I still don't see us as better than OSU.
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:02 PM ^
I like Graig James, but that's a little high. We come out
of Iowa City 6-0 and I'll buy it. I do like the way we're
working our way up the polls.
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:59 PM ^
Today, ESPN compared Doug Lesmerises poll vs the actual poll.... then put Herbstreit on there to talk about it... according to Herb, Lesmerises ranks based on that week only, not on the past or potential of the team and tries to keep biases out of it so one team could shoot up or shoot down based on that one week performance...