ESPN Traditions Poll Semi-final Ends Today
For those of you who haven't been following this over the last week, it has been quite funny.
I think it started out honestly for the most part. On the first day both schools were neck-and-neck with high voter participation. Then over night Nebraska jumped out to a million vote lead. It was obvious that they had some kind of automated voting "bot" working on their behalf.
It didn't take long before Michigan's computer folks retook the lead. Surging to a 7 million vote margin and a 72% to 28% lead.
Well as the poll is set to close today at noon the Husker "bots" are working hard to claim the victory. 7 hours ago the Michigan lead had slipped to 70%/30%. 4 hours ago it was 67%/33%. 2 hours ago it was 65%/35%. Now it's 61%/39% with over 14 million votes cast and about 4 hours to go.
If you would like to track the battle of the "bots", check out the site.
http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/post/_/id/6711772/11-michigan-vs-15-nebraska
...a Cornhusker / Wolverine rivalry all the way down to the nerd level! Good stuff.
Nebraska was winning last week by around the same margin ..I guess our techies are better than theirs
If you type in Nebraska football fan forum and look at that website, they have the program ACTUALLY in the forum, discussing how it got shut down then having the AUDACITY to call out Big Blur for using a bot ( hopefully some of you were able to use the Flash Crackbot that I sent you if you PMed me.
<br>-Chet
with the number of votes, we probably both did, so w/e
um, you can go ahead and remove the probably from that statement. at this point, it's well established that both of us are cheating. we're just cheating better.
Why would they call out Kentucky?
Are you INSANE? Alright buddy it's Big Blue, get over yourself. The term has been uses many times on national broadcasts of football games and softball, I think it's safe to say that we can all say "Big Blue" without fear of ridicule from asinine Mongoloids. Hail!
<br>-Chet
You know that we can already see that it's you who posted, right?
-MGoTarHeel
It doesn't hurt to make sure everyone really knows it's you.
-MAgoBLUE
Agreed. Better safe than sorry.
-marlon
" I think it's safe to say that we can all say "Big Blue" without fear of ridicule from asinine Mongoloids."
Apparently not. And, by the way, "Big Blue" refers to Kentucky, or a computer, not Michigan. Unless, of course, your fandom is dictated by the ESPN ingoramuses.
Also acceptable for the New York Giants and IBM.
-MAgoBLUE
Whatever. Its not Big Blue, so how about you get over yourself.
And Michigan Stadium was called Michigan Stadium for most of my life until a TV guy called it the Big House and suddenly that was ok. Things can change. The "Big Blue" police are tiresome.
"until a TV guy called it the Big House and suddenly that was ok."
That was OK because it was awesome (and that "TV guy" was Keith Jackson). Big Blue is stupid.
Speaking of Keith Jackson, a week or so ago a user asked for input regarding Keith Jackson led TV broadcasts of Michigan games in the past. I added the Texas A & M game from the 1977. WolverineHistorian added an embedded video of that game.
Watching it, I was shocked to hear Keith Jackson refer to Michigan as the 'Wolves' a number of times. I assume he did that for other games as well, but that it never took because any Michigan fan in WJR's footprint watching the game had the sound down and Ufer on the transistor.
Really...the Wolves
~ acnumber1
and not necessarily an advocate for Big Blue myself; but didn't Mike Hart refer to UM as Big Blue at least once? Pretty sure he did because I remember a mini shit storm back then, as well.
Bob Ufer referred to Michigan as "big blue" on multiple occasions. FYI.
would be ok to be called Big Blue if there wasn't already another major division school that has used this nickname for years. A lot of my family is from KY and over the years I have learned to despise anything related to UK.
He did capitalize the M.
It's kind of like "retard". It was the accepted term for Down Syndrome back in pre '80's.
can we get the MGoBots to downvote every post that mentions Big Blue on this site?
it's definitely feasible
of course it would downvote your post as well since you have the naughty words in there.
Need to add my "Big Blue" two cents.
NOBODY on campus or anyone in Ann Arbor says "Big Blue." It's stupid. We hate it. I can understand why some fans with no affiliation to the school or Ann Arbor may be confused because that idiot Lee Corso won't stop saying it, but it is NOT a nickname for Michigan Football.
Acceptable Michigan Football Nicknames:
- Wolverines
- Football
- Maize and Blue
- Varsity
Someone should tell the cheerleaders. They have a chant that cheers for Big Blue.
I voted, again, not that it matters. I also voted for FSU over Nd, again. I like the 81-19 beatdown FSU's bots are delivering on Nd :-)
Battlebots! I used to love that show! Glad to see they're still duking it out over at ESPN.com in life-after-television.
But seriously, the silver lining is that we've gained a fanbase here in the Big Ten, in similar scope and enthusiasm, with the Wolverine Nation that doesn't involve Ohio (or the rest of the south).
its been all in good-natured rivalry fun. I think the two fan bases took the event and got to know one another more, there were some good comments posted.
I watch a lot of B1G FB living in Chicago and wasn't aware of the Touch the Banner tradition. When UM fans visit us in Lincoln, hopefully they'll have more appreciation for our Tunnel Walk. So I think the poll actually served its purpose
I agree, and I think we're all excited for a rivalry between Nebraska and Michigan.
Also, I would advise you to make the trip to AA for the Neb - Mich game this year to see our pregame first hand. I know I'll be in Lincoln next year.
but maybe I'll make the drive just to soak in the atmosphere first hand. Where's a good place to watch the game in walking distance of Michigan Stadium where I could wear red?
Someone needs to get our bots up and running, it's only 60% to 40% now.
At the current rate they're gaining at, they'd pass us around 2pm. Sooner than that maybe.
The gaining has slowed to half of what it was.
It says new brackets start at noon on Tuesdays. The bots must be cranking because it took the page a while to load.
Edit: Who gets the free copies of NCAA 2012 when UM wins? MGOBLOG?
FSU's nerds are at it too. They're up 80%-20% with almost 2 million votes.
this makes me so proud to be a michigan engineer. seriously.
It changes over at noon, and i don't think they can catch us in the time remaining. I think I better go start reinstalling Linux just in case though.
We have a bot working for us? I thought it was just a bunch of guys opening every browser they own and voting. Whatever happened to good ole fashion hard work?
one good bot is worth far more than hard work.
we started playing fair. once it became obvious they were cheating, the gloves came off. lesson learned: don't mess with michigan techies.
...they posted a script on Huskerboard last night and that's when they really took off. It looks like they're a little too late, but they're voting at a rate we hadn't seen until now.
...but once the bots took over, there was no point in voting that way.
gaining on us, its at 59-41!
Good. If it actually looks respectably close at the end, maybe ESPN will leave things alone and we'll be able to deploy the bots for the final.
pretty sure the fact that 5% of the u.s. population must have "voted" in this poll to reach those numbers gives away that we're both cheating. it looks like ND is the only team that's relying on actual human votes. suckers. that's what you get for essentially not having an engineering department.
It helps that the Master of the Intewebs, Larry Page (Google Co-Founder & CEO), is a Michigan alumnus. Nebraska has no chance. They started the bot war, we will end it.
With all of the computer engineers around here, we should be able to have bots that smoke just about anybody.
Long time reader, first time poster.
Nebraska isn't actually gaining on us, not in absolute terms. Our lead has been approx. 3M votes for at least the last 2 hours.
As the bots continue to rapidly increase the total vote count, our lead is shrinking on a percentage basis only.