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Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Previously: Preseason; Week 2; Week 3.

Hurray, that's the poll hurray. If you're interested, you can see all the individual ballots here.

Ha ha: AP pollers suxor.

Fallers: Notre Dame, obviously, after getting BEAT DOWN by Michigan. They fell significantly, though the BlogPoll didn't punish them as severely as the AP or Coaches poll, leaving them #13.

Florida State was the most bludgeoned team, dropping fully ten slots to #22. I'm amazed they're still in the poll at all. Miami was crushed by Louisville, making that win seem significantly less quality, and then FSU should have been crushed by Clemson. The only thing keeping FSU remotely close was running back blocked kicks. Without those the final score is probably 31-11. And yet they remain. Bad poll!

Tennessee only fell one spot after losing to Florida -- last week their unimpressive win over Air Force caused them to drop three. Nebraska's uninspiring loss to USC saw them drop six spots.

Risers: Clemson went from out of the poll to #19 after their thoroughly dominating victory over FSU, even if such domination wasn't reflected on the scoreboard. Oklahoma actually moved up a spot after their controversial loss to Oregon -- Oregon jumped two. TCU finds themself at 15, which I'm not a huge fan of, since they've not done much more than the teams around them and have definitely done less than, say, Tennessee.

Wack Ballot Watchdog: Why does Fresno blogger MDG's otherwise sane ballot feature Colorado at #16? Why is anyone voting for Florida State? I mean: look at all these ballots. Three people have them anywhere from #12 to #13. That goes quadruple for the seven people still hanging on to 1-2 Miami.

Meanwhile, Frank McGrath, uh: Notre Dame #8, Michigan #12? Should I point you to this again?

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.



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 JournoRock. Let us count the ways:
  • UGA #2 (and Auburn #1. Sothern Speed, baby!)
  • TCU #6. WTF?
  • FSU at (gack) #12.
  • 'Bama #13.
  • Florida at #14.
  • Miami ranked.
Explain thyself.

Mr. Numb Existence is the Georgia Sports Blog. As per usual there's nothing interesting about this category. But we'll point you to some hilarious trash talk from Colorado featured on their site.




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 continues its strange power over overrated teams, lulling Wisconsin into the danger zone: their game versus San Diego State was tied at zero until midway through the third quarter. So you might expect Michigan State to get an unholy whooping at the hands of Notre Dame, as The Enlightened Spartan has them freakin' ninth, a spot ahead of Michigan. Also, Badger Sports be warned: this is one week when having zero points midway through the third will be a ticket to lossville, population Florida State and Miami.

Straight Bangin' Award does not go to Schembechler Hall, who was forced to raise Michigan 12 spots to #7 and thus plummet to fourth in the balloting. Our new winner is UGA blog Hey Jenny Slater, who is appropriately wary of a true freshman quarterback in the SEC, no matter how shirtless he is.




Swing is essentially 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.

Mr. Manic-Depressive is The House Rock Built, who can be excused for the depressive bit after Michigan's BEAT DOWN of Notre Dame. A lot of movement on his board: both Big East teams shoot up after impressive performances. Iowa leaps twelve spots after beating ISU. ASU up, UT and ND down lots. I am curious, though, about what Texas did against Rice that merited an eight-slot drop.

Mr. Stubborn has a bit of a glitch in it. Tennessee newbie Corn From A Jar submitted his first ballot when the insert point was still week three, then made a minor modification to his ballot after the issue was corrected. So pay no attention to that "4". But do pay attention to the man who created the phrase "We Must Protect This Cheese."

Our real victor is Pitch Right, who didn't move much stuff around unless he was trying to be CRAZY. Notre Dame rises three? Oregon plummets, Oklahoma rockets? Uh... I can understand the sentiment behind the latter but it's gonna get real metaphysical around here if attending to that win-loss column is optional


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