Blogpoll Week 6

Previously: Preseason; Week 2; Week 3; Week 4; Week 5.

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



Fallers: Virginia Tech had a flimsy resume and a lofty ranking, fell behind 21-0 at home versus Georgia Tech, and eventually lost by 11 despite a couple patented Reggie Ball moments. This equals a massive 11 spot plunge for the Hokies. Iowa also took it on the chin after falling flat versus Ohio State. TCU dropped out entirely after their 31-17 loss to Mormons.

Also of note: minor moves downward for Georgia (a second straight inept offensive performance versus presumably overmatched competition), Nebraska (overtime? Against Kansas?), and Texas (voters don't cotton to Sam Houston State matchups).

Risers: Georgia Tech shoots up after the aforementioned victory. A bunch of other schools move up one to three slots after Iowa and VT thud to earth.

Also of note: last week the top five were split into three tiers: OSU at about 24.5 points per ballot, Auburn and SC with about 23, and Michigan and Florida with about 21. This week, both Auburn and SC lose ground. They've mostly ceded it to Michigan, who now hoever around 22.

Wack Ballot Watchdog: Featuring Things That Just Plain Don't Make No Sense:

• Dawg Sports: UT #10 (up five after defeating mighty Memphis), UF #12 (down two after beating Alabama and possessor of a win at Neyland).
• JournoRock has Georgia #4. LISTEN TO THE GEORGIA BLOGGERS.
• Pitt Blather and Rambling Racket have GT above ND... I guess you can make a plausible argument for that based on loss quality or something.
• TAMABINPO still has Iowa #9.
• Penn State? Really? Miami? Utah?

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 House Rock Built for a third straight week. Ballot contains nothing truly odd until you get to #10 Boise -- didn't we have this discussion last year? -- #14 LSU, #19 WVU, and #20 Texas. All right, a lot of people dropped Texas for its flimsy resume, but come on now. At least a portion of the disagreement will be solved with this weekend's games, so expect someone else in this slot next week. (Right?)

Mr. Numb Existence is also a repeat from last week: Men of the Scarlet and Grey. Congratulations, and may your entire football team come down with scurvy November 17th.

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 apparently expended much of its fell power already this season, failing to punish Ramblin' Racket for last week's transgression. This week the RR ballot features the Wreck #10... four slots ahead of Notre Dame, who beat them. The voting gods are displeased.

Straight Bangin' Award is again the exclusive domain of Georgia bloggers... anyone think we should be listening to them? Co-winners this week are Hey Jenny Slater and The Cover Two, both of whom rated the Dawgs 7.38 points worse than the poll average. Congratulations: that's a gap worthy of this award any day.

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 Navy blogger Pitch Right... and come on now, Boise #6? Purdue rises four to #21? Rutgers up four after a 2-point win over the very tip of America's Wang? Arkansas?

Mr. Stubborn was kiboshed by further ballot snafus. It'll be back next week.