BlogPoll Week 10

Previously: Preseason; Week 2; Week 3; Week 4; Week 5; Week 6; Week 7; Week 8; Week 9.

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

We have a #1: Ohio State. We have a #2: Michigan. We then have a virtual dead heat for the next four spots, with West Virginia, Florida, Auburn, and Texas all within 0.2 PPB of each other.

Our lone Michigan holdout is Black Shoe Diaries, a PSU blog.

Fallers: The loss USC had been flirting with all year finally came and the bottom fell out on their ranking; Clemson got pantsed by previously inept Virginia Tech and took a nine-spot fall. Nebraska was ejected entirely after losing to Oklahoma State.

Risers: Florida's inexplicable five-spot jump is... well, fairly inexplicable. They passed one team that lost, Southern Cal, and then leapt Louisville, Auburn, Tennessee, and Texas. The latter three all had struggles versus inferior teams and were in serious danger of losing to the unranked and unloved, but was Florida's seven-point cocktail win much more impressive? Georgia remains a decidedly meh team. In any case: they shoot upwards, but may not hold onto that spot for long with the tight spacing in that area of the poll.

The rest is pretty rote one or two spot jumps due to the fall of Clemson or USC or whatever. Notable: Boston College continues to climb, leaping Rutgers and LSU.

Wack Ballot Watchdog:

• I'm not sure which is weirder: the guys with Arkansas way up in their top tens (two #3 votes, two #4s, three #5s, and a #6) or Corey Long from Tomahawk Nation dumping them in at #21.
• Pitch Right hates #17 Cal and loves #10 Boise State.
• Our Central Michigan voter has the Chips #25. Hey, they're undefeated in the MAC and stuff.
• West Virginia's vote pattern is just bizarre. A big chunk of voters have them #3 behind the two Big Ten giants, but they have between two and four votes in every bin from #2 down to #12 with the exception of #3 (lots) and #6 (none).

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 Tomahawk Nation, an FSU blog. Since its proprietor is no doubt cranky already and liable to hunt me down if pushed too hard, I'll just quickly mention that Rutgers at #8 seems... generous, and placing Louisville #5 and WVU #12 doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Not that I'm much better, having virtually reversed that nonsensical duo in my poll. The Big East: what to do?

Mr. Numb Existence is Nebraska blog Double Extra Point for the second time in a few weeks. As per usual, the thrills and chills of this award are minimal.

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 finally been wrested away from Badger bloggers and is the possession of The House Rock Built, a Notre Dame blog. Booooooo. Notre Dame features at #6 on his ballot: give a man the chance to rank Notre Dame in front of USC and he'll take it.

Straight Bangin' Award goes to EDSBS, still leery about the Florida offense-like substance. It's more a function of everyone else freaking out and elevating the Gators than anything else, though. Last week EDSBS was slightly pessimistic; this week they're very despite bumping the Gators past USC.

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.

Mr. Manic-Depressive is manic indeed, as Rambling Racket moved everyone except OSU, Michigan, and (oddly) #24 Oregon. West Virginia up seven! Florida up eight! Rutgers up eight! USC down ten to #17! Clemson down 14! Did different people file these ballots? I am confused.

Mr. Stubborn is the Catholic Packer Fan, who is shockingly also a ND supporter. He moves a few people a few places, but is content to leave USC around #7 and punish Clemson relatively lightly.