BlogPoll Week 11

Previously: Preseason; Week 2; Week 3; Week 4; Week 5; Week 6; Week 7; Week 8; Week 9; Week 10.

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

Risers: Louisville claims the #3 spot by virtue of turning the ball over just a little bit less than WVU. Many teams benefit from the falls of Clemson, Boston College, Tennessee, and WVU. Of note are Arkansas hopping over ND, Maryland entering the poll, and Wake Forest up four to #18.

Fallers: The aforementioned Clemson, Boston College, Tennessee, and WVU.

Wack Ballot Watchdog:

• Dammit, I hate it when this happens: my hatred for Auburn is unmatched amongst pollsters. I have them #12.
• What is with Boi From Troy and Off Tackle ranking BC #12 and #13, respectively? (Note: BFT says that the ballot entered was erroneous and he didn't get his update in before the deadline.)
• BFT also has ND #3, BTW, which is not in error.
• 50-Yard Lion has UW at #7, which seems high to me. Meanwhile, Eagle in Atlanta has them #21, which seems low to me.

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 NC State blogger Section Six, though the victory is less bold than they usually are. I can find nothing exceptionally weird on this ballot. Oklahoma (#11) is a little high, as is Clemson (#19). ND (#13) and Arkansas (#15) are low, but nothing completely insane leaps off the page. So, uh, yeah.

Mr. Numb Existence is once again Double Extra Point for the third time this season. The voting equivalent of dry white toast, it should come as no surprise that DEP is a Nebraska blog.

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 goes to Tennessee's Corn From A Jar, who has the Vols at #10, down four. LSU bolts up 7 spots to #9, resulting in a net +3 for the SEC after a conference game. Theory: this is why the SEC has so many teams in the top 10.

Straight Bangin' Award goes to Off Tackle, an A&M blog with the Aggies unranked after their narrow loss to OU. Was it really so bad, Off Tackle Tom?

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 Dan Shanoff, who (I'm assuming) forgot West Virginia on his ballot. As they were #2 a week ago, this naturally inflates one's swinginess.

Mr. Stubborn is BGSU's The DJL Zone, but 48 is a perfectly reasonable amount of difference on a ballot and so no berating is forthcoming.