Preseason Blogpoll #2

Note: if you see last week's poll it's a cache thing, I think. Refresh should cure it.

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

Please note that awards nattering has been shelved this week. Sorry, but I've got a preview to write.

Hmmm. Was a second preseason poll worth doing? I don't know. We have about a dozen fewer votes than last week, which undoubtedly adds some jitter, and some movement. Texas and WVU flip after a few bloggers knocked Texas. The most significant movement came from Arkansas (up four) and Tennessee (down three) after some roundtable discussion of these teams' merits. Auburn, also slammed by a few bloggers, fell two spots. No idea why TCU replaced South Carolina in the ballot but there you go.

Final differences in between blogpoll and AP:

• Michigan is #3 and Texas #4 with WVU #5 in the Blogpoll; WVU, perhaps bolstered by schedule-rankers (a practice verboten here), is #3 in the AP. [WVU up to four.]
• The only mid-major in the Blogpoll is #22 Hawaii, which is #23 in the AP. TCU and Boise State are #22 and #24, respectively, in the AP. TCU now in.
• Bloggers believe in the OBC: South Carolina is #23 and not present in the AP.
• Bloggers do not believe in Rutgers, ranking them #21. RU is #16 in the AP.
• Despite the first place vote, Wisconsin comes in at #9 instead of #7 in the AP.
• Oklahoma is #6 instead of #8.
• Bloggers are more into #16 Arkansas than the AP (#21)
• Bloggers are not into Tennessee (#20, #15 AP).

Any opinions about whether or not it's worthwhile to do this dual preseason poll next year are welcome.

Wack Ballot Watchdog:

This chiding is saved for in-season thing. Now everyone's got an opinion that's as defensible as any other (not at all) because no one's played anyone.

Note: the CSS below is messed up. Sorry. Will fix ASAP.

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.

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.

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.

Swing doesn't exist in the year's first poll.