Blogpoll Week Three

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

USC's obliteration of Nebraska is not enough for the Trojans to reclaim the #1 spot from LSU... but it's damn close. The chainsaw-penised gorillas maintain their edge with 31 first place votes to USC's 27. The Trojans do hop past Oklahoma to grab second.

Elsewhere, the big movers are Boston College, up eight after finishing an odd three-game conference swing to open the year, and Alabama, up 11 -- in the poll for the first time this year -- after a narrow victory over the Hogs. Also... uh... Kentucky enters the poll at #17, which is good for them but bad for us since a college football poll without Florida State, Miami, Notre Dame, or Michigan but with Rutgers and Kentucky is an obvious sign of the apocalypse.

Our weekly justification of the BlogPoll's existence:

• LSU #1, obvs.
• Blogpollers have paid attention to the shaky starts of Texas and Wisconsin, #9 and #12, respectively, versus #7 and #9, respectively, in the AP.
• Likewise, blogpollers are high on Oregon (#10 vs #13) and BC (#11 versus #14) after their strong starts against actual competition.
• Kentucky (#17 versus #21) and South Florida (#18 versus #23) are beneficiaries of the same principle.
• We still hate VT: #23 versus #17.
• We also hate Hawaii, #19 in the AP and surely destined for a post-season spot in the top ten for no reason whatsoever... blogpollers have them at #24 mostly because the alternatives are things like Nebraska, Arizona State, and Michigan State.

Wack Ballot Watchdog:

• Why does The Hoosier Report keep voting for Miami? Aaaargh!
• BON isn't a huge outlier on OSU, but it is the blog with the lowest opinion of the Bucks: #15. This is behind South Florida, whose big road win over Auburn looks much less impressive than beating Washington at the moment, Missouri, and Clemson. Which is weird, especially because Texas' struggles against dorky opponents apparently don't phase them: UT is #7.
• FWIW, Dump Dorrell is our only voter with Oklahoma at #1.
• Dan Shanoff: Rutgers #5. Rocky Top Talk: Rutgers #25. FIGHT!
• Saurian Sagacity has South Florida #10, up four after their Auburn win got devalued something fierce. But, hey, at least they voted for USC this week.
• Why is Bruins Nation voting for Tennessee? Arrrrrgh!
• EDSBS has UCLA at #22... no Utah, no Air Force. Ack!
• Falcon Nation has Virginia Tech #8. This is the worst vote of the week.

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.


This week's Mr. Bold. is SMQB again, and it's the resume-ranking thing again, too. Wisconsin, Penn State, and Texas are the last three hangers-on on his ballot. Boston College is #2. Air Force is #16, Kansas #17. Etc. Question: just what has Kansas done against CMU, Toledo, and a I-AA team that's better than beating TCU, in the case of Texas, or Washington State, in the case of Wisconsin? This resume stuff seems just as arbitrary as the non-resume stuff.


Mr. Numb Existence is the property of Double Extra Point... which I think is like the fourth or fifth time they've won it. That is pretty remarkable. Also enjoyed by DEP: white toast.


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.


Last week:

The CK Award Ramblin' Racket returns to wrest the CK Award away from Bruins Nation after a one-week hiatus. Last year any blogger with the hubris to rank high in this category saw his team immediately struck down... GT #5 deserves some smiting, oh yes.

This weekend: BC 24, GT 10, and it wasn't really even that close. I would also point out that this year's other winner was Bruins Nation, and they're on a week long FIRE DORRELL!!! bender after UCLA got clunked 44-6. By Utah. Which isn't even a state. Do not win this category.

Who's next? 'Bama, of course. Journo Rock ranks Alabama 11th. Woe be unto him should the Tide fall.


The Straight Bangin' Award is Card Chronicle's after that whole losing to Kentucky thing. UL didn't have far to drop after the Middle Tennessee near-debacle, coming in #22 on CC's last ballot, but now they're gone entirely.

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 goes to Dawg Sports. When you entirely throw out your previous insane ballot in favor of something way more sane after the weekend's results, you tend to win here. [items in italics are the only words changed from last week.]


My Opinion On Sports wins Mr. Stubborn. Nebraska drops only two spots? WTF?