Blogpoll Week Ten

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

After ten crazy weeks, things begin to solidify. Ohio State increases its grasp on the top spot, but Oregon surges into second by a tiny margin -- they do have a slight advantage in points that's not reflected in the rounded numbers above -- on the strength of a solid victory over then-undefeated Arizona State. Clemson is the week's biggest winner, BC and Alabama the biggest losers; the Week of Anarchy this ain't.

Wack Ballot Watchdog:

• Your Oregon voters: MGoBlog, Boi From Troy, Addicted To Quack, and Rocky Top Talk.
• Everybody loves them some spread option, but Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician puts WVU #2, in front of Oregon and LSU, which is completely indefensible.
• Speaking of indefensible: VT #4, up eight. OSU #9, down 3. Michigan #18, down 11, Cal #13, up eight. Boi From Troy? Boi From Troy.
• Pitch Right ranks Oregon #9. In front of the Ducks: UConn.
• Cal Golden Blogs drops Missouri down to #14 for no apparent reason.
• Sigh. MGoBlog ranks South Florida #16; no one else goes higher than #20. What a knob.
• There are no fewer than five Duke-style votes for Navy after the Middies broke their 43-year run of futility against Notre Dame.
• We've been over how I loathe the idea of Hawaii in the top ten, so we'll skip the indigation and just point out the offenders: Big Red Network and My Opinion On Sports both rank Hawaii #3.
• Dan Shanoff's East Coast bias what? UConn #5.

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 Big Red Network, who you might forgive since he just saw Kansas score 76 points on Nebraska -- he must assume this is opposite day. A major reason for the win is #3 Hawaii; #13 Cincinnati and #15 Boise State are also generous. The SEC and portions of the Big Ten take major hits as BRN goes mid-major mad. Again, I query anyone who has Hawaii in the top ten: why?


Last week:

Creepy mind-reading domination of this category by Double Extra Point continues: they win Mr. Numb Existence for the third time this year and fifth or sixth in their two years of participation. A salute to you, sirs, and a request for lotto numbers when you get the time.

This week: Double Extra Point. WTF? I'm freaked out by this.


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.



Oh, don't think that I wasn't silently cursing foul pundit gods with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter of the Michigan State game. But, lo, our penance was accepted and our offense relatively minor, so we were released from the Vader chokehold and, chastened, vow never to tempt the wrath of fate again.

The CK Award will probably not be so kind to California Golden Blogs, which ranks the Bears #18, up six after a stirring three-point victory against... uh... Washington State. USC is up next. Lo, prepare to meet thy doom. (For the fourth time this year.)


Straight Bangin' Award has been the near-exclusive province of Florida and USC blogs this year and this week is no exception. Four of the top five are blogs representing those particular schools, including #1 and #2. This week's winner: Conquest Chronicles, which has USC #20.

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 EDSBS for the second straight week, though this can be interpreted more as Orson bringing his ballot into line with reality after EDSBS won Mr. Bold. Last week's #12 (Wake), #14 (Cal), and #16 (Tenn) all drop out. USC jumps up to #12 from unranked, and everyone else runs around going "ahhhh".



Mr. Stubborn is Rocky Top Talk; there's hardly any movement as you might expect. Alabama up one after losing to LSU, though? What? Maybe if they had outplayed the Tigers I could see it, but a lot of bad interceptions and penalties on LSU's part don't make for stirring nobility in defeat. Alabama got outgained badly.

Oh, yes: Black Shoe Diaries is a co-winner.