AP Poll Voters...

[billybud]

I like to watch the variance in AP poll voters...especially those who stray way off from the rest of the voters...

Chadd Cripe an AP voter for the Idaho Statesman voted the hometown Boise State team #2 in his poll (which is OK by almoat everybody..I have Boise up pretty far).

But.. also no other voter had FSU lower. Of course he was doing his best to make sure Boise ranked ahead of FSU in the polls. When you are way out on the far edge of the curve, motives get suspected.

Randy Rosetta of The Baton Rouge Advocate voted FSU the highest of the voters at #2 (yes, one ahead of LSU). Of course his motives are pure and should not be suspected and his honesty is refreshing..LOL

I guess they keep a patrol car parked in front of his house.

[billybud]

Now...Ira Schoffel, the Tallahassee Democrat voter, has Boise lower than any other voter....A planned wash out?

Ahhhh...these voters! I don't care how they vote if they are honest...But sometimes I suspect skullduggery.

[Dossenator]

Two voters in CA did not have Arkansas in their top 25 today, but still have Georgia in their top 25 today. Polls this early are pretty meaningless. We will find out soon enough who the pretenders are.

[Spence]

Now...Ira Schoffel, the Tallahassee Democrat voter, has Boise lower than any other voter....A planned wash out?

Ahhhh...these voters! I don't care how they vote if they are honest...But sometimes I suspect skullduggery.

That is the problem. Nothing wrong with voting the hometown team higher, but voting another team lots lower is what messes up the poll.

[WoVeU]

When you talk about Top 5 or even 10 this early...I give much slack. If you vote a Boise 2 higher than everyone else, well then you had to vote somebody down...as long as it isn't more than a couple off.

But the case Doss brings up is ridiculous...those 2 alpha-55-clowns should lose their vote! Knowing no more negative info than that...would you let them run your cash register?

[Spence]

What Doss brings up show those guys don't know anything about football outside their region.

I have always believed that showing a positive bias doesn't hurt a poll. If I'm an Ohio State fan an vote them several spots high, most others will not so it doesn't hurt. When you show a negative bias, though, like leaving a top team off your poll or voting them 10-15 spots down - especially after a good win- and both Boise State and Florida State had good wins. Florida State played a bad team, but beat them like you should beat a bad team. Boise beat an all right Georgia team with lots of athletes. Neither of those teams should have dropped in anyone's poll. If you are a voter you could make an argument that you want to see of both teams and not move them up more than above the teams that lost, but you don't drop them. I could see how maybe someone who hadn't watched much of Florida State could have started them too low and not moved them up a bunch after the win, but there is no reason to drop them for beating the crud out of Louisiana Monroe and when a defense drops a goose egg on anyone, that is good solid football.

[Dossenator]

Here is one of the CA voters who left Arkansas and Virginia Tech off his top 25: he has Northwestern in at #18, and Georgia at #19.
http://www.pollspeak.com/index.php?opti ... 1315329825

Here is the other CA voter who left Arkansas out:
http://www.pollspeak.com/index.php?opti ... V&Itemid=3

[Spence]

Here is one of the CA voters who left Arkansas and Virginia Tech off his top 25: he has Northwestern in at #18, and Georgia at #19.
http://www.pollspeak.com/index.php?opti ... 1315329825

Here is the other CA voter who left Arkansas out:
http://www.pollspeak.com/index.php?opti ... V&Itemid=3

It is a guy who doesn't pay attention to teams outside his region. Guys like that put in the traditional teams and their regional teams, then maybe his alma mater - I don't know if Northwestern is his alma mater, but they are known for churning out journalists.

[Eric]

That guy also has Virginia Tech unranked

So this guy has Air Force and Hawaii ranked but not Virginia Tech and Arkansas. I'd like to see if he'd be willing to place a bet straight up on those two teams versus the two he left out of his poll if they ever had the opportunity to face each other

[WoVeU]

That guy also has Virginia Tech unranked

So this guy has Air Force and Hawaii ranked but not Virginia Tech and Arkansas. I'd like to see if he'd be willing to place a bet straight up on those two teams versus the two he left out of his poll if they ever had the opportunity to face each other

How bout them Apples? Come on...you don't even have to watch to see Georgia is 0-1. Now if he had them at #12 or something before and Boise State at like 2 or 3...well I can live with it? But Air Force, and I love me some Air Force...they are still squarely living in the "U Gotta Show Me" category! And Hawaii is right there too!

[Eric]

That guy also has Virginia Tech unranked

So this guy has Air Force and Hawaii ranked but not Virginia Tech and Arkansas. I'd like to see if he'd be willing to place a bet straight up on those two teams versus the two he left out of his poll if they ever had the opportunity to face each other

How bout them Apples? Come on...you don't even have to watch to see Georgia is 0-1. Now if he had them at #12 or something before and Boise State at like 2 or 3...well I can live with it? But Air Force, and I love me some Air Force...they are still squarely living in the "U Gotta Show Me" category! And Hawaii is right there too!

I think Hawaii just got credit for drubbing a team with the name "Colorado" on the front of their jerseys on ESPN2, so they were rewarded some brownie points while a few of these voters ignored the fact that Colorado is most likely going to be awful this year. I'm interested to see how Hawaii does on the road at Washington though.

[WoVeU]

Colorado is a tragic and comedic story. Talk about how the mighty have fallen. (Not that they were ever the upper echelon powerhouse.) But how many BCS teams are worse than them?

[warrriorsfan808]

That guy also has Virginia Tech unranked

So this guy has Air Force and Hawaii ranked but not Virginia Tech and Arkansas. I'd like to see if he'd be willing to place a bet straight up on those two teams versus the two he left out of his poll if they ever had the opportunity to face each other

How bout them Apples? Come on...you don't even have to watch to see Georgia is 0-1. Now if he had them at #12 or something before and Boise State at like 2 or 3...well I can live with it? But Air Force, and I love me some Air Force...they are still squarely living in the "U Gotta Show Me" category! And Hawaii is right there too!

This just goes to show you that some voters pick their TOP 25 with a dart board and worse they can't throw darts very well!!!

[Vileborg]

I wrestled with putting Hawaii, Penn St., and USF in the top 25. It's a turkey shoot of 30-35 teams who could be in top 25 right now. Houston, Air Force, Georgia Tech, BYU, and Cincinnati did well enough to argue cases as well a few others.

I penalized teams for decent wins because they didn't have exceptional wins. I penalized FSU (Moved up 1 spot only) specifically because it took them all four quarters to run up 34 points including 10 in the 4th with Manuel still in the game.

USC had a good statistical game but only put up 19 on Minnesota and it was a close game so they actually slid a spot.

Teams that took care of the teams they should have got more love from me. Miss St. got a nice jump, I jumped Baylor into the poll. Florida got some love for a good game. Stanford got what they could. Virginia Tech jumped a few people.

It's still way too early to be really concerned about the polls. The pre-season was everyones best guess and until teams have had a good number of games to gauge them with it's anyones guess where they should be.

[donovan]

I agree with Vileborg, though I did not put Hawaii in the top 25 they came to town and did their business and there were at least 30 other teams that could be there. How many put USC in their top 25 and they are not even eligible. I put Ohio State in my top 25 and they beat some high school and as for a mighty power, if they ever were, went 0-14 last year. Early polls are just that. Only Go Boilers knows what is going to happen these next weeks. And, the fact the AP voters are clueless can not come to any kind of revelation to this group. First they still work for newspapers, which if your newspapers are anything like the ones I read, are as out of date as my wardrobe. Well, maybe not that out of date...but close. Newspapers and the vestiges left, still trying to keep them going have become irrelevant.