August 18, 2008

Beyond Polls: Where do the top teams stand?

With the 2008 Preseason Coaches Football Poll and 2008 Preseason AP Football poll in the books for the upcoming football season, it's time to drill down a little deeper into the polls and determine where the nation's top ranked college football teams stand in the eyes of the poll voters.

To get a better feel for where teams really stand in the eyes of the poll voters, we'll look at the actual poll ranking, and then the highest and lowest ballot positions for each of the top teams.

A couple of *very* interesting notes jump off the page:

- Not everyone is drinking the Florida Gatorade. That said, the poll votes do not vary as widely for UF as they do for some of the top ten teams. For example, WVU is all over the map.

- Despite their lower initial rankings, both USC and Oklahoma do not seem to face the inital doubts that poll voters have with Ohio State, as represented by the Buckeyes broader standard deviation. While the USC/tOSU game should answer a lot of questions, a loss could put the Bucks well into the lower top ten or high teens.

- Without even having an opportunity to get in sync, it appears that "group think " has set in re: Auburn - very even distribution with the votes.

UPDATE

By request, the complete list who votes in the AP poll and the ballots of the AP voters.

Posted by Kevin Donahue

Comments:

Beyond Polls: Where do the top teams stand?
With the 2008 Preseason Coaches Football Poll and 2008 Preseason AP Football poll in the books for the upcoming football season, it's time to drill down a little deeper into the polls and determine where the nation's top ranked college football teams stand in the eyes of the poll voters. To get a better feel for where teams really stand in the eyes of the poll voters, we'll look at the actual poll ranking, and then the highest and lowest ballot positions for each of the top teams.

TEAM	AP Poll	Highest Ranking	Lowest Ranking
Georgia	1	1	7
Ohio State	2	1	13
Southern Cal	3	1	7
Oklahoma	4	1	11
Florida	5	1	21
Missouri	6	2	15
LSU	7	2	18
WVU	8	3	unranked
Clemson	9	5	22
Auburn	10	5	unranked

A couple of *very* interesting notes jump off the page: - Not everyone is drinking the Florida Gatorade. That said, the poll votes do not vary as widely for UF as they do for some of the top ten teams. For example, WVU is all over the map. - Despite their lower initial rankings, both USC and Oklahoma do not seem to face the inital doubts that poll voters have with Ohio State, as represented by the Buckeyes broader standard deviation. While the USC/tOSU game should answer a lot of questions, a loss could put the Bucks well into the lower top ten or high teens. - Without even having an opportunity to get in sync, it appears that "group think " has set in re: Auburn - very even distribution with the votes.

UPDATE

By request, the complete list who votes in the AP poll and the ballots of the AP voters.