Week 12 WORST Voter -- Scott Wolf (Again), Los Angeles Daily News  (posted 11/14/07)

Scott Wolf has repeated as Worst Voter of the Week.  He joins Craig James as the only other voter to be named twice.  James has since cleaned up his act, but Wolf seems to have no desire to follow suit and may go for a hat trick.  As we enter the final weeks of college football, it seems our group of most-extreme voters is staying consistent.  What put Wolf at the top this week was the number of red flags where he was the only voter.  He also won the un-popular vote yet again.  Here are the highlights from his week 12 ballot:

1)  For the second week running, Wolf alone gives Texas their highest ranking at #6 and Kansas its lowest at #8.  Wolf is not only the lone extreme in both cases, but his ordering of these two teams is odd.  Texas still has two losses and Kansas still has zero, and they now have four common opponents:  Oklahoma State, Baylor, Nebraska and Kansas State.

• Texas lost to Kansas State.  Kansas beat them. 
• Texas beat Baylor 31 - 10.  Kansas beat them 58 - 10. 
• Texas beat Nebraska 28 - 25.  Kansas beat them 76 - 39. 
• Texas beat Oklahoma State 38 - 35.  Kansas beat the Cowboys 43-28. 

The case for Kansas being ranked over Texas has gotten stronger each week; however, that hasn't fazed Wolf.  Maybe he is expecting Kansas to lose its last two games, and instead of waiting for it to happen, he is showing his prophetic skills by voting that way now.

2)  Oklahoma can thank Mr. Wolf for its lone #1 vote in the AP Poll.

3)  Wolf also gives Kentucky its highest ranking at #13, Florida its highest ranking at #9, and West Virginia its second highest ranking at #3.   Pollspeak is not saying that these teams are unworthy of the rankings; however, it isn't a good sign when your champion has a pattern of multiple extreme picks. 

4)  In addition to down-grading Kansas, he also gives Oregon its lowest ranking at #4, Arizona State its second lowest at #12, and Ohio State it's lowest at #11. 

There are other items that could be pointed out, but these are the highlights.  We'll let you discuss the rest on our FORUMS.

Week 12 DIS-honorable Mention -- Jon Wilner, San Jose Mercury News (posted 11/14/07)

Another usual suspect is this week's DIS-honorable Mention.  Jon Wilner is no stranger to Pollspeak.  He was Week 10's Worst Voter and has made a few negative cameos in the Quick Hits section.  His week 12 ballot earned him runner-up this week.  The reason he didn't take top honors is due to quality vs. quantity.  Wilner has many votes on the edge...not the most extreme, but really close.  In fact, there are too many occurrences to place him in the Quick Hits section...or it would no longer be quick.

1)  Wilner continues to show an SEC bias.  He is in the top 10% for all ranked SEC teams:  LSU, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky and Auburn. 

2)  The list could get pretty long, so we will just throw everything else into #2.  Here is a list of every team where Wilner is either the extreme or within 10% of the extreme.  Keep in mind, this list constitutes more than half of his entire ballot...that is hard to do without trying:

• Missouri -- highest #3 (1 agree)
• Georgia -- highest #5 (alone)
• Kansas -- #6 (2 agree, 1 lower...Scott Wolf)
• Florida -- highest #9 (1 agree...Scott Wolf)
• Ohio State -- lowest #11 (3 agree)
• Cincinnati -- highest #15 (alone)
• Auburn -- #20 (3 agree, 1 higher)
• Arizona State -- #12 (4 agree, 1 lower)
• Tennessee -- #13 (1 agree, 1 higher)
• Texas -- #17 (1 agree, 1 lower)
• Kentucky -- #18 (1 agree, 6 higher)
• Virginia -- #23 (1 agree, 3 lower)
• Hawaii -- #24 (2 lower)

Once again, there is nothing wrong with many of these picks individually.  It is just when you take the sheer number of extreme picks into account that a concern is raised.  You can see Wilner's reasoning in his own words here:  My AP Poll.

There are other items that could be pointed out, but these are the highlights.  We'll let you discuss the rest on our FORUMS.

Computer Round-Up  (posted 11/14/07)

Computer Round-Up is a quick look at the computer polls; particularly where they disagree with the human polls or with each other.

1)  This week's example of how a late loss can cost you an extra spot or two in the human polls is Ohio State.  Ohio State dropped to #7 in all three human polls this week after their loss to Illinois.  However, the computer polls don't care as much when a loss occurs; the Buckeyes dropped to #5 or #6 in most polls, and only dropped to #2 in Billingsley.

2)  There is some positive movement in this week's Hawaii watch.  Hawaii has finally broken the top 25 in a second computer poll.  Billingsley now ranks them #25.  Wolfe is still highest, now at #12.  Massey is still worst at #36, but this is a significant jump from last week’s #54.  The human polls all rank the Warriors significantly higher than all but Wolfe.

3)  Wolfe and Sagarin both have Kansas as the #1 team in the nation.  The rest agree with the pollsters and rank LSU #1.

4)  We hate to kick a program while its down, but since Notre Dame hasn't been in the polls lately, Pollspeak hasn’t had the opportunity to report on them.  So for the only mention of the Irish this year, here are their computer rankings:

• Billingsley: #69 – just below Fresno State
• Anderson Hester: #96 – below LA Monroe and Arkansas State
• Sagarin: #103 – below Yale, Villanova and Southern Miss
• Colley:  #106 – just below Temple and Duke
• Massey: #107 – just below Georgia Southern
• Wolfe: #117 – just below Grambling State

5)  South Florida is generally liked by the computers.  They are unranked in all three human polls...not even getting a single vote in the Coaches’ Poll.  However, four of the six computers rank them in the top 25.  Sagarin is the highest at #15 and Billingsley the lowest at #33.

6)  The computers generally don't like Boise State as much as the voters.  The Broncos are ranked #17 in the AP Poll and #15 in the Coaches' and Harris Interactive polls.  Billingsley tops them all at #12, but the others range from #24 (Colley & Wolfe), #28 (Sagarin and Anderson Hester), to #39 (Massey).  The showdown on 11/23 with Hawaii should help the winner...and may even help the loser in the computers.

7)  The computers don’t like Texas and Oklahoma as much as the voters.  They are the only top 25 teams where not a single computer ranked them the same or better than any of the three human polls. 

There are other items that could be pointed out, but these are the highlights.  We'll let you discuss the rest on our FORUMS.

Quick Hits From Around the Country (posted 11/15/07)

Adam Van Brimmer, Savannah Morning News -- once again came dangerously close to returning to the top of the page.  He has the highest ranks for Hawaii #5, Boise State #11, BYU #14, and Air Force #25, and the lowest ranks for West Virginia #8,  Missouri #9, Boston College (unranked) and some other close calls.  While waiting for his return, you can re-visit his Worst Voter of the Week ballot in week 9.

Rich Kaipust, Omaha World-Herald -- also just snuck under the radar this week.  By casting the only #1 vote for West Virginia, he definitely drew some attention...but mostly from happy Mountaineer fans.  Kentucky fans were not as happy since he was one of only five to leave the Wildcats off his ballot.  He also ranks Boston College highest at #12 and Georgia lowest at #11.

Neal McCready, Mobile Press-Register -- has USC (#16) and Virginia Tech (#17) lowest, Mississippi State (#23) highest (1 of 3 to rank them) and Air Force (#25) highest along with Brimmer.

Eric Hansen, South Bend Tribune and Herb Gould, Chicago Sun-Times -- are the only two voters to leave Boise State off their ballots.

Dave Morrison, Register-Herald -- is the only voter to rank Alabama (#25) and has Tennessee highest at #11.

Doug Lesmerises, Plain Dealer -- gave Kansas its only #1 vote.

Kevin Pearson, Riverside Press-Enterprise -- is the only voter to leave Tennessee unranked.

Craig James, ABC -- is the only voter to leave Hawaii unranked.

Scott Rabalais, Advocate -- is the only voter to leave Clemson unranked.  He also ranks Michigan (#15) and USC (#8) highest.

Chris Fowler, ESPN -- has Penn State highest at #18, but isn’t showing Big 10 bias since he is only one of seven to leave Illinois off of his ballot. 

GOOD Voter of Week 12 -- Joe Giglio, The News & Observer (North Carolina) (posted 11/15/07)

Joe Giglio's week 12 ballot is relatively clean according to Pollstalker.  There are a few votes near the edge (i.e. Florida, Kentucky and Hawaii), but zero official red flags.  Again, Pollspeak doesn't demand perfection.  We look for objective voting and a reasonable attention to detail.  You can read about Giglio's poll in his own words here:  AP Blog.

1)  Giglio is almost computer-like in some of his thinking (See Computer Round-Up above).  He dropped Ohio State to only #6, which is just within the range of the computers.  He also is one of the few who think USF (#24) deserves a ranking...again in line with most of the computers.  At #25, he actually ranks Hawaii one spot better than their computer average of #26 (rounded).  And finally he ranks Kansas #3, which is coincidentally the average ranking (rounded) of the Jayhawks in the six computer polls.

2)  He also seems to pay close attention to what happened on the field when teams have a similar ranking and have played a head-to-head match up:

• Oklahoma #4 over Missouri #5
• Florida #10 over Kentucky #16 and Tennessee #17
• Virginia #15 over Connecticut #23
• Michigan #20 over Illinois #21
• Illinois #21 over Wisconsin and Penn State (unranked)
• Cincinnati #22 over Connecticut #23

An exception is ranking Virginia Tech #12 over Boston College #14.  However, this was a conscious decision, which he explains in his AP Blog.

You can continue to make cases for Good Voters of the Week on our FORUMS.