Bad Voter of Week 9 -- Barker Davis   (posted 10/22/08)

It seems that Barker Davis doesn't want to be photographed. Maybe it is because he works (just) south of the Mason-Dixon line and doesn't want to be recognized by angry SEC fans.  He alone ranked Florida (#9) and LSU (#14) lowest and also voted Alabama (#3) and Georgia (#12) lowest.  Every extreme low on his ballot is an SEC team.  Many voters (and media types) seem to have a strong pro-SEC bias so this is definitely an odd situation.  In fact, it may not be so much an anti-SEC bias as it is just a lack of pro-SEC bias.  We'll continue to monitor.

Pollspeak will go along with the fans on this week's choice for Bad Voter, but we really don't think Barker's ballot is all that bad.   We thought very hard about going with Jon Wilner, who was only one of two voters to rank USC over Penn State.  We can't understand why he would make that decision THIS week, especially when they have a common opponent in Oregon State, and that matchup certainly points in Penn State's favor.  NEXT week may be a different story after Penn State plays Ohio State (another common opponent).  He was also the only voter to  rank two-loss Vanderbilt over undefeated Texas Tech.  It wasn't easy to pass on Wilner.

However, Davis does still rank USF above Pittsburgh, a team the Panthers beat, and we don't have to name the Worst Voter...so we'll stick with the People's Pick and keep the decision unanimous. 

Note:  Like last week, Craig James actually received the most Bad votes with over 1000, but also received 644 offsetting Good votes.  It looks like Georgia Tech fans saved him this week. 

UPDATED: 10/23/08 -- It turns out SEC fans were not the only ones upset with Barker Davis.  Pollspeak just received an e-mail from a Utah fan from www.utefans.net who organized a campaign against Davis.  The interesting thing is that Davis didn't vote Utah lowest.  What upset Utah fans most is that he ranked Boise State over Utah by the widest margin in the country (3).  Not only did they vote Davis for Bad Voter, but they voted Craig James for Good Voter so that James wouldn't get the most net Bad votes.  That is certainly one way for fans to make a statement without resorting to nasty letters.  The reason was completely unexpected, but you can read about it in his own words IN OUR FORUM. Of course, this is also the reason why Pollspeak's staff has the option of making its own pick when warranted.

PEOPLE'S PICK: Good Voter of Week 9 -- Chris Fowler (posted 10/22/08)

POLLSPEAK'S PICK: Good Voter of Week 9 -- Matt McCoy   (posted 10/22/08)

Matt McCoy was a fan favorite in week 2, but this is his first pick by Pollspeak since week 14 of 2007.

In addition to ranking all of the same-record, head-to-head matchups properly:

- Pittsburgh (#17) over USF (#18)
- USF (#18) over Kansas (#19)
- Virginia Tech (#25) over North Carolina (Unranked)

- Georgia Tech(#21) over Boston College (#22) 

- Boston College (#22) over Virginia Tech (#25)

- Etc. 

We also like McCoy's top five teams, which are the five undefeated teams with reasonable schedules.  Texas Tech is on the reasonable schedule bubble, and Utah actually has a tougher schedule according to Sagarin, but overall this is a very solid ballot.  At this point in the season we agree that these teams deserve to be ranked higher than the one-loss teams.  That could change next week, but we like it when voters wait until next week to make that call instead of pre-judging results on the field.

Pollspeak's Blog on SI.com   (posted 10/20/08)

A momentous event occurred this week in the BCS standings -- something rare and beautiful.  Read about this special, unique occurrence plus a bunch of the same old garbage in this week's blog on SI.com.

First BCS Standings Released   (posted 10/19/08)

The first BCS Standings of 2008 have been released.  #1 is no surprise, but there are a few surprises towards the bottom.  You can now see the Official BCS standings in Pollstalker as part of the BCS + AP Compiled report HERE. Along with the BCS Standings, the first Wolfe computer rankings have also been released.