A Look at the Week Five Polls

by Jeremy Mauss on Oct 6, 2009 5:35 AM PDT in Mountain West Football

The wonderful world of the polls are suppose to be a guide for how good teams are. However one thing I keep noticing is how the non-BCS keep getting punished more harshly for loses then the BCS league schools. For example, Houston did lost to UTEP on the road and UTEP did get waxed by Texas the week before. But, how does a team go from top 15 to unranked?

That seems a bit harsh in my opinion, also this may come across as bias but why is Utah not ranked? They lost to an Oregon team who is looking real good after their slow start. Boise got a ton of mileage two weeks back when Oregon smoked Cal, but Utah who played them close is in the 'others receiving votes' category and actually dropped this week from last week since they were on a bye.

I do like who the voters actually paid attention to Boise State and that their win over UC-Davis and they dropped one spot. How does Auburn make a metoric rise from unranked to 17th in the polls, just because they are 5-0. Only one team --West Virginia-- has a winning who they beat.

AP Top 25
RK	TEAM	RECORD	PTS	PVS
1	Florida (54)	4-0	1486	1
2	Texas (1)	4-0	1416	2
3	Alabama (5)	5-0	1404	3
4	LSU	5-0	1290	4
5	Virginia Tech	4-1	1200	6
6	Boise State	5-0	1185	5
7	USC	4-1	1108	7
8	Cincinnati	5-0	1004	10
9	Ohio State	4-1	994	9
10	TCU	4-0	940	11
11	Miami (FL)	3-1	931	17
12	Iowa	5-0	823	13
13	Oregon	4-1	676	16
14	Penn State	4-1	564	15
15	Oklahoma State	3-1	563	14
16	Kansas	4-0	513	18
17	Auburn	5-0	428	NR
18	Brigham Young	4-1	403	20
19	Oklahoma	2-2	370	8
20	Mississippi	3-1	357	21
21	Nebraska	3-1	333	23
22	Georgia Tech	4-1	311	25
23	South Florida	5-0	238	NR
24	Missouri	4-0	215	NR
25	South Carolina	4-1	200	NR

Dropped from rankings: Houston 12, Georgia 18, Michigan 22, California 24

Others receiving votes: Wisconsin 157, Houston 142, Georgia 115, Stanford 50, Utah 31, Michigan 25, Boston College 12, Notre Dame 9, Pittsburgh 3, Arizona 2, West Virginia 2.

USA Today Coaches' Poll
RK	TEAM	RECORD	PTS	PVS
1	Florida (57)	4-0	1473	1
2	Texas (1)	4-0	1408	2
3	Alabama (1)	5-0	1366	3
4	LSU	5-0	1273	4
5	Virginia Tech	4-1	1141	6
6	Boise State	5-0	1133	5
7	USC	4-1	1123	7
8	Ohio State	4-1	1072	9
9	TCU	4-0	965	10
10	Cincinnati	5-0	937	11
11	Miami (FL)	3-1	750	21
12	Penn State	4-1	713	13
13	Oklahoma State	3-1	702	12
14	Iowa	5-0	655	17
15	Kansas	4-0	616	16
16	Mississippi	3-1	460	18
17	Oregon	4-1	433	25
18	Missouri	4-0	386	23
19	Auburn	5-0	369	NR
20	Brigham Young	4-1	353	21
21	Oklahoma	2-2	346	8
22	Nebraska	3-1	329	24
23	Georgia Tech	4-1	278	NR
24	South Florida	5-0	220	NR
25	Wisconsin	5-0	156	NR

Dropped from rankings: Georgia 14, Houston 15, California 19, Michigan 20

Others receiving votes: Georgia 148, South Carolina 128, Notre Dame 57, Houston 52, Stanford 43, Michigan 33, Utah 31, Boston College 15, Pittsburgh 6, Arizona 2, Arkansas 1, West Virginia 1, CENTRL MICHIGAN 1

Harris Poll
RK	TEAM	RECORD	PTS	PVS
1	Florida (97)	4-0	2818	1
2	Texas (12)	4-0	2705	2
3	Alabama (5)	5-0	2665	3
4	LSU	5-0	2469	4
5	Boise State	5-0	2245	5
6	Virginia Tech	4-1	2187	6
7	USC	4-1	2173	7
8	Ohio State	4-1	1980	8
9	Cincinnati	5-0	1866	10
10	TCU	4-0	1773	11
11	Iowa	5-0	1492	14
12	Miami (FL)	3-1	1471	22
13	Penn State	4-1	1316	12
14	Oklahoma State	3-1	1157	15
15	Oregon	4-1	1067	23
16	Kansas	4-0	1065	16
17	Brigham Young	4-1	847	19
18	Mississippi	3-1	822	18
19	Auburn	5-0	801	NR
20	Oklahoma	2-2	695	9
21	Nebraska	3-1	509	24
22	Georgia Tech	4-1	505	NR
23	Missouri	4-0	476	25
24	South Florida	5-0	442	NR
25	Wisconsin	5-0	362	NR

Dropped from rankings: Houston 13, Georgia 17, Michigan 20, California 21

Others receiving votes: Houston 239, Georgia 221, South Carolina 211, Notre Dame 126, Stanford 101, Michigan 85, Utah 63, California 28, Pittsburgh 25, West Virginia 16, Boston College 15, Arizona 10, Rutgers 1, Texas Tech 1

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Comments

There have...

…been so many losses this year by highly ranked teams, that there’s a ton of movement from week to week.

I agree that the slam of Houston was harsh, but UTEP put up more points against Houston than the Miners managed yards against Texas. Football scores don’t make for transitive relationships, but to see a team like UTEP get so thoroughly abused by Texas one week and then put up nearly 60 on a Top 15 the next week is a bit of a head scratcher. Unfortunately, football polls are little different than the scores awarded by figure skating judges.

RollBamaRoll.com

by Nico2.0 on Oct 6, 2009 1:15 PM PDT reply actions

Don't figure skating scores

have official requirments for what constitutes a given score, with certain required deductions and specific values for the difficulties of certain techniques?

If only the rules for ranking in the polls were this objective.

BCS Revolution - twitter - Fanblogs.com

by utesfan100 on Oct 7, 2009 8:04 AM PDT up reply actions

But there's still enough bias...

…and variance in figure skating scores where they throw out the highest and lowest scores in order to get a truer picture, so I’d say it’s far from objective either.

RollBamaRoll.com

by Nico2.0 on Oct 7, 2009 6:23 PM PDT up reply actions

My point was they are better than the polls used by the BCS.

I think we agree football should be decided on the field.

Then we could argue the objectivity of the refs on the field. See 2007 West Virginia vs. Pitt (at least the SEC refs mess up equally).

BCS Revolution - twitter - Fanblogs.com

by utesfan100 on Oct 8, 2009 7:20 AM PDT up reply actions

when cal got smashed by oregon they dropped 17 spots

then when usc did the same thing, completely out of the poll and into 40’s spot. so it happenc to bcs teams. i also think that is the reason why usc did not jump boise state and it va. tech instead. cal was just seen as a phony top 25 team that could only manage 6 points against two good teams.

by wolfmanshowlforever on Oct 6, 2009 2:05 PM PDT reply actions

It is still fairly early...

So there will be big jumps. I know its into the 5th game for some teams which can be almost half way into a season but I think a 12-13 game season is to short to get a grasp on teams. It is just to small a sample to definitively say who the best team is.

Oklahoma the only 2 loss team in the polls proves that point. Everyone thinks they are a top 25 team even if they are a .500 team right now. We have to use more then the record to evaluate these teams.

Bring back Fum's Song!

by bhsmarine on Oct 6, 2009 2:39 PM PDT reply actions