The Bataan Death March continues, as we lose a few more voters to life, bad computer connections and malaise over Georgia’s season. I’m tempted to start a pool letting everybody predict the number of ballots cast in the last vote of the season. Or maybe I’ll declare a general amnesty for the vote after the bowl games. Who knows… anyway, here are the current standings.
MUMME POLL – WEEK 11 RANKINGS
T1. Alabama (42)
T1. Texas Tech (42)
T3. Florida (41)
T3. Texas (41)
5. Oklahoma (28)
6. Southern Cal (14)
7. Penn State
8. Utah
9. Ohio State
10. Georgia
11. Oklahoma State
12. Boise State
13. Missouri
14. North Carolina
15. LSU
16. Michigan State
T17. BYU
T17. Pittsburgh
********************************************************************
COMMENTS:
- Consolidation is the big story of the vote this week. Three games – Penn State/Iowa, Texas Tech/Oklahoma State and TCU/Utah – really cleared out the underbrush. There’s very close to unanimity down to the tenth slot in the rankings.
- The Pirate abides. Texas Tech isn’t getting any doubts now. Argh! Of course, we’ll see where things lie after the Oklahoma game.
- Penn State is the first team this season to appear on every ballot without receiving any top five consideration. I’m not sure of the significance of that, but I thought I’d share.
- Teams receiving top five votes without appearing on all of the ballots: Utah and Boise State.
- If there were doubts about the credibility of this approach to voting, all I’ve got to say in response is that at least we’ve got enough collective sense to rank Texas ahead of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State ahead of Missouri, unlike the coaches. When did head-to-head meetings lose their significance?
- While a few voters found this week’s vote the toughest of the year, most were like me in that there wasn’t much of a struggle in decision making until getting down to the final slot.
- Bloggers mentioning the Mumme Poll this week: A Bulldog in Exile; The Hobnail Boot; Mhoram’s Dream; Runaround Sue’s; Picture Me Rollin.
Get The Picture 
Good Senator,
Were Bama and Texas Tech unanimous Top 5 selections?
Also curious as to who didn’t have Florida and Texas in the Top 5 and what his or her reasons were.
Easy this week for me with the only internal debate being who got that 12th spot. I gave it to Georgia once again even after that horrible defensive and special teams effort. The Dogs are looking more and more like a Big XII team each week and that is not a compliment. I feel Georgia’s wins over LSU and South Carolina are better than anything Missouri has done. Mizzou has not won against a ranked team.
I have Oklahoma in the Top 5 over USC. They are neck and neck for me. I would love to see OU’s offense against USC’s defense. I think that would be a great game. I gave the edge to OU because there loss is better than USC’s. I will say that Oregon State is not as bad a loss as it looked earlier this year. Still OU’s only loss is to a Top 5 team on a neutral field.
My ballot was:
Top 5:
Alabama
Florida
Oklahoma
Texas
Texas Tech
Other 7:
Boise St.
Georgia
Oklahoma St.
Ohio St.
Penn St.
USC
Utah
LikeLike
Were Bama and Texas Tech unanimous Top 5 selections?
Yep. For the second straight week.
LikeLike
Really surprised to see Georgia come in at 10th.
LikeLike
Seriously, who put LSU on their ballot???
LikeLike
I did. After their performance against Bama and ours against Kentucky, I had to. Their 2 losses aren’t like our 2 losses.
LikeLike
Ally, LSU has 3 losses.
LikeLike
yes, I know that. Was a misprint. But thanks.
LikeLike
Senator,
What is the tie breaker at the end of the year of we have a tie for Number 1? In theory we could end up with a 5 way tie for first place. Or do we care? Are we pretending this would determine the Top 2 for a BCS Championship game? Are we trying to determine who is Number 1? What is a goal for the final poll?
LikeLike
@ Ally,
Yeah, I was just joking with my earlier comment. I couldn’t justify putting a three loss team in any top 12. Ball State gets in before LSU, IMO, just because they’re undefeated.
LikeLike
Oh no problem. I completely see where you’re coming from. I struggled with that last team and I knew putting LSU in would not be popular. I also understand all the arguments against my choice, and don’t disagree entirely.
LikeLike
Munson’s, sorry, I meant to respond to you yesterday.
There is no tiebreaker, other than the top five vote we have in place now. I don’t expect we’d need one after all the bowls are played.
As for the last regular season poll, I suppose anything’s possible, but if you look at which schools are on top now, I expect things to sort out more, as Florida and Alabama will play each other and Texas Tech and Oklahoma face off.
The goal with this exercise was to see if we could come up with a credible way to vote that would lessen the possibility of bias and vote manipulation having an effect on the polls, as well as providing a format to make it easier for coaches to handle the voting themselves, instead of palming the work off on someone else. So far, I think we’re seeing that this is viable on both fronts.
The final step will be to see if things aren’t tangled up in the final regular season poll. We’ll just have to wait and see how everything plays out before we know for sure.
And before we get too worried about ties, consider this: if Alabama and Texas Tech each managed to run the table in the regular season, wouldn’t it be a fair and accurate picture of things if both remained tied in the Mumme Poll then?
LikeLike
Senator,
I agree we are on our way to proving this method of voting is 1) easier for the coaches and 2) does a lot to eliminate bias and vote manipulation. I think we have been very successful in that regard. I think the strong UGA association of the voting base even strengthens that as Georgia is not that much higher in our poll versus the AP or Coaches’ Polls and is right where the BCS rankings have them.
I also agree that if Bama and Texas Tech are tied entering the Bowl season that is fair. What if three teams are tied though? If Texas runs wins out there is a good chance they would be a unanimous Top 5 selection too. Do we care if that happens?
When I said “final poll” I was referring to the one after the bowl games. I wasn’t very clear on that. I am the first to admit I am a terrible writer and definitely more of a math guy so forgive me for sometimes providing less than clear statements.
Let’s say Bama and Texas Tech win out, remain unanimous selections as Top 5 teams in the Mumme Poll and face each other the in BCSCG. Bama wins a close hard fought game. Obviously we would say Bama is the National Champion but it would not shock me if Texas Tech remained in everyone’s Top 5 selections along with at least one other team say Texas again for example. That would mean our poll would have a three way tie for #1 based on how we vote even though Bame won the National Title game.
Now, are we even voting again to determine all the rankings behind Bama? Or does it not matter since the National Champion has been determined and who cares who 2-12 is if you didn’t finish #1? I guess what I am saying is maybe in the vote after the bowls, if we have one, we need one more designation. The #1 team, then the rest of the Top 5 and the rest of the Top 12.
LikeLike
If you are sick of discussing this feel free not to answer. I am probably beating it to death and being way to anal.
LikeLike
Good points, all.
Since I look at this as an experiment in progress, I’m inclined to let the chips fall as they may on the first go around, and then, presuming there’s sufficient interest to run the MP again next season, make some tweaks to go into play at that time.
I will invite all kinds of comments and suggestions with the last vote, so healthy feedback from everyone who’s participated will be important, too.
LikeLike