The Mumme Poll returneth!

GTP and Third Saturday in Blogtober are pleased to announce that the best fan-based college football poll on the interwebs (probably because it’s the only fan-based college football poll on the interwebs) is back for its fourth season.

Those of you who are MP veterans don’t need an explanation of the hows and whys.  Those of you who are unfamiliar with approval voting and what we’re trying to do with the Mumme Poll should start here.  (It’s okay; we’ll wait for you.)

The basics haven’t changed from last year.  Every voter will cast a ballot for the ten best teams in the country and a designation for the nation’s best team (the latter is used purely for tie-breaking purposes so that there’s always a clear-cut #1 in the poll results.)  The votes are tallied and the school receiving the most votes is ranked first.  The rest of the standings are also determined in the order of total votes received.  Other than the tie-breaker, you do not place your selections in order, as that’s what the total tally is for.  There will be a vote after every week left in the regular season, starting with the games of Week Six, and there will be a final vote after bowl season finishes.

And the Mumme Poll is a fan poll, not a blogger poll (not that those two characterizations are mutually exclusive).  We welcome the participation of any college football fan.  From anywhere – this isn’t just for Georgia fans, or SEC folks.

Here’s what has changed:

• Most importantly, the Mumme Poll has moved to a new place.  If you bookmarked last year’s site, get rid of it.  This year’s home is here.
• As you can see when you click on the link, registration is now open.  Follow the directions in the upper left corner of the site and you’ll be good to go.  Registration will remain available until noon on Saturday, so you have plenty of time to sign up.
• Please make sure you give us a viable e-mail address, as Tide Fan has gone to considerable effort to make sure we have a working e-mail reminder/notification of every week’s vote that will be sent out to you.
• We are extending the period to vote out an additional day.  You will be able to cast a vote until Tuesday midnight EST every week.  That should give us all more time for thought and discussion.
• As for the vote-gaming problem we had last year with Auburn and Oregon, Tide Fan has come up with a few new monitoring wrinkles that we’re hopeful will let us crack down on the offenders to everyone’s satisfaction.  (It won’t hurt if we hear from you about that, either.)

As always, we use a vote after Week Five to test things out and make sure we’re completely operational.  Those of you who register before Wednesday morning should receive an e-mail notification that the site is open for voting.  Those of you who do, please go and cast a ballot.  We don’t really care which schools you vote for this week and the results won’t be published.  We just want to see if the site works correctly.  (And, yes, even if you don’t vote, you can still register through Saturday morning.)

This remains a labor of love for us.  Other than playing it straight, the one thing we ask of everyone who wants to take part is that you stick with us for the season.  Tide Fan (who deserves a major pat on the back for all the offseason tweaking he’s done) and I have made adjustments to make the poll vote more user-friendly than it has ever been, so be friendly, user.

If I’ve missed something here, or if you’ve got any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to raise them in the comments.  We’re looking forward to having you all along for the ride again this year.  Jump onboard.