Return of the Mumme Poll

Okay, let’s do this.

I was gratified by the interest y’all showed in response to my post asking about bringing back the Mumme Poll.  It’s enough that I’m willing to take a shot at resurrecting it.

So, let’s go through the logistics first.  This week’s games mark Week 6 of the college football season and as that was the traditional start for the Mumme Poll back in the day, we’ll go at it the same way now.

The time line for ballot casting/tallying/posting/commenting will work like this:

1. Ballots should be submitted via email to me at mbroch@gmail.com on a Sunday/Monday basis.  That gives you two full days.
2. On Tuesday, I’ll post about my ballot and give you the chance in the comments to post yours and discuss.
3. Also on Tuesday, I’ll compile everyone’s ballot into the weekly MP standings.  (Yes, I’ll be doing it manually, so bear with me.)
4. On Wednesday, the weekly Mumme Poll standings will be posted.

That’s it.  I’ll conduct a poll every week of the regular season.

As far as rules for voting go, they’re pretty simple.

• The Mumme Poll is based on approval voting.  You do not need to submit a ballot ranking the teams in some subjective order.  You do not even have to designate a particular team as your choice for number one, unless, of course, you limit your ballot to one team.
• There are no restrictions on the number of teams you choose to place on your ballot.  If you want to choose a top 25 every week, be my guest (just realize I’m not going to pay any attention to your order).  If you want to select a potential playoff field of eight or four teams, that’s fine, too.  If you want to indulge your inner PAWWWLLL!!! and choose Alabama alone, have at it.  For a point of reference, I intend to limit my ballot to those teams I think are legitimately involved in the national title conversation, so my list will probably start out near ten and dwindle as the regular season progress.  But you do you, okay?
• Please, don’t try to game the process.  Don’t submit more than one ballot a week.  Do not list a particular school more than once on a given ballot.
• Also, identify yourself in your email when you sent your vote to me, just so I have a name or moniker to reference.  Place “Mumme Poll ballot” in the subject line of your email so I can easily identify it.

As long as the interest level stays up enough to generate a meaningful set of results, I’ll keep at it, but I make no promises if we’re looking at 15-20 participants by season’s end.  And, honestly, it’s not as if putting together a ballot like this is going to require a huge time investment on your part.  As I mentioned before, the last MP ballot I cast in 2015 took me all of about 30 seconds to put together.

So let’s have some fun with this.

Any questions or comments you may have, I’ll do my best to respond to here.

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UPDATE:  Folks, quick point of order here, in case I wasn’t clear.  I’ve already had two ballots emailed to me this morning.  I appreciate the enthusiasm, but votes can’t be cast until after Week 6 games are in the books.  Sunday, Sunday, Sunday…

Back from the dead?

Who knows if it’ll last, but one nice thing about what’s gone down so far this season is that the hot preseason take that we’d all be just waiting for the inevitable Alabama-Clemson rematch for the natty has morphed into the general perception that at least five other teams have injected themselves into the national championship debate.

Which leads me to take the temperature about a subject I haven’t pursued in several seasons:  is there interest in resurrecting the Mumme Poll this season?

You may recall that I put the MP to bed after participation in it dwindled to fewer than two dozen folks.  I wouldn’t be interested in bringing it back unless than number jumped back up to around 100.

But I do notice there are a couple of new national fan polls making the rounds this year, although neither are based on the same guidelines as the Mumme Poll.  A brief refresher as to what those are:  in its last incarnation, we went to a purer approval voting approach.  Instead of selecting a specific number of teams, each voter was allowed to choose as many or as few teams as he or she thought deserved to be considered in the national conversation.  If you wanted to pick a top ten, fine.  If you simply wanted to fill out a national playoff bracket, cool.  If, like me, you only wanted to choose those teams you thought could win a national title, all good.

That made for the easiest, fastest ballot selection I ever went through.  My last ballot took less than 30 seconds to pick.

Anyway, I’m just asking if there’s enough interest from y’all to bring it back.  Let me know in the comments.  Remember, it doesn’t start until after six weeks of games have been played, which would mean after this week’s slate.

Shall we play a game?

I’m officially taking a temperature reading with this post.  We had less than two dozen folks participate in last year’s Mumme Poll, and, frankly, it’s not worth the trouble to run it for that few number.

And given that I satisfied myself a few years ago that approval voting was a less biased way to rank college football teams, the only reason Tidefan and I keep the Mumme Poll going is for the sheer enjoyment of participating.  So, unless there’s sufficient interest in keeping the MP in play, I intend to shutter it for good.

Let me know in the comments if any of you are still interested in casting ballots.

My Mumme Poll ballot, Week 13

Thanks, Stanford.  You made my ballot selection easy this week.

• Alabama
• Clemson
• Oklahoma

Really, that’s the fastest I’ve ever put a Mumme Poll vote together.

My Mumme Poll ballot, Week 12

And then there were four.

• Alabama
• Clemson
• Notre Dame
• Oklahoma

Quite a few games to keep my eye on next weekend, though.

Mumme Poll, Week 11

Things keep consolidating, which makes sense.

 

Rank	Team	Votes
1	Clemson	27
2	Alabama	26
2	Ohio State	26
4	Oklahoma State	24
5	Oklahoma	22
6	Notre Dame	18
7	Iowa	15
8	Florida	10
8	Houston	10
10	North Carolina	6
11	Michigan State	4
11	Baylor	4
13	Toledo	1
13	Michigan	1
13	TCU	1
13	Navy	1

 

More to come after this week.

My Mumme Poll ballot, Week 11

This past week is the perfect rebuttal to all the idiots in the media who waste time fretting over the selection committee’s rankings in November.

It’s also a good reason to cull teams from my ballot, which is getting leaner and meaner… with more to come, I suspect.

• Alabama
• Clemson
• Notre Dame
• Ohio State
• Oklahoma

There.  That didn’t take long at all.  (Although, yeah, I’m keeping an eye on Iowa and Oklahoma State.)

Mumme Poll results, Week 10

Well, we’re not exactly on the same page with the selection committee.

Rank	Team	Votes
1	Alabama	23
1	Clemson	23
3	Ohio State	22
4	Baylor	20
5	Oklahoma State	19
6	Stanford	16
7	Notre Dame	14
8	Iowa	9
9	Oklahoma	8
10	Houston	5
11	North Carolina	4
12	Florida	3
12	LSU	3
14	Utah	2
15	TCU	1
15	Navy	1

Three out of four.

We are starting to see consolidation, though, as only sixteen teams received votes.  And no doubt we’ll see even more over the next couple of weeks.

Not that it means too much, but given that Florida lost to LSU, I’m kinda surprised to see the two tied.

My Mumme Poll ballot, Week 10

With LSU’s loss and TCU’s, I had to rethink my ballot for the first time in a couple of weeks.

• Alabama
• Baylor
• Clemson
• Notre Dame
• Ohio State
• Oklahoma
• Stanford

I’m pretty sure the Big 12 is overrated this season (which is why I omitted Oklahoma State from my ballot), but not positive.  Another week or two of games should sort that out.  Same thing with Stanford and Notre Dame.

At least I’m down to seven teams this week.  But up to ten minutes to put my ballot together.

Mumme Poll results, Week 9

LSU continues to rule the roost after this week’s games.

Rank	Team	Votes
1	LSU	25
2	Clemson	24
3	Ohio State	23
3	TCU	23
4	Alabama	22
6	Baylor	21
7	Michigan State	20
8	Stanford	15
9	Oklahoma State	14
10	Memphis	11
11	Iowa	10
12	Notre Dame	9
13	Oklahoma	7
14	Houston	5
15	Utah	3
16	Toledo	2
16	Florida State	2
16	Florida	2
19	North Carolina	1
19	Navy	1
19	Appalachian State	1
19	Florida International	1
19	Michigan	1

Looks like there’s a consensus that the Pac-12 is the odd man out on the playoffs right now.  Of course, we’ll see where things stand after LSU-Alabama and Baylor-TCU play out.