This is a series I've been doing on r/CollegeBasketball for 7 years, and now r/CFB for 11. The post attempts to visualize consistency between voters in the AP Poll in a single image. Additionally it sorts each AP voter by similarity to the group. Notably, this is not a measure of how "good" a voter is, just how consistent they are with the group. Especially preseason, having a diversity of opinions and ranking styles is advantageous to having a true consensus poll. Polls tend to coalesce towards each other as the season goes on.
The AP did not publish a poll for week 9, and are calling this the week 9 poll. I am calling it the week 10 poll because that makes more sense. Some individual ballots still lag the publication a bit, but I was able to get them all today.
Zach Smith was the most consistent voter this week. Matt Dowell, Madeline Kenney, Angel Gray, Michael Sauls, and Marisa Ingemi are the most consistent on the season.
Mitchell Northam was the biggest outlier this week. Mitchell Northam, Sabreena Merchant, Rebecca Lobo, Jeff Linder, and Sam McKewon are the biggest outliers on the season.
Or maybe early season bias? Someone who has been following the rankings longer could comment on this more reliably, but it suggests once you’re ranked somewhere (high/middle/low/bubble) for those first couple weeks, it may be hard to move very far unless you’re consistently over/under-performing.
As an example — and this isn’t to throw shade, just fact — LSU sat up there despite quality of those wins for 8 weeks, until there were 2 tough losses to force a tumble.
That’s compared to ND who has definitely been up and down but was kinda stuck in the middle, until this week. Like they lost early to 14 Michigan (who we soon found out should have been ranked higher) then won over 11 USC and somehow in that 2-game/3-rank-week span have a net loss of 1 spot. Like, they were just stagnant. All of that said……this is also dependent on how everyone else does, since it’s a rank, not an average, and a biased one, at that. So 🤷🏻♀️!
This is a series I've been doing on r/CollegeBasketball for 7 years, and now r/CFB for 11. The post attempts to visualize consistency between voters in the AP Poll in a single image. Additionally it sorts each AP voter by similarity to the group. Notably, this is not a measure of how "good" a voter is, just how consistent they are with the group. Especially preseason, having a diversity of opinions and ranking styles is advantageous to having a true consensus poll. Polls tend to coalesce towards each other as the season goes on.
You can view all weeks here, for other sports too.
The AP did not publish a poll for week 9, and are calling this the week 9 poll. I am calling it the week 10 poll because that makes more sense. Some individual ballots still lag the publication a bit, but I was able to get them all today.
Zach Smith was the most consistent voter this week. Matt Dowell, Madeline Kenney, Angel Gray, Michael Sauls, and Marisa Ingemi are the most consistent on the season.
Mitchell Northam was the biggest outlier this week. Mitchell Northam, Sabreena Merchant, Rebecca Lobo, Jeff Linder, and Sam McKewon are the biggest outliers on the season.
Maryland writer, Whose Terps had just been beaten by Illinois, gave the Illini 0 votes.
Everyone that doesn’t have us l in the top 20, i will remember them. Lane is the worst one due to having Ole Miss at 13 as well.
Excited to see the orange “I”s. Tough schedule for the remainder of January, but I believe!
Lobo and Robert Cessna having Tennessee as high as 13…. why?
Did Rebecca call that game or something? Because that’s outta left field…
Oklahoma > Kentucky tells me that these voters value Oklahoma’s “better loss” against UCLA more than Kentucky’s “better win” against LSU
Or maybe early season bias? Someone who has been following the rankings longer could comment on this more reliably, but it suggests once you’re ranked somewhere (high/middle/low/bubble) for those first couple weeks, it may be hard to move very far unless you’re consistently over/under-performing.
As an example — and this isn’t to throw shade, just fact — LSU sat up there despite quality of those wins for 8 weeks, until there were 2 tough losses to force a tumble.
That’s compared to ND who has definitely been up and down but was kinda stuck in the middle, until this week. Like they lost early to 14 Michigan (who we soon found out should have been ranked higher) then won over 11 USC and somehow in that 2-game/3-rank-week span have a net loss of 1 spot. Like, they were just stagnant. All of that said……this is also dependent on how everyone else does, since it’s a rank, not an average, and a biased one, at that. So 🤷🏻♀️!
Clear conference affiliation bias in preference of UCLA vs SCar
Yeah, I’m starting to change my mind on that one… I don’t see it. I think it’s just the early season ranking that’s now stuck.
As a Sparty fan, the joy I feel is chef’s kiss.
TCU higher than LSU, I'm scratching my head