Posters' Poll

[Flying Dutch Fan]

I also used the post of how the official top 25 had performed over the last week.

Cabs - you did get mine in there, right?

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I know Old School and I exchanged a couple of emails last year as to who good poster's poll voters would be.  The big problem I see is that some of the busier posters may not have the time to fill one out (diehardfan already put herself in that category).

I think the poll would be ideal at 25 voters, but probably more managable and decently credible at 15.  You may just want to ask a few people to do it.

[Mr. Ypsi]

What would the results of this poll be without the weights?

For most of the poll, the gaps are too wide to probably make any difference (a couple of teams might move up or down one slot, but that's it), but I was curious enough to re-compute the tightly bunched top 5:

1. Witt 209
2. Hope 208
3. IWU 207
4. Woo 206
5. Albion 197

As I expected, Albion was too far back to catch up, but the top 4 are as close as possible, barring ties!  (And IWU and Wooster did trade places.)

Hope fans might want to coach Knightstalker on his emailing skills - if his 'alphabetic order for the top 5' ballot had been received, Hope would have finished first, 232 to 231!

[FDF, yeah, I got it.]

[hopefan]

Ypsi, I agree with Hoops fan.  In order to come up with 25 teams, I went thru data I had available and ended up checking off about 50 schools!   I waded through about 35 of them noting good wins and who they had lost to, and finally gave up due to time restrictions.   Cutting at 15 would likely have narrowed my review list to a more manageable 25.    I know  -  very anal... but that's the way I felt it needed to be approached rather than swaggin' it.   If you cut to 15 I'll do it next week, otherwise, with my methodology, it's just too much... sorry   

[diehardfan]

I know - very anal... but that's the way I felt it needed to be approached

lol hopefan.... and herein lies the reason why I'd never be able to do something like this 

I don't do things unless I can do my best, and since I take these things so seriously, I just don't even think it would be a good idea to start! I'd probably use the "look at every single team with a winning record every single week method, including box scores, and that's just not practical, what with juggling, a new job, a new home, church, friends, boys... and all my other random activities that you guys couldn't possibly want to hear about. 

I this all, there is probably one of the many reasons why Greg, despite all his posts, is one of the few CCIW long time regulars who has a life. 

[diehardfan]

I know Old School and I exchanged a couple of emails last year as to who good poster's poll voters would be.  The big problem I see is that some of the busier posters may not have the time to fill one out (diehardfan already put herself in that category).

I think the poll would be ideal at 25 voters, but probably more managable and decently credible at 15.  You may just want to ask a few people to do it.

I remember doing this... and asking Pat for suggestions as well, as to get a good representation from all regions.

Which reminds me... what was the regional breakup of all the posters who voted this time?

[smedindy]

Hopefan - I think he meant 15 pollsters, not teams.

I think we MUST vote for 25 teams.

I can't speak for everyone, but I pulled two lists of teams, cut them down, and ranked them in about 10 minutes, during lunch. I took it quite seriously, but my methodology self selected about 20 of the 25 teams easily.

[hopefan]

ooops right smedindy - I saw 25 and 15, but didn't read close enough....  oh well...  guess I'll stick to following the winless  ...hey what about our bottom 10?

[Coach C]

Usually to get a list of 25 teams, I look at about 45 to 50 sets of information each week.  As the season goes on, that should theoretically get easier, but well, it doesn't really.

C

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

For me, I had about 17-18 schools I knew were in, then it was just a matter of determining who else had a claim in my mind (turned out to be about 20 or so.  From there it was a matter of comparing them to each other, some I put in easily, some I excluded fairly easily and the rest, just took some investiagtion.  Once I got my top 25, I started both at the top and the bottom and ranked my 25 against each other.  It seems more complicated than it really is when I see it written out.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I know Old School and I exchanged a couple of emails last year as to who good poster's poll voters would be.  The big problem I see is that some of the busier posters may not have the time to fill one out (diehardfan already put herself in that category).

I think the poll would be ideal at 25 voters, but probably more managable and decently credible at 15.  You may just want to ask a few people to do it.

I remember doing this... and asking Pat for suggestions as well, as to get a good representation from all regions.

Which reminds me... what was the regional breakup of all the posters who voted this time?

This past week the nine voters WERE heavily concentrated in the midwest (geographically, not regionally speaking).  I'm not sure about the geographical placement of a couple of voters, but we had 3 with CCIW ties, 2 with WIAC, 1 NCAC, 1 MIAA, plus Ralph (who hails from Texas but is TRULY national), and I can't recall Hoops Fan's loyalties (but, again, about as national as you can get).  If Knightstalker's ballot had shown up we would have also had NJAC (I believe that is correct?). 

You and David have both turned me down - any recommendations from the Left Coast (or can I twist any of your [4] arms to reconsider)? 

[Gregory Sager]

I this all, there is probably one of the many reasons why Greg, despite all his posts, is one of the few CCIW long time regulars who has a life. 

It's mostly due to my ability to turn back the clock by flying rapidly around the Earth and reversing the planet's rotation. Keeping up a constant flow of comments on Posting Up while having a bona-fide life outside of this website would be a lot more difficult if the Earth didn't have a yellow sun but instead had a red one like that of my home planet, Krypton.

[Mr. Ypsi]

For me, I had about 17-18 schools I knew were in, then it was just a matter of determining who else had a claim in my mind (turned out to be about 20 or so.  From there it was a matter of comparing them to each other, some I put in easily, some I excluded fairly easily and the rest, just took some investiagtion.  Once I got my top 25, I started both at the top and the bottom and ranked my 25 against each other.  It seems more complicated than it really is when I see it written out.

Yeah, my methodology was pretty similar, except I already had certain blocks of teams in my head - e.g., I already was certain of my top 5, just not the order.  My 'short list' was probably only about 32 teams and after the research this week, barring something really eye-popping this coming week, I've only got 4 teams outside my eventual top 25 that I'll keep careful tabs on.

Altogether, my ballot only took about an hour (not counting, of course, the hundreds of hours over the last couple months collecting data and impressions which I didn't even know was for polling purposes!  I thought I was just having fun following d3 hoops - who knew?)!

[titanfan]

Does anybody know if there is a good way to get game results for all of the teams into Excel?  I'm trying to set up a database with results, but the only method I can come up with is literally typing in each teams results.  I know some posters out there generate there own sort of "computer poll".  I wondered if they had an easy way to get all of the data.  Thanks!

[Mr. Ypsi]

CHANGES IN THE POSTERS' POLL:

Ballots are due Monday at 8pm (ET) - this is to avoid any 'contamination' by Pat's 'real' poll (though I don't think it happened anyway).  Generally, there are so few relevant Sunday games that you should be able to fill out your ballot after Saturday, just being alert to any Sunday upsets.

Ballots will no longer be weighted by posting status - as explained before, I hoped to lure in more HoFers and discourage 'drive-by' newbies, but neither seems to have been effective/necessary (6 of 9 pollsters were in the middle status).  Since weighting was a bit of a pain, and since I reserve the right to not score 'off-the-wall' ballots (though that will be exercised only in extreme cases), from now on it is one poster, one vote!

To try to get better geographical balance, I am posting on certain boards that I follow which had no representation on the first poll.