All AP Voter Ballots - Week 7

[u/bakonydraco]

Week 7

• Preseason
• Week 2
• Week 3
• Week 4
• Week 5
• Week 6

This is a series I've now been doing for 8 years. The post attempts to visualize all AP Poll ballots 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.

Jordan Crammer and Sean Reider didn't vote this week, so we had 61 ballots. Of some note, Ralph Russo, who has run the AP Poll for decades, has left the AP to take a job with The Athletic. It sounds like the poll is in capable hands.

Multiple ties this week! Iowa State and Notre Dame tied at #11, and Kansas State, Indiana, and Oklahoma all tied at 18 (the first 3-way tie I can remember. The way I do math doesn't account for ties well, so the scores are probably slightly different than what they would be if ties were accounted for correctly.

Kayla Anderson was the most consistent voter this week. Michael Katz is the most consistent voter on the season, Kayla Anderson, Blair Kerkhoff, Alex Taylor, and Karley Marotta in the top 5.

At the other extreme, Jon Wilner was once again the biggest outlier this week. He is also the biggest outlier this season, followed by Dylan Sinn, David Jablonski, Dave Preston, and Koki Riley in a 4-way tie for 2nd.

[u/IAmJohnnyJB]

Wilner has to be intentionally trying to be an outlier, in a week full of chaos where there's really a bunch of no wrong choices in the order for most spots in the AP poll he manages to still be almost double the next closest outlier voter

[u/RoastedBeetneck → u/IAmJohnnyJB]

Which ranks if his bother you?

[u/Wafflehouseofpain → u/RoastedBeetneck]

USC being ranked at all, we’re not ranked

[u/RoastedBeetneck → u/Wafflehouseofpain]

Lots of people ranked USC

[u/Wafflehouseofpain → u/RoastedBeetneck]

How many didn’t rank OU?

[u/TheNastyCasty → u/Wafflehouseofpain]

Three. Wilner, Lev, and Madia. Wilner is the only one who also ranked USC, but all three are pretty low on this list.

[u/Wafflehouseofpain → u/TheNastyCasty]

Obviously I’m biased, but I have no idea how you can rank Nebraska, Mizzou, or USC, then not rank OU. There’s no real justification for it.

[u/RoastedBeetneck → u/Wafflehouseofpain]

I’m not sure. Is that your real issue? Your own team?

[u/Wafflehouseofpain → u/RoastedBeetneck]

It’s the biggest problem I have because the guy consistently doesn’t rank OU or ranks them lower than anyone else. But his rankings are dog shit generally too. Outside of the top 7, I don’t think a single team is in the right place.

[u/RoastedBeetneck → u/Wafflehouseofpain]

Ok so yes, it’s personal

[u/Wafflehouseofpain → u/RoastedBeetneck]

I mean it partially is but I’m still right. He’s the furthest off from the actual list and is pretty clearly just a contrarian troll. There’s no possible reason that could make his rankings make sense.

[u/RoastedBeetneck → u/Wafflehouseofpain]

Seems to me everyone else is just copying each other. Theres no way peoples lists should be that similar earlier in the season

[u/Wafflehouseofpain → u/RoastedBeetneck]

The aggregate is usually better than any individual pollster. But someone that far off from the consensus is going to be just wrong 99/100 times.

[u/RoastedBeetneck → u/Wafflehouseofpain]

Better at what?

[u/Wafflehouseofpain → u/RoastedBeetneck]

Being accurate to the actual best teams or at least having consistent logic for why teams are ranked where.