Monday, December 8, 2008

Inside the AP Poll: What Gives, Nebraska?

One of the best (or worst) things about the polling system in college basketball is that it provides an insight as to what the nation thinks about every team. The AP Poll is decided by a collection of sports writers from across the country, who's job it is to make an educated and objective decision regarding the 25 best teams in the country. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet and full disclosure, individual polls are made public and we can see the different opinions on our beloved Zags. Here are some stats that we pulled from today's AP Poll:
  • The Zags were ranked fourth overall (duh!)
  • Gonzaga received two second place votes in today's poll from writers out of Riverside, CA and Salem, OR
  • 14 out 72 voters ranked Gonzaga as the third best team in the nation or better
  • 20 of the 72 voters ranked Gonzaga as the fifth or worse team in the nation
  • The lowest ranking Gonzaga received was 8th, by a voter from the state of Nebraska
Going through the 14 voters that put the Zags above their fourth ranking it is clear that a majority are from the left coast. A couple papers from California, and some from Utah, Idaho and Oregon all put Gonzaga 3rd or better. The Seattle voter, interestingly enough, put the Zags fifth. Gonzaga is definitely making some waves across the country, however, and that can all be attributed to the scheduling of Mark Few. People often times complain that the team has to travel too great lengths to play good competition but I would wager that Mark Few is traveling great distances to expose his team to the East coast that probably doesn't want to stay awake until 3 am to watch Gonzaga take on USF or LMU. So far this year his scheme has worked. Two voters from the state of Florida, where the Old Spice Classic was held, ranked Gonzaga third in the nation. Impressed by the effort against his Volunteers, a Tennessee sports writer voted Gonzaga third as well.

As any Gonzaga fan can assume, a majority of votes that put Gonzaga as the fifth or worse team came from the East Coast (except Seattle of course). Through our research, it appears that three of the votes putting Gonzaga fifth or worse came from the state of North Carolina. Perhaps they are a little worried about Heytvelt dominating Hansbrough again. Another couple of voters against the Zags came from the Midwest which is not surprising because they know how mediocre Indiana is this season and Gonzaga did not look like the fourth best team in the nation on Saturday. Rest assured the Gonzaga will have the ability to build on the their image in the coming weeks. Although they don't travel East again until January 7th (Tennessee), they will play one of the top teams in the nation in the University of Connecticut. Games against Washington State and Arizona should also garner some national attention. Not to mention that 'little' game in Spokane against last year's national runner-up, the Memphis Tigers.

Here is the poll which has Gonzaga as the 8th best team in the nation...interesting.



As you can see from this Nebraskans point of view, Tennessee remains the better team even though Gonzaga beat them in their head to head match up...starting to sound kind of like the BCS isn't it? The rest of his poll looks pretty good except for having one-loss Louisville ahead of Gonzaga.

Hopefully this provides a new insight to the poll process and how our excellent non-conference schedule affects our national image. Hopefully the Zags keep taking care of business and our ranking keeps getting lower.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

i don't really consider Nebraska a state, maybe they haven't received word yet of the old spice classic. pony express sometimes can takes a while.

Anonymous said...

Hopefully the Pony Express makes it to Nebraska soon. I guess you have to understand the huge celebration of a dismal Cornhusker football team making it to a bowl. 6 out of their 8 wins came from teams with .500 records or below (only one team had a .500 record). One of their other 2 wins came from Western Michigan, nice job Nebraska, you sure know how to schedule a demanding season. So hopefully when the inflated celebration is over, the Pony Express may continue to deliver the Old Spice Classic news. The Cornhuskers should also be aware that they are the 5th largest corn producer in the country. You would hope with a name like that you would at least be in the top three; but again, I understand news does not travel fast in Nebraska. Enjoy your latest national championship shared with Michigan and hopefully soon your early 90's championship hangover will reside. Welcome to the real world, please join (although I believe many will root against it).

Sincerely,

God

Anonymous said...

cant really knock god on that one. i wonder if nebraskans realize that their state is solely on the map for nuclear waste and for me to take dumps on.

Anonymous said...

Being a die hard GU fan (Class of '04) and finding myself currently living in the state of Nebraska out of necessity for school I found this article very interesting. I totally agree that somethings are backwards in NE. Unfortunately most people around here think of good basketball as being Creighton basketball. Yeah they have a couple of good years but they have been pretty bad since I've lived here. And of course everyone always mentions, why can't you be more like Gonzaga. An occasional smart one will mention Kansas as good basketball. I'll give them that... Did you know that the last two National Championships for Kansas they have played in the state of Nebraska during the tournament??? Any ways... Great article with some good insights.

Anonymous said...

While I believe my actions in the White House deserved a pardon, there is no way in hell Ford would ever pardon this scumbag. Glad to see the nebraska (and yes, I spelled nebraska with a lower case 'n' because it is not a proper noun, but rather a proper piece of junk) school system works. I guess this guy has been hanging out with the BCS tie break system a little too much.

ZagBell said...

As a die-hard CU Buffs fan, I must say the sentiments for Nebraska make me smile on the inside...

Anonymous said...

what a joke of a writer. i like how no other writer agrees with his placement of the zags. i guess you really do have a sheltered upbringing in nebraska.

Anonymous said...

This guy must really be an Eagles fan with his Lyin' Eyes (or a pretty bad comedian).

Anonymous said...

Look at his week 1 rankings. The yellow indicates near extreme rankings, what a loser.

http://pollspeak.com/pollstalker/pollstalker.php?s=6&p=10&t1=48&t2=&v=421&w=1&r=V

Anonymous said...

haha nice find. check this out...look at his week 4 poll:

http://pollspeak.com/pollstalker/pollstalker.php?s=6&p=10&t1=48&t2=0&v=421&w=4&r=V&o1=&o2=&o3=&o4=&f=&seed=1228798223

he has tennessee 16th and gonzaga 10, then look at his week 5 voting:

http://pollspeak.com/pollstalker/pollstalker.php?r=V&s=6&p=10&w=5&t1=48&t2=0&v=421

he has tennessee 6th and gonzaga 8th. thats quite the jump from 16th to 6th for only beating north carolina - asheville.

Anonymous said...

i think this guy lost his balls when he started covering creighton, iowa, and iowa state sports. check the webpage out, it gives his email: http://www.owh.com/inside-page.php?id=reporters

Anonymous said...

yeah i posted his email but it must have not posted on here. anyways i agree, he obviously knows good basketball when he covers creighton, iowa and iowa state. i hate nebraska.

Anonymous said...

An accountant, a lawyer, and a cowboy were standing side-by-side using the urinal. The accountant finished, zipped up and started washing and literally scrubbing his hands... clear up to his elbows... he used about 20 paper towels before he finished. He turned to the other two men and commented, "I graduated from Omaha, and they taught us to be clean."

The lawyer finished, zipped up and quickly wet the tips of his fingers, grabbed one paper towel and commented, "I graduated from Lincoln, and they taught us to be environmentally conscious."

The cowboy zipped up and as he was walking out the door said, "I'm not from Nebraska, and they taught us not to piss on our hands."

Anonymous said...

so this steve guy really boosted tennessee from 16th to 6th in one week for beating unc - asheville. seriously, look at his voting record, thats disgusting. he should he thrown off the board.

Anonymous said...

about time i can post. i dont know why you would put a cap on nebraska hatred. anyone get ahold of this steve slime-ball?

Anonymous said...

hahahahhahaha this guy blogged about our comments. yeaaaaaaaaaaaah, nebraska takes it in the dookie hole.

http://www.ralphiereport.com/

Anonymous said...

yeah i was wondering why i could post more last night about this a-hole of a state. nice to see we are back on track.

Anonymous said...

its amazing what you can find on the web:

Steve Pivovar: Born in the early 50's

Attended University of Nebraska at Omaha from 1970-1974 (couldn't get into the little boys school at lincoln, had to attend the little girls school)

it says he interested it: career opportunities, job inquiries, expertise requests, business deals, reference requests, getting back in touch.

its funny that he is to 'get back in touch.' i would think so after seeing how he votes. check out his bio:

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/4/8ba/464