Why did you just submit the same poll from last week as your poll this week? Are you planning to change this later? And if so, why submit it now anyway?

Also, you seem to be the only person not ranking Cincinnati. As it stands this week currently the next lowest is 14th, last week 21st, and I have to go all the way back to week 3 to find anybody to didn't rank them. That person the next week put them up at 7th by the way.


EDIT: The poll was updated but I still have problems with it and am making this a challenge.

http://www.bcsfanpoll.com/user/usbummer/2009/

1. As stated above, he is still the only person not voting for UC. The next lowest is now 15th with the highest 2nd. In the official BCS poll they are 5th. I have a very hard time believing that a team can be ranked where they are, both in the real polls and here, and not receive a vote from somebody. He has Oregon St ranked 18th, UC beat them in their house 28-18 earlier this season. He had USF at 15th. UC beat them on Thursday but still nothing. In conference he has Pitt, USF, and WVU ranked ahead of us. All of them have 1 loss. UC is still 7-0.

Also, 3-3 Arkansas over UC... really? There's only 1 other person voting for Arkansas this week.

2.Big 10 leader Iowa (11th) is still ranked several spots below both Penn St (7th) AND Ohio St (8th). The same OSU who lost to Purdue and then dropped all of 4 spots in his poll. The week Iowa beat PSU, his next poll had Penn St at 13, Iowa 14. The next week both teams won, Penn St jumped back to 8th and Iowa didn't move.

3. Boise St ranked 17th is by far the lowest rank for that team. No other voter has them outside the Top 10. The Oregon team they beat he has at 6th. I know SOS is going to come into play here as well as their less than impressive performance against that FCS team, but they haven't looked any less impressive in those kind of games than Iowa has this year.

This morning I guessed that it was just a technical mishap. The new rankings were put in but the wrong buttons were pressed.

I wouldn't worry too much about it, assuming he can get back to his computer before polls close. The Cincinnati thing is something. The Big East often gets a bad rap. Maybe this is a reflection of that?

For the record, I will make this an actual challenge if I have to. I do believe that submitting the same poll as last week was some kind of mistake. And Cincy should very well be in his too seeing as they just beat his #15 USF as an unranked team playing on the road.

I agree this is bad.

I've e-mailed him. Hopefully this is just a simple error.

For the record, I'm abstaining until I hear from him.

ditto

He has updated his poll.

I too think the lack of Cincinnati in particular is troubling, but it would be great to hear the reasoning behind the choice. I can't see it being a strength of schedule issue, since they have beaten multiple teams that usbummer has ranked. I also checked through last years rankings and as an 11-2 Big East Champ, Cincinnati only graces his polls 2 weeks, and never above 25th.

As for Boise St., looking back at last years polls again, he seems to not give much credit to non-BCS schools, with 12-0 Utah finishing 10th, Boise St. at 12-0 finishing 11th, and TCU 10-2 finishing 12th.

I don't think anyone can really claim bias until we hear the reasoning from this though, so could you give us some insight into your poll usbummer?

This doesn't scream bias to me. Is it bias against "the little man"?... maybe. But perhaps if he weighs SOS etc it can be argued that none of them belong in the top 10. Boise State will likely remain at 10 in my poll all year, even if they keep winning, because of the lack of a quality road win. I consider TCU's wins at Clemson and at Air Force more impressive than at Tulsa and at Fresno and at wherever else they win. Hence, TCU is above Boise State in my poll. For the teams above them now, because of their conferences, they will all have opportunities for quality road wins, because their conference has higher quality than the WAC.

I'm hesitant to close this without a response, so I'll leave it open for another week. While there currently is no support (no votes) to remove usbummer though, and already some support for keeping, I think it's safe to assume this won't succeed, but I'd like to give usbummer a chance to respond here.

I think it would be good to keep it open if for no other reason than the fact that there are more people absatining than voting. I for one am waiting to hear back before casting a vote, and, as you said in another forum, a lack of a response and reasoning is sometimes worse than suspect reasoning.

I really don't want to remove a pollster, but to me the Cincy thing doesn't sit well. I know it comes off as me being a homer but I've seen every game and been to every home game since 2004... so I follow this team very closely.

You can't say they're out because of the offense (4th in ppg, 10th passing yards/game, 11th in total yards/game, 12th rated QB in pass eff, a WR who is top 4 in TD catches) and if you say it's because of the defense that's just plain ignorant at this point (1st in tackles for loss, 3rd in sacks, 4th in interceptions). All those stats are national rank by the way, not conference.

I still want to hear a reason, but to not rank this undefeated team and to rank 2 teams it has soundly beaten in their houses (including using a backup QB for a full half in one game) is insane at this point in the season.

Where exactly is the line to be drawn?

Boise State is undefeated, and beat Oregon. Oregon is 11 spots higher than Boise State.

Houston has the same record as Oklahoma State and won AT Oklahoma State. Oklahoma State is 12 spots higher than Houston.

Iowa is undefeated and beat Penn State AT Penn State. Penn State is 4 spots higher than Iowa.

Ohio State has no marquis wins, two losses, including one of them to 1-5 Purdue... that's the 8th best team in the country?

Cincinnati has BEATEN 4-2 Oregon State and 5-1 South Florida. He ranks them both, not Cincinnati.

Its clear that there is some ladder prejudgement status here, like Cincinnati starting at 120th or something.

There are alot of voters that tend to ignore certain results on the field... but this is by far the most egregious vote. If you can't vote yes for this, what can you vote yes for?

I agree with both of the above comments, and have switched my vote to yes, pending a response from the pollster himself.

I can understand Iowa being 11th (I have them 13th) because teams above them are producing, but I also have PSU at 14th. Cincy not being ranked is ridiculous though, I have to vote to remove