Daily Blog - Thursday, July 23rd
THE POLLS ARE OPEN!!!
Last year I put up a poll for everyone to pick who would win each conference game during the year. I found these results fascinating prior to the year. When you vote in the poll, it tabulates the current % of votes for each team in each individual game. Here are the results of the fan poll from 2008.
You the fans did well in numerous conferences. The most notable was the Mountain West as BYU was the consensus favorite to win the MWC but you had Utah going 8-0 in MWC play and they did just that. The fan poll also had Virginia Tech winning the coastal, Oklahoma winning the Big 12 South, Missouri winning the Big 12 North, Tulsa winning the CUSA West, USC winning the Pac-10 and Boise St winning the WAC (Fresno St was the media choice). If you compared the votes of the fans and put them into the magazine contest the Fan Vote would have finished in the middle of the pack and ahead of 3 preseason magazines! Also Kansas had finished 12-1 the previous year and Nebraska just 5-7 but voters picked the Huskers to finish ahead of Kansas in the North and they were correct.
This blog does not have a lot or words to it today but you should click on the link above and check out the fans vote. Here are some interesting thoughts that I pulled from the sheet. 57% of the voters had Georgia beating Florida and winning the SEC East. That was pretty much the thought around the country as Georgia was the preseason #1 team in the country (I had the Gators #1). Alabama was expected to lose 4 SEC games with a 90% vote for Georgia to beat them, 86% for LSU (defending National Champ, 71% for Tennessee (defending SEC East Champ) and 69% for Auburn (had beaten Bama 6 straight times). Alabama overcame that tough schedule to go 12-0 and be #1 after the regular season. The pick of Utah over BYU was close with 53% of the voters picking Utah.
Which teams were the fans most inaccurate on. The votes had Northwestern going 0-8 in the Big Ten with the closest vote being 64% of the fans thinking Minnesota would beat them (all other 7 higher than 64%). The Wildcats went 5-3 (nice job Pat Fitzgerald). Texas A&M was picked to finish 4-4 in the Big 12 South ahead of Oklahoma St (3-5). Rice was pegged for 1-7 in the CUSA West with their one win being by 51%-49% of the vote over Tulane. Rice went 7-1 and tied for the West Title! Clemson was expected to go 8-0 in the ACC with 7 of the wins by votes of 74% or higher but they went just 4-4.
We put the poll up yesterday and this is a great way for me to gauge how the public views each game. When you vote you have the entire conference schedule in front of you and the HOME TEAM is CAPITALIZED. Get your votes in today so I can see how the votes are going especially in big games like Oklahoma-Texas, Ohio St at Penn St, BYU - TCU, USC at California and more! To vote you do have register your e-mail address but this is just to make sure there is no stuffing of the ballot box. Thanks for your input and I will break down the fan vote in a couple of weeks!