in the latest USA Today/ESPNCoaches poll USC only lost one first place vote and LSU gained one first place vote according to ESPN.
That's one thing I hate about polls. It's all about position now. We all know what happened with the AP last year. LSU loses one week after USC did, so we couldn't catch them in that poll. This has ALWAYS been a problem with the poll. It doesn't do a good job of actually measuring factors that tell the true story between teams. All they tend to look at is, "did the team win?" Then they keep them in that position and that is it. I thought that if the game were close, as in 3 points or less, USC could have and probably should have fallen from #1. Being that they won by 11, a case could be made that OU or LSU could have replaced them. Even had OU and LSU played and blown out their opponents, I doubt there would have been any change in the poll. :nope:
Well for those who even have ANY thoughts of USC dropping from the #1 spot with mediocre performances like that against VTech, think no more. They could play mediocre just as they did yesterday for every game this year and would still retain their #1 spot. I don't know if there would have been a greater effect on USC's votes for #1 had OU and LSU played and dominated their opponents this past weekend as well. I would like to think so. But just remember, every vote DOES count. Literally, in this years BCS formula. So USC could conceivably be #1 at the end of the year and NOT go to the Orange Bowl. If OU and LSU get enough first place votes by the end of the year (assuming all 3 go undefeated), and the computer polls favor LSU and OU with USC a distant 3rd (which is what would happen), then USC would be ass out again.
Yes. Remember also, that a potential flaw in the new system that could work in the computer's favor as far as significance goes is that the margin between 1 and 2 in a particular computer poll means nothing. It doesn't matter if a school is ahead in a poll by .00001 or by .2500 or something, it's still only goes by poll position. It would be 25 points for No.1 and 24 points for No. 2 in that poll. This would mean with a schedule like ours, if both we and USC went undefeated, we could very easily be ahead of USC in all seven polls or at least 6 of the 7 or something, and get a full .04 difference between the two teams.
Yes and the reason why they had to do it that way with the computer polls is because all 7 have a different scoring system, and it would have been impossible to do it any other way.
Don't be surprised when the AP actually gives them MORE first place votes when the poll comes out tonight.
