The AP Poll matters and here’s why you should think so too

We’re smart

Who polls the pollsters? It’s a question that dawned on me this offseason when I saw one of those neat infographic videos of each programs AP Poll appearances since its inception. I get it, we now find ourselves in the playoff era, what point do these polls have? Don’t be an idiot Brendan, polls don’t matter anymore! I’m smart! Not like everybody says… like dumb… I’m smart and I want respect!

The AP poll STILL matters, if it didn’t, why does every school’s ISD highlight the AP poll appearance statistics in their media guides? If they didn’t matter why do the social media teams of these programs send out tweets with their ranking as soon as the polls come out? This nihilist approach to polls doesn’t change the reality that there is still a level of prestige associated with them. Only one team wins the championship and Notre Dame doesn’t have a conference title to claim, so the final AP Poll ranking is one of the only tangible measures we can place on a season’s success. Didn’t win the championship but finished in the top 10? Not great but still a success! That means it becomes imperative that we begin to start holding these voters accountable for how the Irish are getting ranked. The voting is made public, why should we sit idly by doing nothing? Is it not said that idle hands are the devil’s workshop? So over the course of the season, I will take a look at the voting of the members of the AP poll and highlight any inconsistencies. What I hope you’ll find here, is I am not just calling out voters because they didn’t rank my team as high as I wanted. I merely wish to highlight some of THEIR biases and hypocrisy within their voting methodology.

WEEK 2 VOTING RESULTS

After the victory in College Station this past weekend, 23-13, the Irish found themselves moving up two spots to number five in the AP poll. Three voters had Notre Dame ranked tenth, while one voter moved ND down after the win.

Bob Ballou

Ol’ Bobby boy here thought Notre Dame was deserving of the ten spot. Now this on it’s own, isn’t too worthy of mockery. However, our good buddy justified, somehow, that Texas A&M should only move down one spot after losing at home. They went from his preseason number 17 team to the number 18 team. Imagine if you will what would have happen if this sports writer from Texas had witnessed the Irish falling by 10 last weekend instead. Do you think he would have moved the Irish down just one spot? He had Notre Dame as the number 11 team in his preseason poll, they moved up one spot to 10 after the win. The problem with that is, Florida State was ranked ahead of them, so in essence, the Irish received no bump for the win.

John Clay

Okay, so what’s my beef with this one outside him having Notre Dame ranked lower than the consensus? His top 9 teams were totally unchanged from preseason to week 2. Despite beating a still ranked Texas A&M(at #21), the Irish made no ground in a top 10 that saw Michigan and Oregon enter the fourth quarter up one score against vastly inferior teams. It’s as though he couldn’t be bothered to watch the games, so he just copy and pasted his top ten and removed Norvell’s FSU like Joseph Stalin.

Georgia was the only other team in the top 10 to play a ranked opponent and seven played outside the power four. Per John’s voting logic, the only way the Irish can move up in the rankings is if the teams in front of them lose, which is a dangerous precedent to set.

Kirk Kenney

In his preseason poll Kirk had Notre Dame ranked number 10 and Missouri ranked 11. When his number 7 team Florida State made like Spud in Trainspotting and shat the bed back to back weeks, there needed to be a team that moved up. That team was the Missouri Tigers, who having beaten the MIGHTY Murray State Racers 51-0. He was so impressed with Mizzou beating an FCS team, coming off a 2-9 record, they just had to leapfrog the Irish. Love it. Gold star. Great work Kirk.

Joe Arruda

This one is special. At first you might say to yourself, Brendan, he has Notre Dame ranked 8th, that’s not too bad right? Heck he even(rightly) ranked Michigan and Oregon behind Notre Dame, what’s the problem? The problem is this is preseason ballot.

Joe had Texas A&M ranked 10th in his preseason poll.
Joe had Notre Dame ranked 6th.
It was a top 10 matchup according to Joe.
Notre Dame dropped two spots to number 8 after winning the game.

Make this make sense. Notre Dame won by 10 on the road in a top 10 matchup(ACCORDING TO JOE!) Ole Miss beat FCS Furman 76-0 and they jumped the Irish. Neither Florida or WVU were ranked, and Penn State and Miami jumped the Irish.

OFD Top 20 Week 2

I’m not the kind of fellow to take others to task without putting myself out there as well. Take a listen to our OFD Top 20 poll as we make our case for where we put teams and see if our justification is up to snuff. If not, put us on blast, it’s what I would do.