AP Ballot breakdown for week 13 (AP Poll 14)

© Copyright 2006, Paul Kislanko

In the Ballot comparison the teams are ordered by the best rank for which a majority of voters voted the team at least that high (see the ballot summary below) and the ballots are ordered left-to-right by how close the ballot was to the majority's consensus.

See last week's report for the context of yet another editorial.

AP sports editor Terry Taylor said: "We understand mistakes can happen, but we thought this one could have been prevented. The heart of the matter here is the credibility of the poll."
I wrote last week: And it turns out the mysterious 65th voter coincidentally voted exactly as the votes of the other 64 were counted. Hmmm. Evidently the AP can just invent virtual voters, and make the poll come out however they want. Credibility, indeed. As if to prove my point, this week the mysterious 65th voter voted in such a way to create two ties in a poll that had none when the 64 published ballots are counted. For anyone interested, the unpublished ballot was:
1 Ohio State
2 Michigan
3 Southern California
4 Florida
5 LSU
6 Wisconsin
7 Louisville
8 Arkansas
9 Notre Dame
10 Boise State
11 Oklahoma
12 Auburn
13 Rutgers
14 West Virginia
15 Virginia Tech
16 California
17 Wake Forest
18 Texas
19 Tennessee
20 Brigham Young
21 Nebraska
22 Texas A&M
23 Georgia
24 Georgia Tech
25 Boston College

• 18 teams were listed in every voter's top 25 (same as last week)
• 33 teams were listed on at least one top 25 (up 2)
• 15 teams were listed on at least one top 10 (down 1)
• 25 teams were listed on a majority of ballots (up 1)

Ballot Analysis for Associated Press Poll
26 Nov 2006 4:49pm (Central)

Rank Team Maj Cnt Borda Best #Ballots RealB #1
1 Ohio State 1 65 1625 1 65 7670 65
2 Southern California 2 46 1540 2 65 7585
3 Michigan 3 56 1504 2 65 7549
4 Florida 4 65 1441 2 65 7486
5 LSU 5 33 1303 5 65 7348
6 Louisville 6 36 1241 5 65 7286
7 Wisconsin 7 48 1212 5 65 7257
8 Oklahoma 9 39 1095 6 65 7140
8 Arkansas 9 34 1095 6 65 7140
10 Boise St 9 33 1044 5 65 7089
11 Auburn 11 36 966 6 65 7011
12 Notre Dame 12 43 940 7 65 6985
13 Rutgers 12 36 906 5 65 6951
14 Virginia Tech 14 39 775 10 65 6820
15 West Virginia 16 39 667 11 65 6712
16 Wake Forest 16 35 621 9 65 6666
17 Texas 18 41 542 11 64 6494
18 Tennessee 18 39 542 13 65 6587
19 Nebraska 20 40 405 15 65 6450
20 BYU 20 36 394 14 64 6346
21 California 20 34 367 13 64 6319
22 Texas A&M 21 33 318 15 61 5991
23 Georgia Tech 23 41 210 16 58 5604
24 Hawaii 23 33 174 16 54 5196
25 Boston College 25 37 91 17 37 3532
Rank Team Maj Cnt Borda Best #Ballots RealB #1
26 Georgia     44 21 18 1718
27 TCU     31 19 13 1240
28 Oregon St     17 20 9 854
29 Penn State     4 25 4 376
30 South Florida     4 24 3 283
31 South Carolina     3 25 3 282
32 Maryland     3 24 2 189
33 Houston     1 25 1 94

Ballot Counts by Rank - AP Poll # 14
26 Nov 2006 4:49pm (Central)

Team #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25
Ohio State 65                                              
Southern California   46 18 1                                        
Michigan   18 38 9                                        
Florida   1 9 55                                        
LSU         33 15 8 6 2 1                            
Louisville         21 15 9 7 6 1 3 2   1                    
Wisconsin         7 16 25 5 4 1 3 1 1 2                    
Oklahoma           4 9 15 11 10 8 4 3 1                    
Arkansas           8 5 10 11 17 8 3 3                      
Boise St         2 3 4 14 10 10 4 8 2 6         2          
Auburn           2 4 3 6 7 14 11 10 3 2 3                
Notre Dame             1 3 10 6 10 13 12 5 3 2                
Rutgers         2 2   2 4 6 8 12 12 7 4 2 1 2 1          
Virginia Tech                   5 4 4 9 17 13 6 1 4 2          
West Virginia                     1 3 4 10 14 7 14 7 3 1 1      
Wake Forest                 1 1   3 2 3 12 13 11 9   5 2 2 1  
Texas                     2 1 2 5 4 9 7 11 7 5 7 3     1
Tennessee                         3 2 6 9 11 8 15 5 3 2   1
Nebraska                             1 2 6 7 9 15 14 9 1 1
BYU                           1 3 3 8 9 5 7 6 9 8 3 2
California                         2 2   4 3 2 10 11 10 5 4 5 6
Texas A&M                             3 3 2 6 4 5 10 9 10 6 3
Georgia Tech                               1     4 4 6 11 15 12 5
Hawaii                               1     2 3 4 9 14 13 8
Boston College                                 1     2 1 4 6 8 15
Team #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25
Georgia                                         1 2 6 4 5
TCU                                     1 1       7 4
Oregon St                                       1       3 5
Penn State                                                 4
South Florida                                               1 2
South Carolina                                                 3
Maryland                                               1 1
Houston                                                 1

Pairwise Matrix for Associated Press Poll #14
(Only teams on a majority of ballots listed)
26 Nov 2006 4:49pm (Central)

Borda Indx Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
1625 1 Ohio State   65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65
1540 2 Southern California     47 63 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65
1504 3 Michigan   18   56 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65
1441 4 Florida   2 9   65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65
1303 5 LSU           40 45 63 65 57 62 65 61 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65
1241 6 Louisville         25   42 48 50 58 60 58 57 64 65 65 64 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65
1212 7 Wisconsin         20 23   52 49 52 57 59 59 64 64 65 64 64 65 65 65 65 65 65 65
1095 8 Oklahoma         2 17 13   35 34 50 52 52 62 65 65 63 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65
1095 9 Arkansas           15 16 30   34 54 54 49 65 65 63 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65
1044 10 Boise St         8 7 13 31 31   43 43 50 56 60 59 63 63 64 65 64 64 65 65 65
966 11 Auburn         3 5 8 15 11 22   42 43 55 61 57 61 65 65 65 64 64 65 65 65
940 12 Notre Dame           7 6 13 11 22 23   38 52 63 57 65 64 65 65 64 65 65 65 65
906 13 Rutgers         4 8 6 13 16 15 22 27   50 54 61 56 61 63 64 62 64 65 65 65
775 14 Virginia Tech           1 1 3   9 10 13 15   46 60 54 55 64 62 61 63 65 64 64
667 15 West Virginia             1     5 4 2 11 19   37 43 54 60 58 55 59 65 64 65
621 16 Wake Forest                 2 6 8 8 4 5 28   44 40 58 52 53 60 59 65 64
542 17 Texas           1 1 2   2 4   9 11 22 21   34 49 48 49 40 61 61 63
542 18 Tennessee             1     2   1 4 10 11 25 31   47 44 57 57 61 63 65
405 19 Nebraska                   1     2 1 5 7 16 18   31 36 46 58 59 63
394 20 BYU                         1 3 7 13 17 21 34   36 41 48 57 56
367 21 California                   1 1 1 3 4 10 12 16 8 29 29   35 49 53 56
318 22 Texas A&M                   1 1   1 2 6 5 25 8 19 24 30   43 40 54
210 23 Georgia Tech                               6 3 4 7 17 16 20   41 53
174 24 Hawaii                           1 1   4 2 6 8 12 25 24   44
91 25 Boston College                           1   1 2   2 9 9 10 9 18
Borda Indx Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25