2012 BlogPoll, Week 5: 7 teams earn first-place votes

Alabama's grip on the top spot in the BlogPoll got incrementally looser after a Week 4 win over Florida Atlantic on pay-per-view that few saw. But with the rest of the college football world seemingly playing big game after big game, six other teams picked up first-place votes, and no other team in the top five stayed in place.

Oregon moves up from No. 3 to No. 2 and gains a first-place vote after demolishing Arizona. The Ducks are followed by Florida State, which leaps from No. 5 to No. 3 after their big win over Clemson. LSU and Georgia, previously No. 2 and No. 4, fall to No. 4 and No. 5 to make room for the Quack Attack and the 'Noles.

Oregon, Florida State, No. 6 Kansas State (up eight spots after upsetting Oklahoma in Norman), No. 8 Stanford, No. 9 Notre Dame, and No. 11 Florida all received at least one first-place vote. Clemson fell to No. 16 from No. 10 after its loss, and Oklahoma dropped like a rock, plummeting from No. 6 to No. 17.

No. 19 Oregon State, unbeaten with two wins over ranked-at-the-time teams, and No. 23 Rutgers, 4-0 for the first time since 2006, are the only new entrants in the poll's lower reaches.

Results for Week 4

#	School	Points/blog	SD	Delta
1	Alabama Crimson Tide (85)	24.81	0.74	--
2	Oregon Ducks (2)	22.94	2.50	1
3	Florida St. Seminoles (1)	21.85	2.93	2
4	LSU Tigers	21.53	2.44	-2
5	Georgia Bulldogs	20.34	2.40	-1
6	Kansas St. Wildcats (1)	18.80	2.56	8
7	South Carolina Gamecocks	18.37	2.36	2
8	Stanford Cardinal (2)	17.65	3.11	--
9	Notre Dame Fighting Irish (1)	16.55	3.20	2
10	West Virginia Mountaineers	16.49	4.46	-3
11	Florida Gators (1)	14.82	3.46	2
12	Texas Longhorns	14.20	2.73	--
13	USC Trojans	11.43	4.49	3
14	Ohio St. Buckeyes	11.17	4.09	1
15	TCU Horned Frogs	10.45	3.86	2
16	Clemson Tigers	9.14	4.54	-6
17	Oklahoma Sooners	7.92	4.65	-11
18	Louisville Cardinals	7.83	3.15	1
19	Oregon St. Beavers	7.16	4.63	10
20	Michigan St. Spartans	4.65	3.11	2
21	Mississippi St. Bulldogs	4.51	3.57	3
22	Northwestern Wildcats	3.74	4.30	1
23	Rutgers Scarlet Knights	3.10	2.95	10
24	Nebraska Cornhuskers	2.51	2.69	2
25	Ohio Bobcats	2.49	3.11	--
Others Receiving Votes: Baylor Bears | Iowa St. Cyclones | UCLA Bruins | Boise St. Broncos | Louisiana Tech Bulldogs | Oklahoma St. Cowboys | Michigan Wolverines | Texas Tech Red Raiders | Arizona Wildcats | Arizona St. Sun Devils | Virginia Tech Hokies | Cincinnati Bearcats | Minnesota Golden Gophers | Texas A&M Aggies | Wisconsin Badgers | Tennessee Volunteers | Central Florida Knights | Purdue Boilermakers | Ball St. Cardinals | Miami Hurricanes | Utah State Aggies | Tulsa Golden Hurricane | Nevada Wolf Pack | Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
Updated: Sep 26, 2012 9:45 AM EDT

Total Ballots: 93
Votes by team | Ballots by voter

Wack Ballot Watchdog

Here's the full list of the non-Alabama first-place votes:

• Oregon: Washington State blog CougCenter; Mountain West blog, uh, Mountain West Connection
• Florida State: Florida blog Alligator Army
• Kansas State: Arizona State blog House of Sparky
• Stanford: Georgia blog Dawg Sports; Iowa blog Black Heart Gold Pants
• Notre Dame: Oklahoma/general college football blog Blatant Homerism
• Florida: Florida State blog Tomahawk Nation

None of those votes are wrong, per se; it's a sign of how many different philosophies make up the BlogPoll that there are seven teams receiving first-place votes, including one outside the top-10. Also, I can't decide what's funnier: CougCenter ranking Washington State's next opponent No. 1, or SB Nation's Florida blog having Florida State No. 1 (that's my vote, for what it's worth) while Tomahawk Nation, our Florida State blog, has Florida No. 1?

Oklahoma earned just one slot in the top-10, and it came from Clemson blog Shakin the Southland. Solidarity?

Now on to the extracurriculars. First up are the teams which spurred the most disagreement between voters as measured by standard deviation. Note that the standard deviation charts halt at No. 25 when looking for the lowest, otherwise teams that everyone agreed were terrible (say, Michigan) would all be at the top.

Oklahoma has struggled with UTEP, thrashed Florida A&M and been beaten at home by Kansas State. I have no idea how good the Sooners are, and neither do any of the other BlogPoll voters. Oregon State's disagreement might be a sign of East Coast bias.

Ballot Math

First up are the Chip Kelly Award for Boldness and Jim Tressel's Numb Existence. The former goes to the voter with the ballot most divergent from the poll at large. The number you see is the average difference between a person's opinion of a team and the poll's opinion.

Th most unconventional vote this week in the always-entertaining BHGP resume ballot: Iowa State is No. 10 ... and fell five spots to get there.

Eleven Warriors' finishes in this category in 2012 regular season BlogPolls: first, first, second and now first again. BIG TEN CONSISTENCY right there. Of the 20 spaces in the Numb Existence top five over that month of polling, 15 have been occupied by bloggers covering Big Ten teams.

Next we have the Coulter/Kos Award and the Straight Bangin' Award, which are again different sides of the same coin. The CKA and SBA go to the blogs with the highest and lowest bias rating, respectively. Bias rating is calculated by subtracting the blogger's vote for his own team from the poll-wide average. A high number indicates you are shameless homer. A low number indicates that you suffer from an abusive relationship with your football team.

BCS Guru has remained high on USC despite the Trojans' loss, and is actually down from the massive 7.50 bias rating it scored last week.

Frogs O' War continues to be slightly more skeptical about TCU than most of the rest of the BlogPoll is, but the Frogs creeping up the rankings may be enough to keep FO'W here for the near future.

Swing is the total change in each ballot from last week to this week (obviously voters who didn't submit a ballot last week are not included). A high number means you are easily distracted by shiny things. A low number means that you're damn sure you're right no matter what reality says.

We're finally close enough to having the data necessary for resume balloting to be near the mean methodology for voters, so BHGP gets a closer win than it usually does here. (Previous margins of Swing victory for BHGP in 2012: 72, 274.)

Oklahoma's eight-spot fall was the biggest delta in our Wisconsin blog's ballot, but moving Clemson up a spot --which I can see the argument for -- was what probably assured this victory, given how Clemson dropped elsewhere.