The Breakdown: WVU's AP Poll Rankings Analyzed

Yes, WVU was #1 once.  For one, glorious week in November 2007.

Pollspeak.com does a fantastic job of compiling each AP poll voter's ballot and breaking it down, team-by-team, to show where each voter ranked each team.  We all know that WVU is unranked right now, but nevertheless we did receive some votes.  Let's take a deeper look at the preseason version of the Pollspeak breakdown.  I'll interject some of my own thoughts, comments, doubts, dilemmas, witty remarks, etc., and you all can add to them in the comments.  If this goes over well, it may become a weekly feature throughout the season.  Let's break it down after the jump.

Mitch Vingle ranked us 15th.  I like the optimism, but that's what you call homerism at its finest.  I could see us ending up somewhere in the the 10-15 range if the line gels and the kicking game isn't totally incompetent, but things would have to break the right way.  We're not there yet.  The next closest ranking was Matt McCoy of WTVN radio in Columbus, Ohio, who checked us in at 18th.  Interestingly, McCoy also had Auburn at 19th.  Pitt and Cincy also made the cut on his ballot, so maybe he is just paying homage to teams in his vicinity.  Again, I think at this point, 18th is a little high.

A smattering of other pollsters, including ESPN's Craig James, ranked us between 20th and 25th, which sounds about right to me.  James did have a rather interesting ballot, though, ranking Cincinnati 12th, Clemson 13th, and Kansas 14th, all the highest ranking those teams received.  He also was the only voter to leave Boise State off his ballot entirely.  Honestly, I really can't see Cincy that high, but whatever. 

46 voters left WVU unranked.  Most of these folks I have never heard of, but a few caught my eye:  Chris Fowlerof ESPN had a fairly vanilla poll---no one team really stood out as being ranked higher or lower than where his fellow voters ranked them.  However, no Big East teams made the cut, and Notre Dame checked in at 18th.  I don't get the Notre Dame love...maybe because they play a schedule similar to that of San Jose State?  I mean, they lost to Syracuse last year, how good can they be?  Similarly,  Kirk Herbstreit had only a few teams jump off the page:  Cal at 7th, Notre Dame at 13th (!), and Miami FL at 20th, which I actually think is a good ranking.  Miami has been collecting talent the last couple years under Randy Shannon and it's only a matter of time before those guys start producing.  He also had Rutgers at 18th, the only BE team on his poll.  My main beef with Fowler and Herbstreit is that they are both a part of the College Gameday crew.  On one hand, it means they spend time watching each and every team and thus should have a good idea of how good everyone is.  On the other hand, Gameday is about ratings, so it gives the stars of the show a chance to pump up certain teams in an effort to create buzz for games featured on the Worldwide Leader.  It's a conundrum.

Finally, I have an issue with John Adams getting a vote.  I understand we want to be PC, but c'mon, the guy's been dead for close to 200 years.  No wonder he ranked Alabama 2nd.

I can understand some of the trepidation voters have with the Big East right now.  There are no clear cut favorites, and the five teams everyone thinks have a shot at the title all have question marks.  Thus, the voters seem to split their votes among those five teams, destroying any consensus that would put one or two of them in the rankings.  I have a feeling that a couple teams will emerge throughout the year and climb into the polls, but which teams that will be I have no idea.  Then again, everyone could go 8-4 and throw more gas onto the whole anti-BE fire.  But hey, that's why we play the games. 

[photo via www.pediment.com]