The 2005 Pre-Season Pete's Power Poll

[Pete's Weekly]

We have released our initial Pete's Power Poll for the 2005 season. Remember, this is a performance-based poll and no games have been played as of yet. As usual, the top predicted teams in each of the automatic bid conferences are awarded the top 8 spots. This year had some changes:

1. We added both the Great West and Big South top-ranked clubs just after the other 8.

2. Also, as usual, the reigning national champ is awarded the top spot. However, in 2005, Pete's did not select JMU as the top club in the A-10, so the conference has 2 teams listed in the top-9.

Pete's Power Poll (http://www.petespoll.com)

[TexasTerror]

SFA is head of Sam Houston State and TxSt-San Marcos?!?

And look at the system he uses for his "Power Poll". This guy is and continues to be on crack...

[X-Factor]

What happened to NDSU and Montana St. :eek:

UNI :confused:

Doesn't really look like this poll is based "heavily" off of last years final ranking by the looks of things.

Even still, its fun to see another opinion on the preseason.

[TexasTerror]

He just has a wierd way of going about things with his "method" of devising this poll...

Another opinion, but what other poll does this with conference picks?

[UM_Minuteman]

this is one of the srtangest poll i have seen.....he gives automatic bids just because the teams won their divisions; what is that about? I don't think that the teams that won the OVC, MEAC, or Patriot League deserve to be ahead of other teams.

[rokamortis]

I agree this is a bit weird - but he posted his methodology. He clearly states that this is just a starting point and that as the season progresses that the poll will change drastically.

[Tribe4SF]

This is not a poll, it's a ranking. It's also pretty rank. :D

[89Hen]

as the season progresses that the poll will change drastically.
Unfortunately, it doesn't get any better though. He's been doing this "Power Poll" for more than a couple years and it has always been questionable at best.

[FlyYtown]

Finally some respect for the Penguins.


Watch out folks after week 8; they definately will hit the top 25 and I bet into the top 20 with a 7-1 record... maybe even a 6-2 record.

go YSU and all and all on a unbiased POV.. its well done..

[umassfan]

Costal ranked 11th but nothing for UMass? :rolleyes:

[UM_Minuteman]

Costal ranked 11th but nothing for UMass? :rolleyes:


ya what is with that. every other poll or ranking system has Umass between 9th and 16th. don't know how it is possible to not possible to be around there in this ranking system

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

this is one of the srtangest poll i have seen.....he gives automatic bids just because the teams won their divisions; what is that about? I don't think that the teams that won the OVC, MEAC, or Patriot League deserve to be ahead of other teams.

It's not too far fetched that Lehigh is ahead of most of those teams 'cept for GSU. They don't have any weakness's, they have a few questions, OL DL, but the dept at those positions have been such that the players filling in have had a lot of game time. They return some of the best skill position players in the country, Rath being top 15 RB and Borda an easily top 10 QB but has the potential to excel to the top . Their deffense could have 3 All-Americans by the end of the year as well. They face possibly their toughest schedule in 5 or 6 years a tough, at UD, at Harvard, at Colgate and home with Lafayette. The game at UD will be a tell tail sign, play them as well as they played JMU in the playoffs and they could very easily be a top a 10 team.

[rokamortis]

Costal ranked 11th but nothing for UMass? :rolleyes:


ya what is with that. every other poll or ranking system has Umass between 9th and 16th. don't know how it is possible to not possible to be around there in this ranking system

If people would take a minute to actually read his methodology - he said he placed the conference favorites first as an honor before the season starts. He explicitly states that the 'top' teams aren't necessarily better than the ones below - just that this is his starting point. As stated before - he said big changes will occur once the season starts and his 'poll' will get better as the season progresses - especially after conference play begins.

I'm not defending where he put Coastal, I could care less - I just want people to understand that he already addressed their concerns. I don't think CCU should be in any of these polls or rankings and would prefer if we weren't.

[bluehenbillk]

Man you guys get worked up easy. This poll is even less credible than the GPI. All you have to do is look at #7 thru #11 and try not to laugh.

[GannonFan]

Man you guys get worked up easy. This poll is even less credible than the GPI. All you have to do is look at #7 thru #11 and try not to laugh.

Was this poll ever part of the GPI? If it was, is it out now?

[Gil Dobie]

Renamed Pete's Weakly.

[blueballs]

1. James Madison
2. Northern Iowa
3. Northwestern St.
4. New Hampshire
5. Furman
6. Montana
7. Jacksonville St.
8. Lehigh
9. Hampton
10. Cal-Poly
11. Coastal Carolina
12. Eastern Washington
13. Western Kentucky
14. Georgia Southern

1-7 in the rankings I really don't have much problem with, although I can't see putting UNI ahead of both SIU and WKU pre-season, but I would lay big money that GSU at #14 would soundly defeat JSU, Lehigh, Cal-Poly, Coastal Carolina, and the same goes for EWU and WKU- which is to say that EWU & WKU are too low also.

[LEHIGH61]

No Harvard? A BIG oversight!

[TigerFan17]

No Harvard? A BIG oversight!


"Pete's means no disrespect to the Ivy, SWAC, or Mid-major programs ... we merely chose to rank those clubs that are eligible for, and historically have participated in the tournament. The SWAC and Ivy have chosen not to participate in the play-off, and even though they are eligible, there has never been a mid-major club selected for the play-off."

Gotta read the fine print. ;)

[WYOBISONMAN]

No credibility at all......not even worth reading...... :eek:

[eaglesrthe1]

Ahh...I don't really care if Pete wants to have his fun. More power to him. However, if the starting point of a team has any bearing on their ranking...and on the SOS of their opponents...then his practice of awarding the conference leaders the top spots in his poll is wrong.

For instance...would Elon get a higher SOS and ratings boost with an upset victory over CCU than Northeastern would get with a victory over GSU because of CCU's current higher ranking in his poll?

Also, what type of influence would scheduling an unranked but quality opponent such as Harvard have on a teams ranking? Would it have a neutral influence?

[Fordham]

If you accept the two things that he's very clear about, this isn't too ridiculous.

1. Rather than picking the top 25 (or 35 ... or more) teams in I-AA like most polls do it, the purpose of this poll is simply to pick/predict which 16 teams are going to make the playoffs. Thus, the poll isn't saying that Lehigh is a better team than GSU or any CAA/A10 team other than JMU ... just that as the PL favorite they are slotted into one of the top 8 spots since you know that due to the auto-bid, one PL team will make it (and the other top ranked teams are from the other auto-bids). Furthermore, they'll stay there until a different PL team unseats them from the PL pole (poll?) position or else the overall ranking of the PL conference moves them up or down a notch within the top few picks.

2. This will radically change once the season starts.

The biggest thing as a PL fan that I found strange is how Colgate could be listed higher than Lafayette. I couldn't find the rationalization in the explanation for how that happened since it seemed to me that he was bending over backwards to give the benefit of the doubt to last year's "performers" ... if that's the case, Lafayette and Colgate need to be switched, imo (but I'm open to a different explanation that would show where I may have missed some fine print).

Now I don't have the same experience here to know how this played out during past years, so maybe it is worthless. But, given what its stated purpose is, it's not a ridiculous way to go about ranking teams, imo.

[Gil Dobie]

If you accept the two things that he's very clear about, this isn't too ridiculous.

1. Rather than picking the top 25 (or 35 ... or more) teams in I-AA like most polls do it, the purpose of this poll is simply to pick/predict which 16 teams are going to make the playoffs. Thus, the poll isn't saying that Lehigh is a better team than GSU or any CAA/A10 team other than JMU ... just that as the PL favorite they are slotted into one of the top 8 spots and will stay there until a different PL team moves into PL pole position or else the overall ranking of the PL conference moves them up or down a notch within the top few picks..

#20 UC Davis is not eligible for the playoffs

[Black and Gold Express]

Guys, do you even read before bashing?

His "poll" is meant to only determine the likelihood of who makes the playoffs. It's not a rating system of who's better than who, but who is most likely to be playing come Thanksgiving Weekend.

There's 8 automatic bids. So if you're not figured to win your conference, you won't be in the top 8. The rest are the at-larges. And while I don't agree with how he puts the Big South and GWFC leaders 9th and 10th to start with, he admits that things will change. The second any of those schools hit 3 losses (maybe even 2 losses), you won't see them in the top 16.

As for those who say "my at-large team would whip any of these auto-bid teams", that may be true, but you're also not guaranteed a spot in there like they are. Again, it's just to predict who's got the best chances at playing in the postseason.

Is this such a tough concept to grasp?

I used to mock the hell out of this in years' past. Then I decided to read everything about it, not just look at the pretty pictures and the team names next to a number. Amazing what reading comprehension can do for you these days.

[89Hen]

His "poll" is meant to only determine the likelihood of who makes the playoffs. It's not a rating system of who's better than who
Then this is a new development. That was never the claim in the past. A little rewriting of the objective after the fact never hurt anyone too much.

[Hansel]

I thought pete included that (playoff prediction not "poll") last year?

[blueballs]

Guys, do you even read before bashing?

His "poll" is meant to only determine the likelihood of who makes the playoffs. It's not a rating system of who's better than who, but who is most likely to be playing come Thanksgiving Weekend.

There's 8 automatic bids. So if you're not figured to win your conference, you won't be in the top 8. The rest are the at-larges. And while I don't agree with how he puts the Big South and GWFC leaders 9th and 10th to start with, he admits that things will change. The second any of those schools hit 3 losses (maybe even 2 losses), you won't see them in the top 16.

As for those who say "my at-large team would whip any of these auto-bid teams", that may be true, but you're also not guaranteed a spot in there like they are. Again, it's just to predict who's got the best chances at playing in the postseason.

Is this such a tough concept to grasp?

I used to mock the hell out of this in years' past. Then I decided to read everything about it, not just look at the pretty pictures and the team names next to a number. Amazing what reading comprehension can do for you these days.

If that is the case this thing's even more screwed up than I thought. JMU doesn't have a better shot at an autobid than JSU simply because of the relative strength of the two conferences. UNH doesn't have a better shot as an at large than the SoCon champ (whoever that may be) has at an autobid, and Cal-Poly and Coastal Carolina certainly don't have a better shot at the playoffs than GSU, EWU, or WKU. This thing makes absolutely no sense.

Try again...

[Fordham]

If that is the case this thing's even more screwed up than I thought. JMU doesn't have a better shot at an autobid than JSU simply because of the relative strength of the two conferences. UNH doesn't have a better shot as an at large than the SoCon champ (whoever that may be) has at an autobid, and Cal-Poly and Coastal Carolina certainly don't have a better shot at the playoffs than GSU, EWU, or WKU. This thing makes absolutely no sense.

Try again...
I'd argue it actually IS logical (even if you wouldn't necessarily choose to do it this way), since he explains that:

1) He gives a nod to last year's Nat'l Champs and has them listed as #1 again in a blatant reward for their performance last year as well as the fact that noone has beaten them since (regardless of the fact that they haven't played a game since then ;) ) and he acknowledges that these things will change radically once the season starts. I don't see anything wrong with giving JMU some 'hizzaaahhh' or 'propers' or 'props' or 'dap' or whatever the youngins are calling it these days.

2) He also indicated that once you take all of the autobid conferences, the next step is to rank that group according to last year's final conference power rankings. Thus, it's sort of a sub-group of the overall rankings and is less about whether or not ranked team #2 is better than ranked team #5 than it is about whether or not ranked conference #2 is better than ranked conference #5.

Now I still see the Colgate - Lafayette thing as a hole in this one and I suspect there may be others, but the things that are bothering you about this are actually pretty rationale (I think).

[Cocky]

I hope we finish at 7 or above. I would say we are a little high if this were a regular poll. If it was a normal year we would have been 6.

But the way I read this is, a #7 seed (maybe 6)in the playoff is probably the highest seed a OVC champ could achieve. The champ would need to win some very good OOC games to be seeded any higher. The other 5 conferences above us will get at least 6 of the other seeds (they are seeding 8 this year?).