The top 3 remain the same. The biggest movers were Iowa up 11 spots to #12, and picking up a first place vote. Penn State, Miami, Ole Miss and Cal all fell hard this week. Oregon jumps back in the polls at #14 and South Florida and Nebraska are also new this week, replacing North Carolina, Florida State and Pittsburgh.

We also gained 8 new official pollsters, through a heavy week of discussion not only about the applicant’s polls, but again what to look for. Welcome to all the new OPs.

Congratulations to Brandon for winning Week 4. This was a tough week to pick as Brandon missed 5 (of 18) games to pull out the win over two others just one point behind for second place.

For the season, SOONERFLASH has opened up his lead to 4 points over a three-way tie for second place. But it’s still a long season as the top 10 are seperated by just 10 points, and a few off weeks could completely change things.

Please vote on the following applications for official pollster status: vetonoshake, dbrannen93, & bwbob1…. and joshuahouston.

The 2009 Week 3 poll is now final. Florida and Texas remain the 1-2 punch. With USC dropping from the top 10, a lot of teams moved up a slot. The biggest movers this week were Miami moving up 10 spots to #10 and BYU moving down 11 slots to #18. Five new teams entered the poll this week: Florida State, Kansas, Iowa, Pittsburgh and Michigan causing these five teams to be dropped: Utah, Georgia Tech, Nebraska, Texas Tech and Oregon State, but all are in the still receiving votes section. Sadly, we lost 1 official pollster for failing to submit a ballot, but we gained 4 new official pollsters.

An interesting discussion occurred this week about whether it’s okay to copy polls, or computer rankings or just in general. The general feeling seemed to be “Why would you bother?” However, no one seemed to think it was terribly bad, and there’s still only 2 weeks for the pollster that appears to have copied a computer ranking, which could be coincidental. More feedback and ideas and your opinion are always welcome. As is, there isn’t a formal challenge to the pollster just some confusion to his rankings and what’s he’s said on how he ranks his teams.

sedwards468 has applied to be an official pollster. Please go vote on his application.

NVWolfpack has applied to be an official pollster. Please go vote on his application.

Abrion has applied to become an official pollster. Please go vote on his application.

PSUSyr5 has applied to become an official pollster. Please go vote on his application.

All the games have been entered, and congratulations goes out to SOONERFLASH for winning week 3. This moves SOONERFLASH into a first place tie with sawyer for the season, with a two way tie for 3rd just two points back and others nipping at their heals.

I had the idea to drop the lowest weekly total to make it easier to compete in the Pick ‘Em game, so it’s not just an endurance test in playing every week. Some liked the idea, but since we started the season without this rule, I won’t change anything this season. But next season we’ll have the 1 or 2 week drop rule, and all weeks will either be worth the same points (all games with 1 point) or you get to put confidence points to your picks, so the total is even, but each game isn’t worth the same. Perhaps something like the “Lock of the week” where you get to assign extra points to 1 game you’re sure about.

The 2009 Week 2 BCS Fan Poll is finalized. The top 4 spots stay the same, with Oklahoma State the only big mover dropping 12 spots. Notre Dame fell out of the poll with Houston earning the replacement spot. Only 4 teams earned first place votes: Florida, Texas, USC and BYU.

There was an error with early voting that is almost fully cleaned up. The problem has been solved, and I am confident that this problem will not occur again. To help guard against voters voting the wrong week, the ballot now displays what week you are voting for (Thanks for the suggestion ru4granted). If you notice the week number looks weird or funny, you may wish to wait to vote until later in the window.

Lastly, several users are reporting that the red X buttons to remove a team from the top 25 list are not aligned with the team to remove. If you are using Internet Explorer or FireFox, to solve this you just need to upgrade to the latest version. This has solved the problem for several users. For Google Chrome users, this problem will exist in the short term, until I can solve it. I recommend using FireFox until then. If you are using some other browser and have problems with the NEW and AWESOME voting booth, please let me know. I have done no testing other than the 3 browsers listed above.