Week 8 Polls

[El_Chapo]

Central Arkansas, North Carolina A&T, Samford and ELON IN TOP 10...

why the HELL does NDSU want to be associated with these garbage programs??

[thebootfitter]

why are the FCS polls always such a huge joke?

The AGS poll is usually pretty solid. Funny thing is... That poll doesn't have as much acceptance because it is "just a fan poll." Of course the fans on AGS who participate probably know more about the entire FCS landscape than any other large collective group of people -- including regional sports writers.

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[BISONBRI53]

Like they said on the insiders... come playoff time there will be a lot of paper champions

[Hammersmith]

why are the FCS polls always such a huge joke?

The FCS coaches poll is done by SIDs, interns and grad assistants. They slot vote based on records. Total joke of a poll.

The FCS media poll is done by people who generally only know the conference of the school they cover and a few of the top FCS teams(name recognition). In most markets, the media person covering the FCS team is way down on the totem pole and is also covering about 30 other areas like high school sports and all the other small colleges. Not as bad as the coaches poll, but still pretty bad.

The AGS poll is by far the best because it's done by people who love the subdivision and who talk to each other. It's not completely unbiased(lots of MVFC & CAA voters), but it's far better than the other two and the vast majority of the voters take it seriously.

[thebootfitter]

The AGS poll is by far the best because it's done by people who love the subdivision and who talk to each other. It's not completely unbiased(lots of MVFC & CAA voters), but it's far better than the other two and the vast majority of the voters take it seriously.

Your example of bias is unfounded per the many times the moderator has checked the statistics to determine​ whether such a bias may exist. He often found a mild bias against one's own conference.

Granted, I don't think Ursus is a statistician by trade, but the numbers he has pulled have certainly been enough to nullify the idea that there may be a pro-conference bias.


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[Hammersmith]

Your example of bias is unfounded per the many times the moderator has checked the statistics to determine​ whether such a bias may exist. He often found a mild bias against one's own conference.

Granted, I don't think Ursus is a statistician by trade, but the numbers he has pulled have certainly been enough to nullify the idea that there may be a pro-conference bias.


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You misunderstood me a bit; mostly because I wasn't very clear. I think there's a bias in AGS, but it's very small and not in the obvious way. It's not that MVFC voters are biased towards MVFC teams, or CAA voters are biased towards CAA teams. I think it's biased in a similar way to the media poll, but to a far, far lesser degree. The media poll voters are biased to the teams they know. In most cases, that's just the teams in the conference of the school they cover. AGS voters are also a little biased toward the teams they know. But most AGS voters know most of the teams.

But there is a corner of the FCS that is comparatively unknown. These are the non-playoff conferences. They tend to be underrepresented on AGS(with a couple exceptions) and these conferences are so incestuous that voters don't see many of their games. I'm mainly speaking of the Ivy/Patriot and the SWAC/MEAC. Because there's so little connecting data from these conference groups to the rest of the FCS, it's hard to judge where they really rank. So I think the typical AGS voter will give the nod to a member of the power group(MVFC/CAA/BigSky/Southland/Southern/etc.) over one of the small conference schools. I'm not even saying they're wrong to do it, just that I think a very small bias exists. A bias that doesn't matter since the vast majority of the affected teams choose not to participate in the playoffs anyway.

Put another way. An MVFC voter on AGS is going to know the MVFC, Big Sky, CAA, Southland, SoCon, OVC, and maybe a little NEC and Pioneer. But knowledge of SWAC, MEAC, Big South, PFL, and Ivy is generally going to be lacking by comparison. It's just the nature of the beast. You can only watch so many hours of football each week, and keep track of so many programs. And since AGS has so many voters from that first group of schools, and so few from the second, I think you're going to see a little ignorance-based bias sneak in. But, again, it doesn't matter since just about all of that second group of schools are crap, and does it really make a difference exactly where the best Ivy team is ranked?

[thebootfitter]

You misunderstood me a bit; mostly because I wasn't very clear. I think there's a bias in AGS, but it's very small and not in the obvious way. It's not that MVFC voters are biased towards MVFC teams, or CAA voters are biased towards CAA teams. I think it's biased in a similar way to the media poll, but to a far, far lesser degree. The media poll voters are biased to the teams they know. In most cases, that's just the teams in the conference of the school they cover. AGS voters are also a little biased toward the teams they know. But most AGS voters know most of the teams.

But there is a corner of the FCS that is comparatively unknown. These are the non-playoff conferences. They tend to be underrepresented on AGS(with a couple exceptions) and these conferences are so incestuous that voters don't see many of their games. I'm mainly speaking of the Ivy/Patriot and the SWAC/MEAC. Because there's so little connecting data from these conference groups to the rest of the FCS, it's hard to judge where they really rank. So I think the typical AGS voter will give the nod to a member of the power group(MVFC/CAA/BigSky/Southland/Southern/etc.) over one of the small conference schools. I'm not even saying they're wrong to do it, just that I think a very small bias exists. A bias that doesn't matter since the vast majority of the affected teams choose not to participate in the playoffs anyway.

Put another way. An MVFC voter on AGS is going to know the MVFC, Big Sky, CAA, Southland, SoCon, OVC, and maybe a little NEC and Pioneer. But knowledge of SWAC, MEAC, Big South, PFL, and Ivy is generally going to be lacking by comparison. It's just the nature of the beast. You can only watch so many hours of football each week, and keep track of so many programs. And since AGS has so many voters from that first group of schools, and so few from the second, I think you're going to see a little ignorance-based bias sneak in. But, again, it doesn't matter since just about all of that second group of schools are crap, and does it really make a difference exactly where the best Ivy team is ranked?

That's fair. I can see your point and mostly agree. I suspect, though, that the nature of the discussion on AGS can help bring to light some of the teams from the "lesser known" conferences if they are worthy of consideration in the poll.

I think there's also a decent amount of historical justification for giving less weight to a team from one of those conferences with a nice shiny W/L record. More often than not, they don't make it past the first round of playoffs.

All things considered, I don't think you can expect to remove all bias from any record of subjective human opinion. But I still maintain that AGS is the most fair and accurate FCS poll out there. (Of course, THAT opinion is a little biased too. He he.)

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[Professor Chaos]

That's fair. I can see your point and mostly agree. I suspect, though, that the nature of the discussion on AGS can help bring to light some of the teams from the "lesser known" conferences if they are worthy of consideration in the poll.

I think there's also a decent amount of historical justification for giving less weight to a team from one of those conferences with a nice shiny W/L record. More often than not, they don't make it past the first round of playoffs.

All things considered, I don't think you can expect to remove all bias from any record of subjective human opinion. But I still maintain that AGS is the most fair and accurate FCS poll out there. (Of course, THAT opinion is a little biased too. He he.)

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There's no denying that year in and year out the AGS Poll more accurately reflects what the selection committee says in terms of seedings and at-large selections than either of the "national polls". The proof is in the pudding.