Top 25 Poll : Fall Edition

bokonon90 · Tue, 13 Nov 2001 09:27:49 -0800

Let's try this again, shall we? 

I am
accepting proposed ballots to be used for a Top 25 poll -
ballots will be accepted from the present until November
26, 2001. 
E-mail your proposed ballots to the
following address : actop25_at_... 

All members
of the academic competition are welcome to submit
their ballots. The purpose of this open ballot request
is to create a stable panel of knowledgeable voters
that will vote in possible future closed polls. (Yeah,
I know I said that last time - this is very much a
work in progress; I even have a geographic formula to
use this time.)

Voters are allowed to consider
a variety of factors when choosing a Top 25.
Ideally they should pertain to this year, and have a
modicum of predictive value for this year's regional and
national championship tournaments. Voters can and should
weigh currently available tournament results (of
whatever form) as they see fit. This poll is not rooted in
any particular format of academic competition, but is
intended to emphasize players currently playing for a
given program in an actual rather than in a "masters"
capacity, an important thing to keep in mind if one wishes
to consider results of "masters" and/or "trash"
tournaments, which often have broader eligibility rules than
the tournaments this poll is designed to cover.

Voters are asked to submit a ranked list of schools from
#1 to #25, without ties. List each school with
corresponding rankings, and list them only once. A vote for
"Michigan A" at #3 and for "Michigan B" at #14 will be
counted as a vote for Michigan at #3, with teams 15-25
being moved up. Make sure you specify which program you
are voting for with sufficient specificity (some
abbreviations, like "UIUC"or "MIT" will be sufficient, while "U
of M" will not be ; certain abridged names like
"Missouri" and "Washington" are best avoided since they are
somewhat ambiguous.) 

Your ballot must contain at
least 20 valid entries or it will be returned to you.

Each #1 vote a school receives is worth 25 points,
each #2 vote worth 24, and so on until 1 point is
received for a #25 vote. 

Extreme outlier ballots
will be excluded if they significantly skew the poll
results in any way ; in addition, individuals submitting
such ballots will not be invited to any future panels.

In case of voting ambiguities, those referees
calling last night's Baltimore-Tennesee Monday Night
Football game will _not_ be consulted. 

-Tim Young

Poll Administrator