I don’t disagree with being annoyed with pollsters and their logic. Frequently it doesn’t seem to make sense. But one of the most frustrating things about the AP poll was exactly this unwritten rule about don’t drop a team if they won, it completely ignores the vast amount of new data each week.
I think there is a valid argument that incorporating the previous weeks ranking is a benefit due to the “many minds” effect, you are utilizing information from other people performing the same analysis.
But, it’s just one piece of the puzzle, and to arbitrarily state that the previous weeks position held more information than the current week is not really a supportable position in my opinion.
Again, I don’t disagree with this at all. What I disagree with is doing it one way in Week 10 and a completely different way in Week 15.
What’s even funnier is that Missouri ended the regular season ranked in the Top 20! So, now that they’ve punished Nebraska for going to OT with an “unranked team”, they later rank them, but can’t/don’t go back and reevaluate what they did to Nebraska in Week 10 based on that old win quality.
I used to think the poll thing was resolvable, but not anymore.
I think a 4 team playoff eliminates about 80% of the potential debate about validity of an NC, and an 8 team playoff eliminates probably 98% of the debate.