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Doug Lesmerises: Revolutionary AP Voter or Already Outsmarting His Own Ballot?

Sep 21, 2009, 3:34 PM UTC

If you aren’t familiar with Doug Lesmerises, he’s the AP voter who, after the first week of the college football season, placed Alabama, BYU and Oklahoma State ahead of Florida. It caught the eyes of many, to say the least. Lesmerises explanation to the torch-wielding masses was simple:â†µâ†µâ‡¥When I submitted my top 25 ballot to the Associated Press late Monday night, I tried harder than ever to abide the first direction we’re given by the AP: â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥“Base your vote on performance, not reputation or preseason speculation.” â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥So I didn’t look at my preseason ballot until I’d finished my second or third draft of this ballot. That was new. Then I tried to think about each team as if I didn’t even know the name of the school, much less the reputation. I just considered what happened. â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µâ†µThe analysis over at Pollspeak.com tells the story. Most of Lesmerises’ votes rank in the “extreme” or “near extreme” categories. I don’t take much issue with his ranking of Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide at No. 1 and Miami at No. 2. And Florida has hardly rolled up a big-time schedule to this point, but I find much of Lesmerises ballot to be a case study in overreactions.â†µ

â†µâ†µ-- BYU drops from No. 3 last week to No. 20 after falling to Florida State. True, Florida State really thumped the Cougs, but this is a Florida State team that is ranked in Lesmerises ballot, so did this really merit a drop of 17 spots? And did it nullify the achievement of beating Oklahoma?â†µ

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â†µ-- How does No. 12 UCLA -- with wins over San Diego State, Tennessee and Kansas State -- find itself ahead of Virginia Tech, which knocked off Nebraska and narrowly lost to the No. 1 team on Lesmerises ballot, Alabama.â†µ

â†µâ†µ-- USC also suffers what I’d call an extreme overreaction Lesmerises ballot dropping from No. 2 to No. 25. USC has what most would consider the top road win of the season, at Ohio State. Clearly, Lesmerises agreed it was significant because he rated USC No. 2 after the victory. So why does a loss without the team’s starting QB on the road in the conference nearly drop them off his ballot all together?â†µ

â†µâ†µLesmerises’ aims are admirable. Our own Mike DeCourcy does something similar here on SN during college basketball season, basing his rankings on achievements to that point, rather than preseason notions. Lesmerises, at least at the top of his ballot is voting the way most people should, but it’s clear that he’s getting so caught up in trying to react to every bit of news, he’s voting as if nothing happened before that week. That was a fine stance to take in Week 1, but at a certain point, what you’ve done to this point has to matter.â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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