Are you like me?  Do you hate the drastic effect preseason polls have on future rankings?  Are you sick of teams either being shut out of rankings because of their name or given rankings they don’t deserve because of their history?  Are you tired of people not being able to explain their ballot besides saying “because”?  Well then you have come to the right place.

It was four years ago when I decided that the way that traditional polls worked didn’t work for me.  Too many pollsters were stuck in pre-conceived opinions about teams, opinions formed sometimes through thorough pre-season analysis and more often stubborn biases.  Even I was guilty of this, and, at least to me, it was painfully obvious when looking at my weekly ballot.  So how could I remedy this?

Computer polls, to me, were out of the question.  They merely attempt to quantify exactly what I saw was wrong with subjective polls, and poorly at that.  Algorithms and functions could not supplant what I saw on the field, even if they tried so desperately to.

So, that is when I decided to mix the two.  Take the data heavy, objective ideals of a computer poll, and mix it with the human controlled rationality of a traditional poll.  From that, the Rampage Poll Methodology (RPM) was born.  For two years, I tinkered with the system until I deemed it ready, and introduced it to TBDPITL.  Over the past year I have refined it to what you see now.

The philosophy is simple; teams earn their ranking.  That means that I rank resumes.  The order of teams you see each week in the RPM is directly correlated with what that team has accomplished this season.  If a team has a good record and beats teams with good records, then they will be ranked high.  If a team has a good record and beats teams with poor records, then they will be ranked low.  It is as simple as that.

Below is a brief overview of the basic ranking guidelines.  I encourage you to read these before continuing on lest you mistakenly miss an important part.

1) Team and Conference names mean nothing: Names are merely placeholders so I can make sure that the correct team gets ranked in the correct spot.  A 1-0 Florida and a 1-0 Florida International are both treated like a 1-0 team, with no prejudice and bias to past success.

2) Teams will be ranked by resume:  My ballot is meant to indicate who has had the most successful season to that point.  This is not who looks like the best team, this is who has the best on field results.  A win over a 2-3 team is considered more impressive than a win over a 1-4 team, regardless of how the victory was attained.  If teams are deemed too close to call regarding their resume, a subjective tiebreaker may be considered.

3) The final poll is the goal: The point of this poll is to produce a final two teams that have the best proven resume that season to play in the championship game.  The #1 and #2 in week 1 or week 7 are not considered the "best team" but instead have the "best resume to date".  Like all polls should strive to be, this poll is a work in progress, with the final goal to produce the two most deserving teams to play for the championship.

4) Judging resumes is subjective: This is the one downfall of my poll, in my opinion.  I have to subjectively judge each resume and determine whose is more impressive.  This can be very difficult on a one to two spot difference, as it is with any ballot.

5) Playing a FCS team is frowned upon: A victory over a FCS opponent is only worth 1/2 a win while a loss will give a team 1 1/2 losses.  This is meant to be a discouragement for teams looking for an easy win by playing opponents from an inferior division.

6) Simple ranking rules are implicated:

      a) No team can be ranked above a team that has beaten them if both teams have the same record.  Three way ties erase any head-to-head.

      b) No team can improve its ranking a week after a loss, but they do not have to drop in ranking.

7) Extracurriculars are ignored: Injuries, suspensions, bowl bans, and the like are all ignored as either excuses or reasons to decrease ranking.  This means that teams currently experiencing bowl bans will be included in the poll.

So there you have it, the RPM.  I hope you find this entertaining and thought provoking as we progress through the season.  I know not everyone will agree with it, and that’s the way it should be.  If you have ideas, questions, or comments, feel free to ask, I will gladly answer them.  If you want to take a closer look at the intricacies of the process take a look at the “How the RPM Works” post.

-Rampage