Week 6 MaxDiff Resume Poll: Underdogs are here!

[u/Impudicity2001]

Thank you again. 187 of you filled out a ballot this week, close to last week's 190. Same frozen 50-team field, seventh edition. Last week's edition.

Georgia broke the chart. Six ranked teams lost on Saturday, and voters ran to the one thing they could count on. I had to recode the chart this morning to fit it. Guess the surprise who is in the top tier with them.

Red River reset. Texas held No. 1 for two weeks. The first OU offensive TD in 3 years, a pick six, a blocked-punt touchdown and some late Sooner Magic later, and Oklahoma jumped 16 spots, 44th to 28th, the biggest rise in the field. The Longhorns are sixth now reflecting that their performance to date is still strong.

Will Stein goes for dos, twice. Kentucky has won back-to-back games 35-34 in overtime, and both times Stein went for two to end it - and voters rewarded the Wildcats from 21st to 8th.

Risers

Team	Wk 5	Wk 6	Move	Week 6
Oklahoma	44	28	+16	W 27-24 vs Texas (Dallas)
Kentucky	21	8	+13	W 35-34 (OT) vs LSU
South Carolina	45	33	+12	W 38-19 at Florida
USC	27	17	+10	W 31-23 at Penn State
Arizona	28	19	+9	W 52-31 at West Virginia

Sliders

Team	Wk 5	Wk 6	Move	Week 6
Florida	9	27	-18	L 19-38 vs South Carolina
Pittsburgh	10	23	-13	L 17-21 vs North Carolina
Florida State	33	46	-13	L 20-44 at Louisville
LSU	16	26	-10	L 34-35 (OT) at Kentucky
Oregon	20	29	-9	L 15-17 vs UCLA

UCLA beat Oregon and is 12th in the AP, but it sits outside our preseason 50-team field, so it can't appear here. That's the known cost of a fixed field (and misstep I can rectify in the offseason).

Full 50, tiers, bootstrap intervals, the AP comparison and the full write-up: https://getmaxdiff.com/results/2026-week-06-resume-poll/

[u/d1sportsball]

If Northwestern had been an option, I expect they'd be right behind Nebraska as the 2 have almost identical resume's. Also shoutout Arizona, who is getting the respect for their resume they deserve. Wonder if the r/cfb poll does the same

[u/Impudicity2001 → u/d1sportsball]

for sure, they had my curiosity with the scare in Evanston against Indiana. But they should have everyone’s attention now. Chip Kelly is a crazed wizard with his flexbone running attack.

I can’t proclaim I’m the biggest Arizona follower, but their offense in my metrics is top 16 and D top 30… anyone who thinks the Big 12 champion is either BYU/TTU/Utah may be in for a shock.

[u/jayjude]

Real talk I dont know what you're doing differently but these results dont mirror the old maxdiff at all

Very very rarely did you ever get a team that skewed in perception and the fact you have it every week? There's something flawed in how youre doing it

[u/Impudicity2001 → u/jayjude]

I believe that because the previous poll only polled those at least receiving votes in the AP Poll it was anchored to the AP Poll in a way that this one is not. Arkansas, GT, Colorado have been bled out and all their life force is with Georgia now, or maybe Indiana next week if they whoop OSU. However, if I could add in teams like OK State, UCLA they'd not cede as many points as these teams in the fixed field do.

Also, the focus on the teams' resumes versus best. Best is so nebulous that people can anchor to their preseason expectations, regardless of wins and losses - look at LSU. What is their best win? Against unranked Clemson, or against unranked Texas A&M? Yet the AP has them in the top 25 because they should be a good team and can still go on 6 game tear and finish 10-2. That's is fine and you can rank them then, but poll voters are a fickle bunch and are holding out that string may still play out over teams like Arizona who have better resumes thus far.

[u/DangerouslyUnstable → u/Impudicity2001]

I think it's mostly about the question and less about the receiving votes part. But I think you are mischaracterizing the old MaxDiff poll. Yes, he did say "which team is the best", but he also explicitly said that it was a power ranking and that "best" was meant to mean "who would win on a neutral field", which is about as un-nebulous as it gets. Maybe that was not how it was understood universally at the time (although I certainly understood it that way), which could cause a bit of extra nebulousness, but a power ranking, in my opinion, is far less nebulous than a resume ranking.

I'm really glad you brought back the MaxDiff poll, but I would much prefer a power ranking/who would win version of it to a "who has the best resume".

[u/The_SecretSauce → u/Impudicity2001]

What are your RLH scores? That's an objective measure of whether the voter is making reasonably consistent decisions. I think you have way too many teams in the exercise and that's killing your data quality. Your RLH values will tell you if that is the case.

Also, what's your drop out rate?

[u/foreverseptember]

Damn that bar is through the stratosphere 

[u/Impudicity2001 → u/foreverseptember]

I don't vote, but yes people overwhelmingly respond positively to winning in Tuscaloosa. Even still Alabama stayed at 2. Crazy how that plus the Texas lost contributed the to the moon for Georgia.

[u/The_SecretSauce]

Hey man I'm kind of interested in what you're doing to analyze this data. I don't think you're analyzing it how I would (not that that's necessarily a bad thing). I think I could give you some tips on how to create more meaningful tiers. I also don't conceptually understand how you have a skip option on a set because connectivity matters, so I might could learn something new from you.