Polling irregularities

Though it pains me to admit it, the final score from Lexington, Kentucky, on Saturday night reflected football reality: Kentucky 40, Louisville 34. Kentucky was the superior football team in Commonwealth Stadium. The Cardinals will simply have to regroup and run the table for the rest of its schedule.

The anomaly is this: Louisville and Kentucky are both ranked in the AP and USA Today college football polls. Both polls' voters gave Louisville the nod over Kentucky (18-21 in the AP poll, 19-23 in the USA Today survey). But Kentucky won head-to-head.

What explains this sort of polling phenomenon? Presumably the voters were able to absorb the box score, view a few minutes of video, and evaluate the relative strengths of the Louisville and Kentucky teams. Perhaps they believed that Louisville would beat Kentucky on a neutral field, certainly at home. Perhaps they try not to put too much stock in a single game.

Or perhaps, just perhaps, voters try not to downgrade a highly ranked team after an upset because dropping the team hard undermines the entire system of polling.

I still love my Louisville Cardinals, and I hope they will rebound after this bitter loss. In my capacity as an objective evaluator of football, however, I must confess to being somewhat puzzled by the polls.