Blogpoll Week 1 - Map of Shame

GT is officially ranked 14th in the CBS Blog Poll and has not moved since preseason. Above is a map of the Blog Poll broken down by home state affiliation of each blog's university. This way we can see which regions love GT (yellow) and which regions hate GT (red). Blue states find GT slightly favorable while brown states don't care much for us. Conference affiliations are also interesting but have proven to be not as indicative as the regional map.

Looking at the preseason map, we can see some drastic shifts. The most significant shift is the complete abandonment by the Midwest. The Big 10 states straight up hate us now. The East Coast is pulling its weight to make up for it, however. Interestingly enough, the only states that GT kept in the top quartile (friendlies) were home (GA), Virginia, New Jersey, and Indiana. And here's a word of caution from me about Big 10 bloggers from the state of Iowa: "Don't trust 'em. They're a bunch of flip-floppers." Iowa went from strongly favoring GT to completely in the red because one of the lone Hawkeye voter dropped us from his ballot.

Other blogs that dropped us from the blog poll top 25 include: Dr. Saturday (SoMiss), Card Chronicle (UoL), Husker Mike's Blasphemy (NE), and Mountain West Connection (TCU). Gate 21 (TN) and the Ciskie Blog (WI) have never included us in the top 25.

Note: Keep in mind that I'm simplifying entire state perceptions based on one or two blogs. Maybe every blog in Iowa loves us but this one guy hates Paul Johnson for kicking his dog in 1996. So with that cautionary note, I am open to discussion.