Since the AP poll drove us all insane last year, HokieCentral member Jerry South has recommended a couple of other polls to keep an eye on. I'm short on time, so I'll let Jerry do the talking. He sent me the following two emails:

Site #1:

"There's a web page by a fellow named Daryl Marsee, which I follow during the season. The URL is:

http://erau.db.erau.edu/~marseed/fb_page.html

He makes predictions for the entire season, and adjusts his predictions as the season evolves. It's interesting. Please note this radical has picked VT to go undefeated! (Partly because of our strong power rating relative to our weak schedule, and getting Miami & Syracuse at home, I imagine)."

Site #2:

"There's another fascinating rating system invented by Dave Wilson at U. of Wisc. He has an algorithm that uses a computer each week and rates all 100+ div 1-A teams. The computer doesn't know that NDU gets the best athletes each year, so NDU is rated in the same way as Bowling Green U. Scoring differential isn't a part of the algorithm, so the computer isn't impressed at all when Nebraska runs it up on little Podunk U. by 72 points. It only depends on whom you beat or lost to, and on whom your opponents beat or lost to. Thus schedule strength, which is re-evaluated each week by the algorithm, plays a big role.

Go to his page located at:

http://www.cae.wisc.edu/~dwilson//

and read about it. Of course, there will be no preseason rankings with his system. It depends on the actual results. In the early part of the season, the results appear wacky, because there's so little data. But as the season ensues, the ratings become more and more as you might expect. The cream rises to the top, based on a cold-blooded computer."

Will here again: thanks for the info, Jerry, and I suggest that everybody bookmark these two interesting sites. I've added them both to the "College Football Links" section of my Links page.

Those who cruise the message board have come to know what a great source of recruiting info the "Screaming Lizard" is. In the wake of Yubrenal Isabelle's "commitment" to Tech, the Lizard was the one who was yelling "Don't believe it!" at the top of his lungs, and he turned out to be right. Not that the YI thing was the only time the Lizard was right about a recruiting matter. It was just the moment at which I learned to say, "To heck with the Force, Luke - what does the Screaming Lizard think?"

The Lizard has finally gone on-line with his recruiting info. Stop by the Screaming Lizard's new "Hokie Hotline" web page at:

http://www.angelfire.com/va/HokieHotline/

The Lizard is an HTML newbie, so he won't dazzle you with graphics or formatting. He'll just feed you recruiting info, as well as a few interesting opinion pieces now and then. Be sure to check it out soon. Like right now, by clicking on the link above, which is now part of HokieCentral's Links page.

I won't be posting any other updates this week (waaah!), because I'll be in the process of packing and shipping the member merchandise (which is some pretty cool stuff, I might add). With over 130 members, I think you can see that it's a lot of work, so I'll need to take the week off from the page to get it done.

I'll still be patrolling the message board and reading email, of course. It's not like I'm dead or out of the country. I just won't be updating the page.

Oh, yeah - today's my mom's birthday! Happy birthday, Mom!

(Proving once again that even though HokieCentral looks like a slick, professional web site, it's still run by one ordinary guy ... with a mom)

See you next week!

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