The Definition of a Bad Poll Question
This question was asked by ESPN.com about the Ohio State matchup against Michigan.
11) Which of these role players will have the greatest impact on the game?
- 32.6% WR Adrian Arrington, Michigan
- 22.4% RB Chris Wells, Ohio State
- 19.3% WR Brian Robiskie, Ohio State
- 17.5% K Garrett Rivas, Michigan
- 8.2% K Aaron Pettrey, Ohio State
This question doesn’t mean a whole hell of a lot because Ohio State has three options and Michigan has only two options. Assuming that most people choosing are partial one way or another for a team, this question had to go to a Michigan player because their vote was only split two ways and OSU’s was split three. If you break it down by team, it looks a bit different. All of a sudden the question is split almost 50/50 with the slight edge going to Michigan.
Regardless, I think it is safe to say that if there were three Michigan choices and only two OSU choices that an OSU player would win. The conclusion is that the results of this question are stupid. How about someone take a statistics course before they set this up next time?
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i’ll bet you 50% of the people in charge of the polling at ESPN do something stupid 75% of the time, leading to a 125% stupidity ratio.
THAT is financial analysis…