Vijay Saluja writes:
>Well maybe I misunderstood you, but a Preseason Poll is what you expect
>will be the standings of the teams at the end of the year.  Technically
>is the Preseason Poll is correct, there won't be any changes, and the
>same ranking would be at the end of the season.
 
(other stuff edited out)
 
Just a comment - this is a perfect example of the confusion that can
take place with polls, even during the season.  Some people (Alex)
will vote based on how they think the teams are playing right now,
and others (Vijay) will vote based on where they think the teams will
end up at the end of the season.
 
The fundamental question is, what are the polls supposed to show us:
 
A) How good the teams are now?
B) How good the teams will be at the end?
C) something else? (i.e. how good the teams have performed overall to
this date?)
 
And I don't know.  Everyone has his/her own answer to this.
 
One real problem with the polls is that I believe many voters do not
follow exactly the same criteria all season long or even within the
same ballot.  Watch for this.  You'll see some teams evaluated based
on A) and others based on C), for instance.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                 [log in to unmask]           [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93
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