What is Pete's Power Poll?
-Pete's is the country's only poll that concentrates, almost exclusively, on the play-off conferences/teams of NCAA Division I-AA/FBS football. It's purpose is to determine the 16 teams that should be awarded a berth into the NCAA Division-I play-off. The poll is completely driven on performance, not the opinions of individuals; this makes the poll almost completely unbiased. Pete's means no disrespect to the Ivy, SWAC, or Mid-major programs ... we merely chose to rank those clubs that are eligible for, and historically have participated in the tournament. The SWAC and Ivy have chosen not to participate in the play-off, and even though they are eligible, there has never been a mid-major club selected for the play-off. That will change in 2010. This year, the Big South and Northeast Conferences (the later considered mid-major) will both receive an automatic berth in the FCS/I-AA play-off. It will take some time for the poll to develop throughout the season, as teams play more games. The #1 team in any given week is just that ... the #1 team at that point in the season, given the games played so far. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email Pete's.

For those of you that are new to the poll, here is a brief explanation:

• There are many factors that go into our polls. These factors are covered below the poll. However, the initial preseason ranking is the basis for the remainder of the season. The ranking is specifically designed so that even the team that begins in the last position can still finish the season at number-1.
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• Again this year, Pete's Power Poll will cover ten (10) conferences. As is our custom, the initial poll rewards the national champion from the previous year and top team in each of the covered conferences. This year's preseason #1 team is Villanova; which is also the 2009 national champion. The order of these teams is determined by the preseason conference poll. The exception to this is the preseason #1, which is always awarded to the defending national champions. This year's top team is Villanova; the 2-10 spots are the top-ranked team from each conference. Also, the new teams are placed in the poll around the 50th position. The new clubs are placed in the middle of the poll, as schedule strength usually would keep these clubs at, or near, the bottom.
  
  
• Pete's follows only the play-off conferences and leagues that contain post-season eligible teams. We do not track mid-major conferences and their members. With no disrespect to the Ivy, SWAC, or Mid-major programs ... we merely chose to rank those clubs that are eligible for, and historically have participated in the play-off. Once again, the Northeast Conference has an automatic bid in 2010, so these clubs will be added to our poll. To be fair, they will all be added in the #50 spot to start the season. Additionally, there will not be representative from the NEC in our preseason top-10 until next season.
  
  
• This year Pete's welcomes Georgia State Panthers, Lamar Cardinals, and UT-San Antonio Roadrunners to Division-I football. The Panthers play six (6) FCS/I-AA and one (1) FBS/IA team in 2010 ...they will begin in our ranking at #50. The Cardinals will play seven (7) FCS/I-AA teams in 2010 ...they will begin at the #50 position as well. The Roadrunners are just beginning their football program, and will red-shirt the entire team for 2010 ...they will not be in Pete's Power Poll for this season.
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• Generally, teams that are idle will remain in their current position, so as not to be penalized. If there are ties in rank, it is possible that an idle team may change a position.
  
  
• It seems that many pundits have little to do with their time, other than "nit pick" others that love and promote I-AA/FCS football. With this in mind, Pete's does not sample other individuals ...so technically the Power Poll is not a "poll". The Power Poll is a computerized ranking similar to (although we feel far superior to) the BCS is IA/FBS ball. One of the most distinctive differences between the Power Poll and a BCS poll, is that readers of Pete's will see how all of the clubs progress throughout the entire season. We do not wait until the fourth or fifth week of the season to publish our first ranking. In the beginning of the season, it is very common for clubs to move up or down in tremendous fashion. So don't lose faith; as it is more than possible for a club at the bottom to move up to the top. Obviously, the poll will become far more accurate as the season progresses, when teams have more games played ... especially once conference play begins, and teams have more opponents in common.
  
  
• One final note; Pete's does not take into account any play-off games in the final rankings. It is not fair to take performance into account when no more than 20-teams are playing. So the final Pete's Power Poll is published at the end of the regular season.

Here is the Week-11, 2010 Pete's Power Poll (Games through 11/13/10):

Below is list of this week's change in conference performance. Simply put, this is the amount of improvement the total conference has made over the previous week:

• Points for and against.
• Margin of victory: we do limit the margins so a team is not devastated or over-compensated for an exceptionally good, or poor performance.
• Strength of the opposition (where the opponent is ranked in the previous week's poll).
• Home vs. away vs. neutral field.
• Conference vs. non-Conference.
• IA/FBS vs. I-AA/FCS vs. non-scholarship vs. sub-FCS/I-AA: Teams in our poll are awarded more points for victories over IA opposition, less points for DII and mid-major games. Conversely, a loss to a IA clubs is not penalized as harshly as a team ranked in Pete's Poll ... and a loss to a mid-major or sub-IAA opponent is penalized more harshly. We do this in order to discourage teams from playing outside their own division.