NCAA Cover Vote: Breakdown of Facebook Voting

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Voting among all 126 FBS programs to grace the upcoming cover of NCAA Football ends Monday night, December 31. While it was expected from the get-go that the traditional college powers would dominate voting, tabulating the public Facebook voting totals shows some surprises as well.

Keep in mind that "every single fan interaction counts as a vote," so there could be some significant changes in store when the Top 32 is announced in January 2013. However, without regular updates (as stated would occur) the Facebook vote totals are the only way for fans & schools to see where they stand.

As of late Thursday night, the top schools in the voting were: Kentucky, Penn State, Texas A&M, Nebraska, Alabama and Notre Dame. Surprises in the top 32 include: #9 Navy, #21 Old Dominion, #26 Air Force, #27 Army and #32 Wyoming.

The voting total as of then sat at 85,308 with users being able to cast one vote for schools A-M and another for N-Z. While it appears the schools currently in the lead have benefited from promotion and word of mouth among fans, some schools seemingly have missed the memo. For example, 19 schools have less than 50 votes and FIU sits dead last with just 20 votes.

Having voting occur on Facebook was a smart idea as it ensures users can only vote once and - even better- it did not come in the form of an app that would intrude on user privacy. However, without a clear indication of "fan interaction votes" and an easy to follow leaderboard, fans & schools do not know where they stand thus decreasing any late 'get out the vote' attempts and hype for the cover vote. There may be programs just outside the top 32 who could have moved up with late promotion, but they had no idea of where they stood in voting.

Did you vote for your school in the NCAA Football Cover Vote? What aspects did you like & dislike? Continue on to view the full ranking of FBS programs. If the vote totals are available after the Dec. 31 deadline, we will update this article with them.

Rank	School	Votes
1	Kentucky	11,399
2	Penn State	10,493
3	Texas A&M	8,041
4	Nebraska	5,903
5	Alabama	3,805
6	Notre Dame	3,259
7	West Virginia	2,833
8	Ohio State	2,017
9	Navy	1,664
10	Michigan	1,663
11	Oregon	1,561
12	Louisville	1,391
13	Florida	1,242
14	Syracuse	1,224
15	South Carolina	1,219
16	LSU	1,183
17	Clemson	1,075
18	Georgia	1,065
19	Washington State	968
20	Florida State	945
21	Old Dominion	854
22	Miami	840
23	Arkansas	799
24	Oklahoma	765
25	Texas	722
26	Air Force	688
27	Army	627
28	Tennessee	594
29	Kansas State	592
30	Wisconsin	586
31	UCLA	579
32	Wyoming	554
33	Auburn	510
34	Virginia Tech	485
35	San Jose State	482
36	Texas Tech	472
37	Iowa	430
38	Michigan State	416
39	East Carolina	388
40	Missouri	372
41	UL Lafayette	352
42	Louisiana Tech	341
43	NC State	330
44	TCU	326
45	USC	320
46	Kansas	306
47	Baylor	302
48	UTSA	280
49	South Alabama	279
50	Boise State	274
51	North Carolina	260
52	Rutgers	247
53	Pittsburgh	246
54	Illinois	223
55	Washington	208
56t	Arizona State	202
56t	Oklahoma State	202
58	Utah	200
59	Arizona	199
60	BYU	198
61	Iowa State	196
62t	Cincinnati	178
62t	Ole Miss	178
64	Oregon State	161
65	Minnesota	156
66t	Boston College	141
66t	UCF	141
68	Idaho	128
69t	Mississippi State	125
69t	Northern Illinois	125
71t	Akron	122
71t	Fresno State	122
71t	Maryland	122
74t	Georgia Tech	121
74t	Western Kentucky	121
76	Stanford	114
77	Northwestern	113
78	New Mexico	112
79	Arkansas State	104
80	Vanderbilt	102
81t	Purdue	101
81t	Nevada	101
83	Marshall	96
84	Virginia	94
85t	Miami U	89
85t	USF	89
87	Kent State	83
88	Hawai'i	82
89	New Mexico State	80
90	Colorado	79
91	Ohio	79
92	Indiana	77
93t	California	75
93t	Duke	75
95	Houston	72
96	Central Michigan	71
97t	Temple	70
97t	Texas State	70
99t	Colorado State	64
99t	Florida Atlantic	64
101	Middle Tennessee State	63
102	Utah State	61
103	Toledo	60
104	Bowling Green	58
105	North Texas	56
106	Ball State	52
107	UL Monroe	51
108	Connecticut	49
109	San Diego State	47
110	Buffalo	46
111	UMass	43
112	Troy	41
113t	Eastern Michigan	37
113t	Southern Miss	37
115	Western Michigan	35
116	Georgia State	32
117	Rice	30
118	Memphis	29
119	UTEP	29
120t	SMU	27
120t	Tulsa	27
122	UAB	26
123	Wake Forest	25
124	UNLV	23
125	Tulane	22
126	FIU	20

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You can view the page at http://www.thegamingtailgate.com/for...acebook-Voting

Tim Couch, your new cover athlete :D

It wasn't an app? Huh, maybe I'll vote after all.

Kentucky is leading? It's got to be rigged! We aren't talking basketball!

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Originally Posted by JeffHCross

It wasn't an app? Huh, maybe I'll vote after all.

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No it's all Facebook stuff.

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Originally Posted by JeffHCross

It wasn't an app? Huh, maybe I'll vote after all.

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Yep, it's just simply a poll posted on the game's Facebook page. Two poll questions, teams Air Force through Missouri and teams Navy through Wyoming.

And looking at the page right now, holy shit. They have been going insane with poll questions. It's gotta be over 100 different poll questions by now with various teams listed, rivalry, new teams joining conferences, best teams in a conference, etc, pitting anywhere from 2 to 4 or 5 times against each other in a poll asking for likes, comments and votes. Those final vote tallies after the 31st are gonna be insane if all those polls, all those likes and all those comments count.

Yeah those various polls count towards the total also, IIRC.

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Originally Posted by JBHuskers

Yeah those various polls count towards the total also, IIRC.

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Good god. It's gonna be impossible to predict who will make it to the round of 32 then.

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Originally Posted by SmoothPancakes

Yep, it's just simply a poll posted on the game's Facebook page. Two poll questions, teams Air Force through Missouri and teams Navy through Wyoming.

And looking at the page right now, holy shit. They have been going insane with poll questions. It's gotta be over 100 different poll questions by now with various teams listed, rivalry, new teams joining conferences, best teams in a conference, etc, pitting anywhere from 2 to 4 or 5 times against each other in a poll asking for likes, comments and votes. Those final vote tallies after the 31st are gonna be insane if all those polls, all those likes and all those comments count.

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In response to a similar article posted at pastapadre.com several hours after this one, NCAA Football Marketing Director Randy Chase tweeted this: "The main polls are not the only votes that count. The smaller polls also count." EDIT - Chase later added this on Twitter in response to pastapadre: "it's based on social media engagements..votes in polls, likes, comments, hashtags etc. top 32 with the most engagements move on"

The usage of these smaller polls is very unclear. In the LIKE v COMMENT battles for conference superiority, do all conference members get votes? Were all schools available to vote on individually (or Like/Comment) at some point in one of these polls? Or what happens when an applicable school (TCU) is missing from a question? There's too many unknowns at how the system works and my fear is that should the Top 32 differ greatly from the Facebook voting results, there will be many claims of shenanigans, regardless of whether or not any occurred. Having the regular updates (as stated) would have helped somewhat as at least then fans could have rallied on the Facebook voting to overcome changes due to the smaller poll results.

This whole idea is stupid:bang:

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Originally Posted by OSUCowboyofMD

This whole idea is stupid:bang:

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:+1: x :infinity:

Caring that this is stupid - is stupid. :)

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Originally Posted by CLW

:+1: x :infinity:

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put whatever you want on the cover. If this game doesn't step it up this year, it won't matter at all. NCAA has become stale and is in need of a major reboot. The cover should show us what the game values for 14.

No, caring isn't stupid, steeler. We care about the game, its sales, and how it is marketed. If the marketing is either unsuccessful or frustratingly complicated, then the series could suffer as a result. It's bad enough that there are two polls (A-M and N-Z). Now we throwing in a bunch of other polls too? And tabulating all of those results? Plus likes? Based on, presumably, the alma mater of the people who like the page? Good grief.

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Originally Posted by jaymo76

put whatever you want on the cover. If this game doesn't step it up this year, it won't matter at all. NCAA has become stale and is in need of a major reboot. The cover should show us what the game values for 14.

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No "major" changes are coming until the next generation. Count on it.

I still disagree, Jeff. The cover is the least important facet of any game. It's a waste of energy to concern yourself with it. I have a hard time believing that how the cover is handled will markedly impact sales.

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Personally, if they're going to do a vote, I wish it was straightforward and simple. That goes for any company, any purpose, any outcome. Over complicating the vote just to get more social media attention is a bad, bad road for companies to go down. And I'm getting real tired of it from EA in particular.

First, notice the :) next to my comment that caring is stupid. I wasn't attacking anyone.

Second, I'm sure somebody thinks this is a good idea (even if it's just EA). Why is it ok to say that what they care about (people that like the idea, EA) is stupid, but not the other way around?

For the record, I agree it's stupid. I just also think that caring is too. :) I suppose you think that my thinking it's stupid to care that this is stupid is - stupid. :D

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Ah, wasn't quick enough with my edit :D I had realized the circular logic problem :fp:

I knew you weren't attacking anyone. Just was amused when you said it was a waste of energy :)

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Originally Posted by JeffHCross

Ah, wasn't quick enough with my edit :D I had realized the circular logic problem :fp:

I knew you weren't attacking anyone. Just was amused when you said it was a waste of energy :)

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;):D

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I always look at game covers as "the marketing team has to earn there paycheck somewhere"

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Originally Posted by oweb26

I always look at game covers as "the marketing team has to earn there paycheck somewhere"

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put Te'o on the cover and call it a day he is from a huge football school with allot of tradition and they could market the game with a defensive guy on the cover and allege the defense is improved.

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Originally Posted by CLW

put Te'o on the cover and call it a day he is from a huge football school with allot of tradition and they could market the game with a defensive guy on the cover and allege the defense is improved.

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You seem like a knowledgeable guy, when has corporate world every used simple logic? That is probably the best idea and you thought of it in 10 minutes but when you work in an environment where everyone thinks they need there opinions to be heard ( i.e. corporate america) you get shit like this.

I'm less concerned with the cover itself than what I perceive the direction of the marketing to be. Not sure I like the latest trends.

As for Te'o, we say 'put' like it's a guarantee he would accept. It isn't always.

EA SPORTS has tweeted out the current top five in the #NCAACoverVote. The number in parenthesis is their Facebook voting status as of late Thursday night:

1. Notre Dame (6)
2. Oregon (11)
3. Ohio State (8)
4. Texas A&M (3)
5. LSU (16)

Rats!

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Originally Posted by cdj

EA SPORTS has tweeted out the current top five in the #NCAACoverVote. The number in parenthesis is their Facebook voting status as of late Thursday night:

1. Notre Dame (6)
2. Oregon (11)
3. Ohio State (8)
4. Texas A&M (3)
5. LSU (16)

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LMFAO so :Kentucky: is the CLEAR leader with votes from the "main" vote but doesn't even scratch the Top 5? Call me crazy but perhaps the vote is rigged?

Yeah, I don't really understand this myself.

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Originally Posted by CLW

LMFAO so :Kentucky: is the CLEAR leader with votes from the "main" vote but doesn't even scratch the Top 5? Call me crazy but perhaps the vote is rigged?

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Unless the "main" vote is significantly weighted, Kentucky doesn't have nearly enough widespread social media support to win.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JeffHCross

Personally, if they're going to do a vote, I wish it was straightforward and simple. That goes for any company, any purpose, any outcome. Over complicating the vote just to get more social media attention is a bad, bad road for companies to go down. And I'm getting real tired of it from EA in particular.

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Well said. Initially it seemed the Facebook vote was what was being stressed most and today we see that it may not be the primary factor in choosing the Top 32. I would think getting people to like or keep up with the Facebook product page (to see game info & ultimately make a purchase in July) would trump social media engagements (a bunch of tweets & instagram photos) in December & January.

I'm sure there is a fancy analytic program to quantify it all on EA's end, but there is no way for the general public to follow that; hence think it's rigged.

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Originally Posted by JBHuskers

I'm sure there is a fancy analytic program to quantify it all on EA's end, but there is no way for the general public to follow that; hence think it's rigged.

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This, though I'd be personally surprised if it was truly sophisticated. Either way, to imply it is a specific vote, when it is more a general popularity contest is full of sigh.

EDIT: Realized you said 'fancy'. You're probably right. Fancy in marketing by a third-party, most likely. Simple in execution.

I was planning on updating the initial table with final Facebook vote totals, but it looks as if voting is still open despite the stated 12/31 deadline.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CLW

put Te'o on the cover and call it a day he is from a huge football school with allot of tradition and they could market the game with a defensive guy on the cover and allege the defense is improved.

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Not so fast my friend!

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