One of the topics undersold during the arguments of which four NCAA football teams deserved a spot in the college football playoff was the effect of voter bias on decision making.

Specifically, literature has found NCAA football poll voters to be biased in a few ways.

Bias #1- Associated Press (AP) poll voters are biased towards teams (i) in the voter’s home state, (ii) in the same conference as teams in the voter’s state, (iii) in BCS conferences, and (iv) teams playing in more televised games.

Bias #2- Coaching poll voters are biased in favor of both their recent opponents and their alma-maters.

Bias #3- AP voters are biased in favor of teams which were ranked higher earlier in the season.

It’s obviously too early to tell whether or not these biases will hold with the college football playoff selection committee over the long run. However, it’s particularly curious how the decision-making process…