FanPulse Week 4: Confidence beginning to crumble

With a lackluster performance against Michigan State in the rearview mirror, Northwestern fans (at least those in the Inside NU community) aren’t feeling too good about the current state of the program. SBNation FanPulse’s poll question regarding confidence in the team as a whole, as shown in the header image for this article, has seen positive responses cut by nearly two-thirds.

While the Wildcats clearly still have plenty of time to turn things around, voters aren’t happy with where the team is at after three games, especially with the most dangerous part of the schedule still ahead of them. We will continue to track this number through the ups and downs that will take place across the rest of the season, and you can make your voice heard and answer this question weekly by signing up via THIS LINK.

Meanwhile, in the rankings aspect of FanPulse, some shakeups have occurred nationally:

As may have been expected, the top six remains the same, with Georgia making their case to remain in the coveted #3 spot behind Clemson and Alabama with their win over Notre Dame. But big losses dropped the Irish by four spots, Utah by five spots, UCF seven spots, and Michigan all the way down to 18th, among others.

Notably, after being unranked in the national polls last week but ranked here, the Spartans jumped all the way back up to 17th after their resounding win over Northwestern, which seems to still carry some weight at the national level.

The Inside NU-specific poll (which, again, you can sign up to vote in by clicking THIS LINK) had the same Top 25 teams as its community-wide counterpart, but in a very different order at the bottom.

Wildcat fans were much more willing to punish a team like Texas A&M for their loss, bringing them all the way down underneath Michigan State and 20th, and were ready to be bullish on Boise State, jumping them up to 16th.

For reference, here is the link to both of last week’s polls.

Finally, FanPulse debuted a new question this time out, asking voters who the most overrated top 25 team was out of a group of six relatively disliked/overhyped squads. Unsurprisingly, a widely hated team (especially within the Big Ten) got the nod by a significant margin.

That’s all for this week! Any glitches in the system from last time should have been fixed, so if you are still having issues with your ballot, have any questions about FanPulse, or just want to argue about the rankings, let us know in the comments below.