| Top | 2 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 |
| Avg. | 2.5 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 1.95 | 2.53 | 3.0 |
| "=" | "0.5" | 1 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| OBO | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 6 |
("0.5" implies that since the two polls disagreed concerning who were the 2nd and 3rd best teams, Rewards had one of them very close to the same as the average poll ranking for one of those two teams.)
(The links present here, that are directed to other pages listing specific Rewards rankings, all include the fact that Appalachian State defeated Michigan. This loss to a non-division 1A program had an impact on all of these rankings; more adversely to teams Michigan played against in 2007. More about this can be found here.)
Commentary: The top nine teams in both polls were rearranged in a slightly different order by Rewards, most noticeably with regards to Kansas, whose victory over Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl (#9 in the final polls) boosted it to become #1 in the final Rewards ranking, as opposed to a #7 ranking in both of the final polls. (Rewards had Kansas only as #10 before the Orange Bowl, primarily because none of the 11-1 Jayhawks' victories were over any top opponent.) Rewards also had Michigan at #26, which was about 7 places below where the polls ranked them after their win over Florida, and again, that lost to Appalachian State lowered the Wolverine's final Rewards ranking more than it probably should (as described here). Rewards had Hawaii as #10, which was roughly 8 places higher than the polls, and their drop from #10, before the bowl games, to #17/#19 after they were played, was probably fueled by how the voters interpreted Hawaii's 41-10 defeat at the hands of the Georgia Bulldogs.
(This page last modified April 24, 2008 .)