Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Why should any of the voters spend any real effort on their vote?  What is the benefit in so doing, versus just eyeballing it all and running out a rather prosaic ranking?

Zero.  None.  Nada.  At best a very very slight adjustment in the final poll, which possibly could be in the wrong direction.

We have polls because "we" like them, if "we" ignored them they'd go away.  They matter not.

There are plenty of things "worth doing" with mediocre effort in life.  Just passing on some cliche doesn't make something right or wrong.  It's your opinion, which is fine, but clearly not mine.

Of course, I don't get bothered about polls and voters in such things.  They are interesting when taken historically as was done in the OP.  Current season polls?  Whatever.

Click bait.  

A couple things stood out to me.  One is Indiana's 3-0.  Their first-ever appearance at #1 came after beating the Buckeyes in the last B1GCG and they then won three games in the CFP.  The other is the teams that are 0-fer as #1.  That just sucks.  To get all the way to the mountaintop then then immediately fall sucks.  So here they are:

Boston College:
The Eagles only have one appearance at #1 and only two at #2.  They have 16 top-5 appearances and have been ranked in 145 of 1,267 polls (11%).  Not only are they 0-1 as #1 but it was a BAD loss.  They started 1942 at #11 and an 8-0 start got them the #1 ranking in the November 23 AP Poll after #1 Georgia lost at home to unranked Auburn.  Then they got obliterated (55-12) by unranked Holy Cross in Boston and for good measure they also lost the Orange Bowl badly (37-21) to Alabama.  

SMU:
The Mustangs have two appearances at #1 and five at #2.  They have 30 top-5 appearances and have been ranked in 197 of 1,267 polls (16%).  They only have two appearances at #1 because they took the week off after attaining the #1 ranking.  They started 1950 at #10 and beat GaTech and #11 Ohio State before the next poll came out.  At that point they were 2-0 and #3.  Then #1 (ND, at PU) and #2 (MSU vs UMD) both lost and SMU moved up to #2.  A 42-21 win over #15 Rice on October 21 moved them up to #1 and then they took a week off and remained #1 in the 10/30 poll.  When they returned to action it was ugly.  They lost 23-20 at Texas as #1 then lost 25-20 at home to aTm the next week as #7.  The ended the 1950 season 6-4 and unranked.  

Wisconsin:
The Badgers have one appearance at #1, seven at #2, and 49 in the top-5.  They have been ranked in 416 of 1,267 polls (33%).  They opened the 1952 season at #7 and fell a spot for "only" beating Marquette 42-19.  Then they knocked off #2 Illinois 20-6 while previous #1 (MSU) struggled with Oregon State (17-14 win).  That moved the Badgers all the way up to #1 in the October 6, 1952 poll but that Saturday they lost 23-14 in Columbus to an unranked Ohio State team that had a young upstart named Woody Hayes in his second year as HC.  Wisconsin did end up winning the BigTen that year and lost the Rose Bowl to #1 USC.  

Missouri:
The Tigers have two appearances at #1, two at #2, and 23 in the top-5.  They have been ranked in 292 of 1,267 polls (23%).  Unlike SMU who got their second #1 appearance by having a week off, the Tigers have reached #1 on two completely separate occasions and they immediately lost both times:  

In 1960 the Tigers started unranked but won their first nine games.  The ninth win was over Oklahoma as #2 and the previous #1 also lost that week (MN to PU) so the Tigers got the #1 spot in the November 14, 1960 poll then lost 23-7 to Kansas and finished the season #5.  

In 2007 the Tigers started unranked but started 5-0 to climb to #11.  Then they lost 41-31 at Oklahoma but Oklahoma was #6 and it was a road loss so the Tigers only dropped to #15.  They then proceeded to win six straight including over #2 Kansas on November 24.  Conveniently for #3 Mizzou, #1 LSU lost 50-48 to Arkansas in 3OT that same day which opened the way for Mizzou to claim the #1 spot for their second time.  Unfortunately for Mizzou their next assignment was a second crack at the Sooners, this time in the B12CG.  That didn't go any better than Mizzou's previous shot at the Sooners with #9 Oklahoma winning 38-17 over #1 Mizzou.  That same day #2 (WVU to unranked Pitt) lost which paved the way for Ohio State to regain the #1 ranking.  

I'm a bit surprised that PSU has only played a dozen games as the #1 ranked team

Well they've been #1 in 21 polls but two of those were as NC's in the final poll and you don't play any games after the final poll (anymore).  I'm guessing bye weeks account for the rest.  

FWIW:

• PSU has been #1 in 21 polls, tied with Pitt for 17th 
• They have been #2 in another 49 polls, 9th
• They have been top-5 in 187 polls, 13th
• They have been ranked in 717 polls, 9th

For all of their rankings they fall off a little bit when it comes to top-5's and particularly #1's.  

It's interesting how a few teams are undefeated whilst ranked uno (for obvious).

And three are 0-1 and one is 0-2, which would be kind of miserable I think.

My Dawgs at 41-4 have "padded" their stat over the past 6 or so seasons I think.

And we Vols thank you much for that.  *** Assist to former Vol and transfer QB Brandon Stewart.

Sigh.  As I said, we here at KSU/CBU often lament the coulda woulda beens. 

Your boys sure kicked the crap out of us a few years later in an arctic game in the Cotton Bowl.

K St. was loaded that year.

Ice on the grass at the Cotton Bowl, yessir.

We had some good teams in that era.  Cookie never crumbled as fortuitously as others.