Why would any sportswriter give this more than 5 minutes of his attention and effort?
First of all, his vote is a small fraction of the final, so if he really goofs, it doesn't much matter anyway, and there is no penalty for it. The dude is probably watching the major games of the weekend, not how a couple of teams that are 5-3 played beyond the score.
I never spent more than 5 minutes on my own efforts, probably not more than 2. You get down past 15th and you start thinking "eh, whatever".
And these guys have "real jobs" of a sort, and probably would rather get their poll submitted and hit the bar than ponder it in depth. I know I would. I write my story for the day and think "Oh yeah, I have to submit that poll, bing bang boom, emailed it, done.".
And, today, none of this matters anyway for them, not one bit. Not a tiny iota of importance.