By Mechelle Voepel
ESPNET SportsZone

Saw a reference recently to Associated Press poll voters as "idiots,'' an insult that surely must have infuriated the nation's idiots.

All I know is that as I sat pondering my poll vote while watching our beloved Agent Scully getting phone calls from the dead Sunday, I did indeed feel like an idiot.

Partly because I didn't figure out that Scully really was the mysterychild's mom (duh, we had so many clues) and partly because once I got past No. 8, I was not sure what to do.

Vanderbilt, Virginia, Nebraska, Colorado and Georgia all lost last week,so where should they be placed?

How high should Washington jump?

Should Southwest Missouri State or Florida International get in?

Who should fall out?

Is Scully's kid an alien?

Anyway, the bottom line is the polls are far from an exact science. Sometimes I think they should run a line with them like they do with those psychic hotlines: "This is for entertainment purposes only.''

But the polls do mean a lot -- everything from a psychological edge to who gets their scores on the TV tickers.

Poll voters try, really. But the best they can do is keep informed and then vote with a consistent pattern.

And try not to be an idiot. It isn't easy.

Mechelle Voepel of the Kansas City Star writes a regular women's basketball column for ESPNET SportsZone. Her e-mail address is mvoepel@kcstar.com.