What’s keeping Georgia Tech out of polls?

The computers?

The computers love Georgia Tech. (Insert Tech joke here.)

The Colley Matrix ranks Tech No. 26. The Sagarin “Elo-Chess” index places Tech at No. 13.

The Massey Ratings are acting like they want to take a spin in the Ramblin’ Wreck. They have Tech at No. 10 — one spot ahead of Georgia.

But the people doing the voting in the writers and coaches polls aren’t quite so smitten.

After shutting out Duke 27-0 last Saturday, the Jackets are in neither top 25 poll. They’re No. 31 in the USA Today (coaches) poll and No. 32 in the AP (writers) poll.

They’ve got the support of at least one grandfatherly coach from north Florida.

“I voted them in the top 25,” said Florida State coach Bobby Bowden. “I think they deserve to be.”

From interviews with writers and other coaches, here’s five reasons why they don’t have more.

1. They’ve lost

It was a tough loss, by three points to Virginia Tech in one of the loudest stadiums in the country, but a loss. It is perhaps a little obvious, but the polls reward undefeated teams. All but one of the 15 undefeated teams are ranked in one or both polls, including Ball State, which this week joined the AP poll at No. 25 for the first time in school history. Middle Tennessee State coach Rick Stockstill said he puts “a lot of weight” on an undefeated record against a one-loss team.

“That’s the objective,” said Stockstill, who included the Jackets on his ballot. “So, as a coach, as a voter, that to me is what you look for.”

New Mexico coach Rocky Long said at this point of the season, he puts any team still undefeated on his ballot.

“It doesn’t matter who you’ve played,” he said. “It’s hard to win every game.”

2. Not on the radar

Remember that Tech started with zero votes in AP poll and just two in the coaches poll. That meant they had to win just to make a dent in “Others receiving votes.” When the Jackets received four votes in the AP poll and 15 in the USA Today poll after their surprising road win over Boston College Sept. 6, that put them behind 30 teams in the AP poll and 33 in the USA Today poll. Losing to Virginia Tech the following week, though, killed that momentum. It knocked Tech completely out of the writers poll and behind 42 teams in the coaches poll. That’s a lot of teams to try to leapfrog.

“Probably going into the season, with a new staff changing the offense, the expectations were not very high,” said Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe, a voter. “It just takes awhile to work your way in.”

3. Static cling

Once a team is in the top 25, it can be difficult for it to be dislodged.

There are 12 one-loss teams in one of the two polls. Nine of the 12 started the season in the top 25. Auburn and Wisconsin, the only two-loss teams in either poll, both started in the top 15.

Before he became a voter, Colorado Springs Gazette sports writer Jake Schaller didn’t always understand this aspect of the poll. He thought it was simple — form the rankings based on who would beat whom?

“I try to have that in my poll,” said Schaller, who has the Jackets at No. 23. “At the same time, you need to reward the teams that keep winning.”

4. No win over a ranked team

According to the Sagarin rankings, the Jackets have the 18th strongest schedule. But Tech’s biggest win this season was against Boston College, which is 42nd in the coaches poll and 39th in the writers poll. This season’s best example of the bounce a big win can give is East Carolina. The Pirates received no votes in either preseason poll, but beat two preseason top 20 teams, Virginia Tech and West Virginia. That moved them to as high as No. 14 before they fell back out after two losses.

“One of the things that (ranked) teams usually have is they’ve got a real signature win,” said John Heuser, a sports writer for the Ann Arbor News. “Beating Boston College was good early on, but I think people have forgotten that by now.”

Before Tech fans go searching for Heuser’s e-mail to flame him, they should consider that a) he obviously hasn’t forgotten the win over Boston College; and b) he has the Jackets at No. 17.

5. Bias against the ACC?

You know your burning ears wanted to hear it. Schaller theorizes that some voters’ impressions were influenced by then-No. 24 Alabama’s thrashing of then-No. 9 Clemson in Atlanta.

“Maybe some people kind of have less respect for the ACC as a whole,” said Schaller. “Maybe that has reflected on Georgia Tech a little bit.”

That theory doesn’t explain why, according to pollspeak.com, which tracks AP voters’ ballots, Tech’s 15 votes came from writers from Colorado, Michigan, New York and Hawaii, among other places. But it is interesting that four of the 15 came from west of the Mississippi, which speaks to the fact that Tech has yet to appear on national television this year.

It may speak more to exposure than bias. Schaller figures that he might have been more aware of Tech than others because he had seen Paul Johnson coach Navy against the Air Force team that he covers.

“There’s an article about teams in our area that are in the top 25 almost daily in the newspaper,” said Long. “You hear more about the teams in your area than you do the other ones.”