We'd like to let you guys know that we have made a very small adjustment to the way fans respond to the questions about your team's recent games (last game, last rivalry game, and last tv game). Beginning with today's survey, fans will be a bit more tolerant of close loses. The fans will also be applying the new standard retroactively when asked about tv and rivalry games that took place during the first week of the season. The magnitude of the change is no greater than half of a star in any scenario, and may not be easily noticeable. Nevertheless, we know that many of you are paying very close attention to the fan survey, and do not want this change to cause any confusion. We believe that this change will make fan behavior more realistic.
Also, there have been a few of complaints about the negative fan reactions to losses. Today's change is small and subtile, and is intended mostly to improve realism; overall, it does very little to reduce the negative consequences of losing. When face with low rating on the fan survey page, remember that the scores make full use of the scale, from 1/2 to 5 balls. For most of the questions, the average of all teams' scores is between 2 1/2 and 3 balls. High ratings are generally balanced by other teams' low ratings, and vice versa.