The Associated Press college football poll has become an obsolete piece of garbage.
The AP Poll has not counted in the BCS picture since 2004, when the Harris Interactive Poll replaced it. The Harris panel is a hodgepodge group made up of former coaches, administrators and players along with some current and former members of the media. One unique feature of the Harris Poll is it waits for teams to play several games before ranking teams.
The AP Poll’s decline began after Appalachian State’s win at Michigan. AP pollsters decided they wanted to include I-AA** teams in the top 25 poll. Some voters were even impressed enough after App. State’s next win, 48-7 over Division II Lenoir-Rhyne, to garner 19 votes.
Are you kidding me?
But, this week the AP Poll outdid itself. First of all, there was a 12 vote first-place swing between No. 1 USC and No. 2 LSU. The LSU Tigers had gained ground on the Trojans after dismantling Virginia Tech two weeks ago. Apparently, USC’s 18-point victory over Nebraska was enough to win back some voters. All I know is that a lot people wasted energy last week debating who should be No. 1. If there was not a poll yet, the debate would have been irrelevant.
Here’s the kicker. After the Florida Gators crushed SEC-rival Tennessee, running up the score in the process, pollsters rewarded the Gators by jumping them over Oklahoma into the No. 3 spot. The 39-point rout was the largest margin of victory in the series since the Vols hammered the Gators 45-3 in 1990. Florida starters played the entire game as the offense piled on 24 points in the fourth quarter.
What’s baffling is the end result. Oklahoma, who took care of business with a 54-3 win over Utah State, dropped one spot in the polls. The message the AP sent to all coaches is if you run up the score, we’ll reward you.
This is the latest disgusting gesture perpetrated by the AP. I can’t say I’m shocked; after all they’ve continually rewarded teams like Boise State and Penn State with high poll marks for big wins over pukey teams.
I think the Harris poll does it right. They don’t cast judgment until the season has begun and they don’t the change the rules mid-season.
Blogger’s Note: **Based on principle, I refuse to call I-AA schools by their new name, “Division I Football Championship Subdivision” teams.
Photo – For Pete’s Sake blacklisted Florida coach Urban Meyer celebrates after his sleazy 59-20 over Tennessee last Saturday. Photo courtesy of AP Photo – John Raoux.
4 comments:
I agree. I think an honest assessment of a team's strength can't be made until the third or fourth week of the season. By that point many of the top teams have sent the cupcakes back to candyland with a paddle on the behind and a hefty paycheck and have begun their conference play.
I have always had a problem with the way college football teams are rated and how heavily these ratings are weighed in deciding the antiquated college football postseason pecking order. It all starts with the preseason rankings. Without playing even one down of football a team is rated based almost entirely on how they performed the previous year. What value is there in that? College football, like all college athletics, has far too much player turnover to make an accurate judgement of a team's likelihood of success BEFORE the season.
This column made me laugh, especially the Urban Meyer photo and the caption about him being "blacklisted", ha! I agree with you about the running up the score thing though. I watched the USC, Nebraska game last weekend and Pete Caroll didn't run up the score. He shut down his running backs who were having monster games, and played a conservative passing game with Booty. Nebraska scored two or three late touchdowns and that was what made the margin only 17 points.
Oklahoma is legit and did not deserve to fall in the rankings (even one spot) because Florida piled on 3 late TD's. Hopefully Florida State can shock the Gators when they play later this season. That would make my month.
I'm loving the fine analysis left by anonymous on this one. Nice work...
I would also like to applaud anonymous on their excellent college football analysis, whomever and wherever they are (I’m thinking Gainesville for some reason). However, I would like to point out the cold hard facts. While I would hardly call the school I went to a football juggernaut, we did finish last year ranked ninth in the country. No, I’m not talking about Auburn, and I won’t bring up what they just did (win in the Swamp), I’m talking about Division III Whitworth College. Right now, the lowly-Pirates and mighty-Gators have eerily similar one-loss records.
I would also like to point one more thing about the so-called “crap” football program at my alma mater. Whitworth had one player enter the 2007 NFL Draft and he was drafted. That’s 100 percent success rate if you do the math. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Florida. Tight end Michael Allan remains on the Kansas City Chiefs roster, but the same cannot be said for QB Chris Leak. I’m not even touch Leak’s predecessor, who’s in the Chicago Bears doghouse. Those are the real facts, enough said.
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