FINAL POLL finally POSTED ... on PAGE 4!

This is the time of year we usually start dragging the murky waters of SportsJournalists.com for college football poll volunteers. And for the past four seasons, I've had no shortage of takers, most of whom are loyal voters throughout the season.

BUT that was during the BCS era. As we move forward into the imaginatively-title College Football Playoff years, maybe it's time to change things here, too.

Those of you who have voted regularly in the past (and anyone else with an opinion), please let me know what you think about this season. Let's decide how we want to do our SportsJournalists.com poll — if at all — before we start looking for 2014 voters.

A few options:

• We run the poll like previous years, with a preseason vote and weekly vote all the way through the bowl games/championship.

• We wait until October to start voting each week. This is how the playoff committee is going to do it, with their rankings starting in late October.

• We forget about running our own SportsJournalists.com poll and just have a thread to discuss/criticize the playoff committee (kind of like NCAA basketball).

Or maybe you have other suggestions. As long as they're not "hang out with Nick Saban and Lane Kiffin at Waffle House," I'm all ears.

 

Re: SportsJournalists.com college football poll? A discussion

What about a preseason poll and then we wait until Mid-October to take the next poll?

Can we discuss taking Layla Kiffin to the Waffle House?

 

Re: SportsJournalists.com college football poll? A discussion

I think McNuggets' plan on the poll is a good idea. Comparing and contrasting the site's poll with the committee's poll should be good thread fodder.

 

Re: SportsJournalists.com college football poll? A discussion

That would be interesting and could show how teams that aren't predicted to do well can be negatively impacted by the early polls.

 

Re: SportsJournalists.com college football poll? A discussion

And unlike previous seasons, our poll would come out first (assuming we keep the same ballot deadline of noon CDT on Monday).

I believe the committee standings will be announced each Tuesday on ESPN (of course).

 

Re: SportsJournalists.com college football poll? A discussion

Yep. That's always been one of my complaints. I'm surprised that Auburn managed to climb the ladder as well as they did last season.

The real problem with the system is there isn't an objective set of criteria, like the NFL has, to determine how to include teams. I would say the minimum criteria should be to win your own conference championship to be in the discussion. And, no, we're not taking Northern Illinois, even if they're undefeated.

 

Re: SportsJournalists.com college football poll? A discussion

Anyone else have ideas? Do you voters/potential voters like the McNuggets Plan of a preseason vote, then resuming in October?

(yeah, I'm giving this a bump for the Monday morning SportsJournalists.com crowd)

 

Re: SportsJournalists.com college football poll? A discussion

Mark, using the committee approach means that the selection criteria will always be murky, and since college football has so many more variables than the NFL, it has to be. Since they're starting with a four-team playoff, and there are still more than four BCS conferences, they will pretty much be forced to consider conference champs first, making conference title games de facto playoff games. Last year, I'd guess it would have been Florida State, Auburn, Michigan State and then probably Stanford or, (sigh) Alabama. But picking two teams from the same conference will get the committee off on the wrong foot with all the other conferences from the jump.

 

Re: SportsJournalists.com college football poll? A discussion

I'm going with yes to both of these.

 

Re: SportsJournalists.com college football poll? A discussion

Did she model for the "Golden Labia," as the new trophy is being called?

https://twitter.com/CFBPlayoff/status/488700381656920065/photo/1

 

Re: SportsJournalists.com college football poll? A discussion

I like the McNuggets Plan, too.

 

Re: SportsJournalists.com college football poll? A discussion

Damnit, beat me to it. It does look like golden labia with a football stuffed inside.