I-AA Schools Now Eligible For Football Poll

That's media arrogance talking to say the AP poll is half the I-A national championship. It's probably true the poll influences the Harris, but to say the AP poll is half the national championship is flawed logic.

-- The AP has its championship, an opinion poll.
-- The BCS has its championship, played on the field.
-- USA Today's coaches panel has its championship, awarded to the winner of the BCS championship game.
-- Slap Boudreaux has a poll and, ultimately, a championship, published on the Web by SportsJournalists.com.
-- The National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame has its champion, historically an opinion poll but most recently awarded to the BCS champion.
-- The Football Writers Association of America has its championship, an opinion poll.
-- Jeff Sagarin has his championship, based on computer rankings.
-- Anderson & Hester has a championship, based on computer rankings.
-- Richard Billingsley has a championship, based on computer rankings.
-- Colley Matrix has a championship, based on computer rankings.
-- Kenneth Massey has a championship, based on computer rankings.
-- Dr. Peter Wolfe has a championship, based on computer rankings.
-- The Dunkel Index has a championship, based on its formula.
-- Countless other surveys or ratings services have championships.
-- UPI had a long-standing championship.

By my count, the AP poll is no more than 1/12th the national championship.

Now, if you want to say the AP poll has the benefit of public perception that it's half the championship, and that perception is everything, fine. But the AP poll increasingly reveals itself to be full of mixed messages, conflicting philosophies, an inherently flawed premise (don't vote based on speculation, yet you're asked to vote a preseason Top 25 -- a Top 25 that indeed has influence) and opinions based on insufficient data.

Michigan was No. 5 last week in the AP poll, for Pete's sake.

I don't know how long it's going to take -- 10 years, 20 years, 50 years -- but one day college football will be free from the foolish thinking that 60 or so of us have the time and resources to adequately pick a champion. Most of us don't know why a play worked or why it didn't. We think we know, but we don't. And we're going to pick a champion?

Michigan was No. 5 last week in the AP poll.

The AP poll was a good idea decades ago, before every game was on television, before the Internet, before our readers had the kind of access they have to all of college football. It's grown into A Big Deal, but it's really just a bunch of people giving their opinion based on a severely limited ability to see or keep up with the 119 teams who play every weekend.

It's tradition accepted as gospel. It's based on the Big Myth, as San Antonio columnist Mike Finger expertly wrote this week, that a small number of schools, and those schools only, are worthy of consideration for the championship.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/columnists/mfinger/stories/MYSA090507.01C.mike_finger_column.en.34fe6da.html

(As many of you know ... no, I'm not Mike. But I'm now a fan of his.)

The AP poll is increasingly irrelevant, and only media arrogance keeps it as popular as it is today. Say what you want about the Harris poll, but its members see more games than the AP poll's members do. If another poll with the same flaws as the AP poll were produced by an organization other than the AP, the media would routinely roast that poll and fail to give it validity. We accept it because it's ours, and we grew up with it, but it's only opinion, and opinion that is biased in ways the opinion-givers can't even wrap their minds around yet.

An unranked team beats a ranked team, and we call it an "upset." Why? Well, who wants to admit the rankings were wrong in the first place?

Michigan was No. 5 last week in the AP poll.

 

If Michigan sucks a turd this week and continues to do so, Appy State will get nothing and like it.

 

The ESPN Radio group that does its version of College GameDay was talking about the "change" in the I-A poll that allows I-AA teams to receive votes. I realize the truth always has an uphill battle to catch up with perception, but was there really any change? Unless I am wrong, Terry Taylor simply clarified that there's no rule against voting for them, and there never has been.

Right? Wrong? Set me straight, please.

 

Ahem... you're missing a poll....

 

Oh, shit. My bad!

Give me 60 seconds ...

 

So, Appalachian State has won its third consecutive I-AA national championship. Think they'll get a vote or two in the final AP poll?

I know, I know, but what else is there to talk about?

 

Suck it Blue Hens!!!!

 

Why not? That's three straight titles for the Mountaineers. If not for Wake Forest, Appalachian State might be able to claim they're the best college football program - classification or no classification - in North Carolina.

An AP voter or two in North Carolina might throw the Mountaineers a bone.

 

Better than NC State, that's for sure.

Oh. Hi...Sam.

 

I would sure hope so. If anyone's willing to vote Michigan, they ought to be able to take this leap.

 

No argument here. The schools have played against one another many times ... luckily, not as much recently. I dunno if the Wolfpack could endure the hammering.

Wake Forest is the lone exception. Chapel Hill and Duke stink, NCSU improved as the year went along but is still very mediocre and while East Carolina improved, the Pirates are still nothing to do backflips over.

 

Considering App. State has won three of their last four games against Wake Forest, I think you'd have to strongly consider them to be the best football program in Carolina.

Of course, they haven't played Wake since 2000, but I think they'd have matched up with Wake pretty well the last three years.