Irritating phrases we'll hear the rest of college football's regular season

* "Run the table." This isn't billiards or pool.

* "Human polls." All polls are based on the votes of humans. People use this phrase to differentiate the polls from the computer rankings. The problem is that you don't poll computers. They simply are "polls."

* "Computer polls." See above. You don't poll computers.

 

Even by the standards of the journalism-only board, that's fairly anal.

 

I'll disagree with the previous post. People think a Top 25 is automatically a poll. It's not. If Baseball America has one guy do a Top 25, it's not the Baseball America poll. It's the Baseball America Top 25.

Just because in popular culture everyone thinks it's all polls, it's not. To say "computer polls" is wrong, and to say "human polls" is one word too many.

This is not any different or more anal than many of the fight-to-the-death word wars we have here.

 

If I read the term "oinked the pigskin" referring to a fumble one more time, I'm going to edit the story down to a brief.

 

I never read that before in my life. I actually just laughed a little bit. Wow, they use it that much?

 

I agree with the "human" and "computer" poll gripe. I don't have a problem with run the table.

That's like having a problem with the word "blitz." This is football, not WWII!

 

Any newspaper that allows the following coach or player quote into any story needs to have its copy editors switched to decaf:

"Any team can win on any given Saturday..."

Are our readers really paying 50/75 cents a day for that kind of probing insight? Just because they say it doesn't mean you have to use it.

 

I love a good word fight [/testycopyeditor]

No issue with run the table.

We use polls and computer rankings. Works for me.

Would kill any reporter who used "Any team can win on any given Saturday . . ."

 

More annoying than any syntax errors (though I'm with you on "polls," ondeadline):

Any column/tee-vee analyst that says, "I like/dislike the BCS, and here's what I think the NCAA should do to determine a champion..."

I've seen less BCS whining this year, but the closer USF or Boston College get to a nat'l championship appearance, the louder the whine will grow. [/semi-threadjack]

 

I hate it when coaches/announcers/writers use the term "in space." As in, "State U. has to get Joe Blow in space." I know what they mean, but it's a stupid phrase.

 

True freshman.

Yeah, I know there's a difference.

I just don't care.

 

There's a difference between "freshman" and "redshirt freshman," but "true freshman" is just redundant. No backpedaling required.