AP Top 25: Making the call
Published: 8/24/2006 3:42 PM
Last Modified: 8/24/2006 3:42 PM
This is going to be fun.
The 2006 season will be the second time I've been allowed to cast a vote in the Associated Press' weekly Top 25 college football poll. I look so forward to it, and you'll understand more when I let you in on a phone call I got this week.
First off, I see voting in a national poll as a privilege. An honor. A duty, even. And I take it very seriously – more seriously, I'm told, than many. For instance, I just picked up a digital video recorder from my cable company because I plan on watching, in whole or in part, 10 to 15 games a week. (I still have video tapes of Iowa-Wisconsin, Florida-South Carolina and UCLA-Oregon State, among others, from the last time I voted. Man, those things collect a lot of dust.)
Some hardcore college football fans out there may say, `So what? I watch 10 or 15 games a week!' But here's the difference: As the Tulsa World's primary beat writer for the Oklahoma Sooners, I spend every Saturday focusing 99 percent of my energy on one game. I catch scores, I watch highlights, I hear what I can on my satellite radio. But on a typical Saturday, depending on OU's kickoff time, the best I can do is catch the first half of an early game or the second half of a late game.
As the OU beat writer, I think I know a little about how good OU is. (Although I must admit, it's a heck of a lot harder since Bob Stoops closed practice.) I read every day about OSU and Tulsa, so I'd like to believe I have a peripheral handle on those guys, and, to a lesser extent, Arkansas. And being in Big 12 country, I keep up as I can with the Big 12 teams. Simple enough so far.
But the concept of a beat writer being asked to vote in a national poll is, in theory and in practice, a little absurd. Beat writers are immersed in their beats. How can somebody who spends 75 hours a week studying the Oklahoma Sooners be asked to judge whether Florida is better than USC?
But I welcome the challenge. I spend hours every day reading other beat writers' assessments of teams in or around the polls. I scan the national news agencies routinely. And between the satellite radio and the DVR, I suspect I'll have brown pebble grain and white stitching on my eyeballs by November.
Now for the phone call. It's an hilarious take on one Sooner fan's love of his team and displeasure with the local pollster, but it's also a cautionary tale on losing sight of what a poll really is – an aggregate of many opinions.
My preseason poll last week had Oklahoma ranked 11th. Nationally, 64 other sports journalists and myself had combined our ballots to rank the Sooners 10th.
But my caller was livid. In a voicemail – which I saved; I could not delete this gem – he was "very disappointed and even downright angry that our own local writer would pick 'em 11th when everybody in the whole nation picked 'em 10th."
Well, that's not exactly how it works. And not quite everybody picked OU 10th. The Sooners were actually left off a few ballots, and didn't make the top 20 on a handful of others. Some, though, had OU ranked in the top five, which balances the whole thing out.
It gets better.
The caller then said, "We need some home cooking out of the Tulsa World. Your pessimism and putting down Oklahoma won't cut it." Meaning just because I live in Oklahoma, I should help the Sooners' cause and put them in the top two or three, he said. (Which, in the actual poll, would have given OU an additional eight or nine points, which wouldn't have moved them out of the 10th spot anyway. See how it works?)
It gets even better.
Lastly, and most amazingly, the caller finished with, "I know you're trying to be honest, but we don't need honesty right now, we need some optimism. Give us some go-go. Let's go for OU and quit being so pessimistic."
Wow.
Here's some more honesty: There are about five other teams I considered for my ballot. Nebraska was certainly one, especially with the talent they have on the offensive and defensive line, as well as Norman boy Zac Taylor at quarterback. But I'm still not sure about the Cornhuskers' coaching acumen. Penn State might have made it, but I'm not convinced the Nittany Lions are back to stay, especially with a new QB. And if I had it to do over again, I might rank LSU a little higher and Texas Tech a little lower. Tech was one of just four teams on my ballot who are breaking in a new QB that I ranked higher than they fell in the preseason poll.
I'm sure my ballot will change once I actually fire up the DVR. In fact, the AP encourages change from week to week.
Here's the thing about the AP poll: it's not totally unbiased. How can it be? I think I know how good or bad Oklahoma is because I cover them every day, so I put them where I think they should be. That's simply not unbiased.
Neither is the fact that I ranked Tulsa 23rd. I was among a handful of voters who included the Golden Hurricane on the ballot. But again, because I live here, I think I can be reasonably sure how good or bad TU is. And based on what they did last year, and who they've got coming back, I think putting Tulsa 23rd is as legitimate as ranking OU 11th or Auburn first.
That's the beauty of the AP poll. From 65 individual voices who have impressions, one way or another, of the teams in their area, a national picture can be painted.
It's a mosaic, of sorts, and to appreciate it fully, you have to step back and look at the entire product, not just one or two tiles.
And it's going to be fun.
– John E. Hoover
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
