Coaches and their ballots

Bumped...P

With the news that University of South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier didn't vote Tim Tebow on the pre-season  All-SEC team this past week and the fact that the 2010 final regular-season ballots in the USA TODAY Coaches' Poll will no longer be made public beginning with the 2010 football season- do you think USC is going to get any love from coaches (er. . .I mean- their assistants) in the future regarding rankings any time soon?

Two things, the fact that coaches are still letting their assistants fill out their ballots (granted, this was an "isolated" event beholden "only" to the SEC) and the fact they all unanimously agreed to maintain anonymity with their final rankings ballot leaves Joe Public to wonder whether or not they are truly on the up and up.

I mean, c'mon- one of the worst offenders of "errant" final coaches ballot is Harold Schellenberger. This guy obviously has no love lost for USC. He put USC 8th in last years poll. (really coach? we lost to a very good OSU team and you have Texas Tech, Utah, and Penn St. ahead of us? not to mention the 3 other teams NOT FLORIDA?). Tommy Bowden had us at 7, Mack Brown had us at 6- as did Hal Mumme, Steve Spurrier, Mike Leatch and Urban Meyer. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we were #1 last year (we just played like it, and no one else wanted a piece of us)- but there definitely weren't 4 teams better than us, Florida notwithstanding.

So, we'd better be very good this year and we'd also better get some good playing time for some of our underclassmen. I see 2010 as being a bonafide year that USC can go all the way, that's right- undefeated. If, of course, we don't lose many players to the draft or injury.

Speaking of The Ol' Ball Coach? The fact that he wants to reneg on his pre-season

All-SEC ballot tells me. . . .he ain't got it anymore. The ol' Coach Spurrier wouldn't have budged and would have stood by his assistant's voting. Can you believe The Steve of the Spurrier is afraid of Urban and T2? And in response to AFCA executive director Grant Teaff saying the change is part of the process of "making our poll the best poll it can possibly be." - BALDERDASH! I'M CALLING SHENANIGANS!

[edit]

As I was doing my weekend perusing on The Wiz of Odds, I came across an article written by Berry Tramel of NewsOK.com, in it he wrote EXACTLY what I was trying to convey in my post. In all honesty, I only came across Tramel's article AFTER THE TIME which I had posted this Fanpost. Here's a lengthy excerpt, as in Tramel's words- they are far more polished than mine could ever hope to be. To wit, "Spurrier’s story confirms what we’ve been told for decades, that many coaches hand over their poll or honors ballots to an underling. The coaches poll always was inferior to the AP poll and historically almost always followed the AP, a week later, as if the coach or his Man Friday just waited to check out the voters who were really paying attention. Of course, when The Associated Press fled the BCS process, and the Harris Poll replaced it, the coaches ascended in status. As bad as their rankings were, they beat the goofy Harris voters. Truth is, while everyone picks on the BCS as a whole, the chief problem with the system is the BCS process. When coaches aren’t the lowest common denominator, you’ve got a train wreck. And when coaches hide behind secrecy, the BCS loses all validity. Congress, at least, stands behind its individual votes. When you’ve sunk below Capitol Hill, you’ve fallen far. Spurrier’s bailout on the totally meaningless question of preseason SEC quarterback shows what happens in December. Coaches don’t pay attention to their poll vote or even treasure it, and coaches don’t want to stand behind it. Some have argued that making the ballots secret allows coaches to vote their conscience and not their politics. Spurrier’s waffle shows otherwise."

Reasonable minds think alike, and Tramel is a columnist I hope to read more often as the pre-season progresses and the 2009 CFB season gets under way.