TOB's ballot

Participating in a poll this season has been eye opening. I realized how hard it is to get an accurate read on all the top teams. It is equally difficult to create your personal measuring stick and then stick with it consistently throughout the season. Now, more than ever, I am strongly in favor of a playoff. That being said, my ballot had no impact on the national picture. TOB’s did. Gunslinger’s tipped me off to the public coaches ballots and I thought I would take a closer look at our head coach’s.

1. Southern Cal
2. Texas
3. Penn State
4. Oregon
5. Virginia Tech
6. Georgia
7. Miami (Florida)
8. Ohio State
9. Louisiana State
10. Auburn
11. Notre Dame
12. Texas Tech
13. West Virginia
14. Alabama
15. TCU
16. Florida
17. Florida State
18. Boston College
19. UCLA
20. Wisconsin
21. Louisville
22. Michigan
23. Georgia Tech
24. Iowa
25. Clemson

TOB’s is not totally out of line with my ballot or even the eventual coaches and AP polls. However, his bias shows through...raising some questionable calls.

The first is Virginia Tech at No. 5. They were coming off a horrible loss and I am not sure what rational he is using. In head-to-head I would put them behind Georgia and Miami. Maybe he is looking at overall record or teams he knows well. Who knows? Maybe he just feels they were the best team he faced this year. I think they are good, but not Top 5 good. ACC bias at play here, in my opinion.

The next questionable call is Notre Dame at No. 11. I’ve been sliding them of late too as their earlier accomplishments seem less impressive, but it looks worse coming from the BC coach than a BC blogger. The ND obsession among the BC fans bothers me…and it makes it worse when it seems like our coach feeds it. I feel like resubmitting my ballot just to separate myself from this perception.

He then moves West Virginia to No 13. WVU is 10-1. Yes, we know the Big East is terrible, but the Mountaineers probably don’t deserve this slight. It also comes off like a grudge, especially when you consider Louisville at 21 -- five places behind their slot in the coaches poll.

TOB also gave really high marks to Florida State. Conference champion, yes. Top 20 team? Not yet (in my opinion).

TOB’s ballot was not a travesty. Other coaches really messed up or were extremely inconsistent. TOB seemed pretty straight forward -- ACC favoritism and little respect for the Big East. But seeing personal bias come into play with people who are directly impacted by the outcome of these polls is disconcerting. A selection committee would have its bias too, but at least their subjectivity would be overcome by the eventual results on the field.