Pay Attention!

I guess I am just glad that Nascar actually attempts to crown their champion 'on the track', unlike College Football which relies on 'voting' from both Human and computers. Looking at the most recent AP College Football poll, (I guess now we know why the AP isn't a part of the BCS anymore) I noticed a couple of problems concerning my favorite team, the Oklahoma Sooners.

For instance, Jim Kleinpeter, a writer at the New Orleans Times Picayune and AP Voter, before last Saturday had voted the Sooners 15th in his poll. However, after a 10 point Saturday night Sooner win over Texas Tech, this same voter dropped the Sooners to 24th! While he admitted Tuesday he sent in his ballot Sunday morning thinking the Sooners had lost to Texas Tech on Saturday night, it is not a very good excuse considering the impact.

"I was in the press box after the LSU game that night and I remember . . . asking somebody, Did Oklahoma get beat? and somebody said 'Yes.' When I woke up the next morning, I rushed through my stuff and when I looked in the paper, I didn't see the score. It was still in my head that they lost."

These 'mistakes' are beginning to add up these days, and he says, "It was an honest mistake. I'm going to correct it next week" which is all well and good, but the damage may have already been done. Had this writer voted the Sooners at the very least 15th (not raising or lowering them from the previous week's voted after a win) the Sooners would have jumped two over-all spots in the AP poll instead of just one.

That may not seem like alot, but in this late stage of the season, every spot up or down, does much for over-all perception.

Speaking of perception, this comment from another AP voter also surprised me somewhat. Bud Withers (who voted OU 14th), a columnist for the Seattle Times, replied, "if the replay guy (Gordon Riese) had just used five minutes in the Oregon-Oklahoma game to get it right rather than feel hurried about it, Oklahoma could well be in the national-title picture as a one-loss team."

Translation: OU got screwed and should be in consideration for a title. But I'm still voting them #14. Just another example of the gutlessness of these voters. The excuse many voters give is that the 'Big 12' is down this year, but that was also the excuse many gave last year as well. Anyone else remember last year when ESPN was pimping that conference bowl championship thing? They wouldn't shut up about what conferences where doing in their bowl games. Until OU and Texas won, making the Big 12 the conference with the best bowl record. After that, very little was spoken of it. Rarely were standings shown, and no mention was made that the Big 12 had put together a better bowl record than the SEC, PAC-10, Big Ten, and Big East and the same record as the ACC.

Anyway, there are some great match ups this Saturday and look for a little more shake up in the polls, I just hope the voters actually pay attention to the final scores this week.