AP All-American team over representation
I posted this in comments on one of Brian's articles but thought I would start a thread on it.
It's great that Graham and Mesko made 2nd team AA on AP, but did anyone else think the SEC and Big 12 were over represented? Without getting into individual selections, the two conferences combined for 18 of the 25 spots on the first team. The ACC (2), Pac-10 (1), Big 10 (1) and Big East combined for four spots. TCU, Idaho and Notre Dame claimed the other three spots. Somewhere in the recent past (is this the first year?) the AP switched its selection process from basically all the sportswriters at papers and broadcast stations that are part of the AP, which is hundreds of voters (I even got to vote when I wrote for the Daily back in the day) to one with a committee of about 15-20 selectors. This move seems like a bad one to me, based on these results.
Here is a link to the AP team
http://soxanddawgs.com/2009/12/15/2009-college-football-ap-all-american…
December 16th, 2009 at 4:44 PM ^
1st team All-American on the offensive side in general with maybe the exception of Shipley.
Ditto with 1st team AA on the defensive side except for Cody. He's being hyped by the media too much that he is given too much credits for the success of Alabama defense. He barely was on the field and he was on the field for less than 30% of the time which is not a good thing. Even a fat DT who is unconditioned should be able to play at least 45% or higher of the snaps on the field. He just takes up space but that's pretty much it. Gerald McCoy would be a better selection over Cody IMO.
December 16th, 2009 at 6:16 PM ^
They're about the players with the most exposure. Do you honestly think any of these guys know how to pick the 5 best offensive linemen in the country?
December 16th, 2009 at 7:08 PM ^
said hello.
December 16th, 2009 at 7:37 PM ^
These picks are clearly colored by the results of the UF-Alabama game. Had it gone the other way, you can bet Alabama has two or three less first team picks.
Also interesting to note that Michigan is only team with a player selected second team or better that had a losing record. (Edit: Baylor has a first-team pick. OK, so the only team with a losing record to have multiple picks.)
December 16th, 2009 at 11:55 PM ^
with a similar number of selectors, the FWAA team had 12 of 25 from SEC (7) and Big 12 (5). Big Ten (2), ACC (3), Pac-10 (2) and Big East (1) combined for 8 (compared with 3 in AP).
Remaining FWAA spots went to TCU, Idaho, Notre Dame, Bowling Green and Utah.