How coaches voted in USAToday Top 25 Poll

Submitted by Leaders And Best on

Always interesting when the final poll results are released:

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/coaches-poll12

Hoke for some reason voted Southern California #24, making him the only person to give USC a vote.

Hoke gave Northern Illinois its lowest ranking (#25) among all the coaches, and Northern Illinois' Dave Doeren didn't have Michigan ranked. Coincidence?

Other good ones:

Bret Bielema ranked Oklahoma State #11 and was the only person to have them on a ballot and didn't rank Oklahoma. UPDATE: USAToday is taking the fall for this error. Not sure if I believe it.

USA TODAY Sports @USATODAYsports

We apologize to @BretBielema + @BadgerFootball for listing Oklahoma St. instead of Oklahoma on your ballot for our database. Fixing now.

Todd Graham ranked his own team, Arizona State, #20 and left Michigan unranked.

Logan88

December 2nd, 2012 at 3:56 PM ^

Franklin should have his vote taken away from him after that display. In addition to his shameless SEC homerism, he voted his own team #16 even though they only beat one(1!) team who managed the measly six wins necessary to qualify for a bowl and that was a one point win over 6-6 Mississippi.

I lost a lot of respect for that guy just based on his ballot. Pathetic.

turd ferguson

December 2nd, 2012 at 3:27 PM ^

At first glance, James Franklin (Vanderbilt) wins the "Why do we let coaches do this again?" award.

Notre Dame at #4?

And how's this for some SEC love:

1. Alabama

2. Georgia

3. Florida

7. LSU

8. Texas A&M

9. South Carolina

16. Vanderbilt

21. Mississippi State

TorturedClassof11

December 2nd, 2012 at 3:37 PM ^

Bielema had, shall we say, a reading mishap.  He had Ok St. #11 and Oklahoma unranked.  Ok St. got no votes elsewhere and Oklahoma is conicidentally ranked #11.  I hope someone asks him about it so he can be forced to say "Oops"

Swazi

December 2nd, 2012 at 3:40 PM ^

Kinda surprised Hoke didn't vote for San Jose State or Utah State.  Also, Bielima voted for Oklahoma State 11th and left Oklahoma off his ballot.  I don't even...

Wolverine Devotee

December 2nd, 2012 at 3:45 PM ^

Brady Hoke still has hate for NIU in him. His alma mater's rival.

I can see Michigan scheduling them again. 

LSAClassOf2000

December 2nd, 2012 at 4:56 PM ^

It is interesting how the raw averages for rankings work out before other things come into consideration actually, if for no other reason to get a feel for where coaches are actually putting teams before the point system comes into play for this poll. For example, of the coaches that did rank Michigan, the raw average of those rankings comes out to 20.55, and for Northwestern, it comes out to 18.3. In the case of Nebraska, only one person voted them in at their actual final position - the average raw  ranking among those coaches who ranked them is actually 19.57. It could just be me, but of AP and this poll, this one seems especially contrived.

angry byrne

December 2nd, 2012 at 4:45 PM ^

I agree with everyone on here stating the obvious:  This system (ie having the coaches vote, among other things) is a joke.  One thing among many that I found humorous was that Nebraska is ranked above Wisconsin in both polls.  Yes, Wisco has five losses, but they just 

"won" the big ten and did so by absolutely embarrassing the huskers.  Nebraska has no buisness being where they are.

moredamnsound

December 2nd, 2012 at 5:25 PM ^

Having the coaches vote is pretty stupid, but any human vote is going to be influenced by some bias one way or another. We can't leave it strictly up to computers either. If there's a good way of fixing it, let me know and I'll be behind you 100%.

Mr. Yost

December 2nd, 2012 at 7:27 PM ^

Coach Hoke is a GREAT coach...but, I'm sorry, his ballot is terrible. I think it's clear he, like most coaches, simply doesn't care.

He is the "highest" or "lowest" for a number of teams --- including his own.

michelin

December 2nd, 2012 at 9:55 PM ^

I wonder how the reliability of the coaches' ratings in your link compares with that of the different BCS computers.   The link you provide shows enormous variability in rankings between coaches: especially for some teams, like NIU.  And if such variablity is very high, then the human polls cannot be valid (eg able to make sensible forecasts of anything, such as future game outcomes).

Some argue that the human polls are not meant to make any valid predictions but just to judge the quality of teams after the games.  But if these polls cannot be validated in some way, then we cannot know if they really mean anything.  We cannot say they are any more than biased erratic guesses from coaches who know little and care less.

 

 

 

 

MaizeNBlueAboveALL

December 2nd, 2012 at 9:46 PM ^

It is just like a President voting for himself. James Franklin is a good coach and GREAT motivator, I live in Nashville and he has all of the Vandy fans bought in. He is one of the few SEC coaches that are not scum bags. Maybe the only actually...