Ivan Maisel's 3-point stance

[Tricky_Falcon]

Tuesday, August 23
1. The Harris poll voters have been identified. America, college football is in the hands of Terry Bradshaw. Feel better? Whether you agreed or not with the AP poll or the coaches poll, the voters had college football as a vocation. The vast majority of Harris voters have the sport as an avocation. Big difference.

2. Not only does Navy have the fewest returning starters in Division I-A (six), but it looks as the Midshipmen will start a backfield with no one taller than 5-9. I know coach Paul Johnson wants to resurrect the glory days, but using 1940s-sized players is not the answer.

3. The legacy of Ben Roethlisberger is that MAC quarterbacks are being taken seriously. Even with the numbers that Omar Jacobs put up last year, I can't imagine that the Bowling Green star would be getting the attention he has gotten before Roethlisberger took the Steelers to the AFC title game as a rookie.

[duckunder53]

He may be right, but it was only time before people started to notice that there was talent in this conference. It always takes that one thing to show people that they can't overlook a certain group.

[BGDrew]

Yes, but if the conference is not able to duplicate the same type of results than Big Ben will be known as a fluke.

[MACMAN]

We have more talent in the pros than just Ben, and the majorty are turning heads....

The harris poll scares me...its set up to be a members only poll just as bad if not worse than the previous...

[PGY Tiercel]

Tuesday, August 23
1. The Harris poll voters have been identified. America, college football is in the hands of Terry Bradshaw. Feel better? Whether you agreed or not with the AP poll or the coaches poll, the voters had college football as a vocation. The vast majority of Harris voters have the sport as an avocation. Big difference.

Of the 114, the MAC has 3 affilates voting, two former ball state players and a MAC commisioner. you can see that whole list here.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2140395

[TG1996]

Of the 114, the MAC has 2 affilates voting, two former ball state players. you can see that whole list here.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2140395

Three if you count former MAC commissioner Jim Lessig. I wondered why they had 114 members, then I realized they needed some backup when half the group dies midseason.

[factman]

Jim Lessig is ALSO a former BGSU AD, coach and alumni!!!!!!!

[Tricky_Falcon]

August 23, 2005
Chicago Tribune
ON SPORTS MEDIA AND COLLEGES
New poll is star-studded


It's a list with big names, big-time coaches and plenty of Big Ten representation.

Harris Interactive on Monday released the names of the 114 voters who will participate in its inaugural college football poll. Among them are Terry Bradshaw, Lou Holtz, Rocket Ismail, Steve Largent, Anthony Munoz, Boomer Esiason and Pat Haden.


Other notables with Big Ten ties: Earle Bruce (Ohio State), Gerry DiNardo (Indiana), Bump Elliott (Michigan), Andy Geiger (Ohio State), Bob Hammel (Indiana), John Mackovic (Illinois), George Perles (Michigan State), John Pont (Indiana, Northwestern), Pat Richter (Wisconsin) and Rick Taylor (Northwestern).

Notre Dame also is well represented with Holtz, Ismail and former sports information director Roger Valdiserri, the man who suggested quarterback Joe Theismann change the pronunciation of his last name to rhyme with "Heisman."

Valdiserri, though, said Notre Dame, where he worked as an administrator for 33 years, did not nominate him for the poll.

"I'm not sure they even know I worked there," he joked.

And Valdiserri said his ties to the school would have zero impact on how he votes.

"Notre Dame will have to be awfully, awfully good for me to put them in the Top 25," he said.

The Harris Poll replaces the Associated Press poll as one of three equal components of the Bowl Championship Series standings, which determine the teams that play in the most lucrative bowl games. The others are the USA Today coaches' poll and a compilation of six computer rankings.

The first Harris poll will be released Sept. 25, four weeks into the regular season and three weeks before the first BCS standings. Both the Harris Poll voters and the coaches will make their final rankings public.

Harris Interactive randomly drew the 114 voters from a pool of more than 300 nominees: former coaches, administrators, players and media members.

In an effort to de-emphasize the voters' affiliations, the BCS did not include any biographical information with its list of panelists.

As per Harris Poll policy, Valdiserri said he didn't even know who nominated him. He's simply eager to participate and plans to use his two digital video recorders to aid him in watching as many as nine games per week.

"The coaches don't have time to watch the games and the writers are usually covering teams in their own area," he said. "This should be a lot better."

[TG1996]

Okay, first the Paul Miles number thing, now this....

I can't believe I/we missed that former Falcon Larry Smith is a voter. Hopefully the reminder we served up in '95 sticks with him as he votes this year.

[transfer2BGSU]

Four voters withdraw from Harris college football poll
Associated Press

NEW YORK -- The new college football poll being used by the Bowl Championship Series will have to replace four voters on its recently unveiled panel, three who work for ESPN and one whose only connection to college football is his father-in-law.

Lou Holtz, Gerry DiNardo and John Congemi are not permitted to vote in the Harris Interactive College Football Poll by ESPN because it is being used by the BCS to determine which teams play for the national championship.

Jason Rash, the son-in-law of Troy coach Larry Blakeney, has withdrawn from the 114-member Harris voter panel after the BCS informed the Sun Belt Conference that he did not meet its voter criteria.

Congemi is a game analyst for ESPN's regional college football coverage. Holtz, who retired as South Carolina coach last year, recently signed on as a studio analyst. DiNardo, fired as Indiana coach after last season, will work for ESPN Radio.

"When the Harris poll was announced, we went on record saying our commentators wouldn't participate for journalistic reasons," ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said Thursday. "That decision is consistent given our decision to pull out of the coaches' poll."

ESPN said it removed its name from the USA Today coaches' poll earlier this year because all ballots are not being made public. The coaches agreed this season to release only their final ballots for the first time.

The Harris poll is being used by the BCS to replace The Associated Press media poll after the AP asked college football officials to stop using the Top 25 in their formula for picking teams to play in the four major bowls.

Nancy Wong, a spokeswoman for Harris Interactive Inc., said Congemi has confirmed his withdrawal, but Holtz and DiNardo had not yet informed Harris that they will not be participating.

The 11 Division I-A conferences and Notre Dame provided Harris with a pool of about 300 possible poll voters. The panel was randomly selected with the only consideration being equal representation for all conferences.

Wong said Harris will randomly select replacements for Harris and Rash out of the remaining pool of voters, and is prepared to do the same for Holtz and DiNardo when their withdrawals are confirmed.

There were no women among the 114 original voters. Wong said there are female candidates in the voter pool, so the possibility exists that a woman could be selected as a replacement. But no special accommodation will be made to put a woman on the panel, she said.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2142712