The College Football Polls (A true story)

by John Fricke
Fox Sports Net

THE COACHES POLL 'BAD AND UGLY... WITHOUT MUCH GOOD'"

Ever asked the question "do the coaches really vote in the Coaches poll?" The Answer is.. yes, no and not really.

This was the question I put to a number of major college coaches who were voting in the UPI coaches poll in the mid-1980's. I was the college football host for CNN at the time and we decided to do a little inside legwork for a story on the polls. The responses were mixed.

Some coaches said that they did indeed vote every Sunday and did their level best to be fair and accurate. Many sought advice from people within their departments who might have seen other games (or at least video-clips). A smaller number said they did but weren't really sure once they got past the top 10 or 15 teams (imagine their horror when the polls expanded to 25.. more on that in a minute.)

Clemson head coach Danny Ford was another part of the story. Ford, who I will tell you is one interesting guy, told me point blank "No i don't really vote. I give the ballot to my SID (Sports Information Director) and tell him to fill it out and send it in." My follow question: "with your name on it?" His answer: "Oh hell yes, I have no idea of what those other teams are doing and I don't much care".

Before anyone indicts Danny, it is my belief that after doing this story that most coaches do not vote. That many will tell a flunkie of their own say.. their top 5 and tell them to fill in the rest. Bill Dooley at Wake Forest did his own poll but would ask me for some advice on other teams (Dooley was fair and he did his own work).

One SID told me off camera that his head coach told him to fill out the ballot (Like Ford at Clemson) but that he had to "get as many SEC teams ranked as possible.. especially the ones we beat". Even to the point of putting a bad team that this club beaten in at #25 to get them an "also receiving votes" point and somehow establish in the back of someone's mind that his team had clobbered someone worthy of mention in the national rankings.

In their defense many coaches who do vote do take the time and energy to fill the ballot and approximate who belongs where in the rankings. But most of these coaches still cheat towards the teams they they have/will play that season and their own conferences. This is especially true of second-tier conferences (think WAC) that desperately need a team to get attention in order to secure a borderline bowl-bid and increase the post-season revenue take of every school in the league.

This is the backdrop to which the coaches lost (and then regained) their poll.

The UPI poll died in the late 1980's. A victim to UPI's own economic struggles than nearly wiped the service off the face of the earth (it has still yet to recover) and the growing trend by media to talk to themselves and accept their version (the A-P poll) as the only one and to a growing interest from fans in other polls.

Ours was one of those polls. (continued on next page)