Undefeated Hawaii, ranked 10th in both the AP and Coaches polls, received a vote for 1st place in both regular season ending polls. What are these two voters thinking? Surely no casual fan would argue that the Hawaii Warriors are the best college football team in the country, much less a 'qualified' voter. I mean, I can't believe that it is really possible. Can you imagine someone seriously contending that Hawaii could defeat any of LSU, Ohio State, Virginia Tech, Southern Cal, Georgia and Missouri? No? Well, 2 people did.
Not as good as Hawaii.You probably won't find these two voters arguing for Hawaii's undoubted supremacy. Likely the voters feel that Hawaii 'deserves' to be ranked #1. Afterall they are undefeated. You know the kind of person who would make this argument. The feel good guy. You know the feel good guy. He loves Boise State, the Big East, sportsmanship and trying hard. He values what would make a nice story or make a little guy feel good. He hasn't participated in sports since being cut from the C team when he was in 9th grade. Now he argues ridiculous positions of debatable importance, screams his lungs out for the winners at the special olympics (and they're all winners), and votes in the Top 25 poll ... for Hawaii.
FGG, you do understand a ranking, right? Best at top, the next best and so on and so forth on down? No? You only care that a team is undefeated? You don't care that Hawaii's SOS is 118? Do you know who has a harder schedule than Hawaii? Do you? EVERYBODY, (except Memphis).
Everybody in D-1 played a harder schedule than Hawaii. But you don't care FGG; you're happy that a small team is undefeated. You know who else is undefeated? Grand Valley State and Mount Union, thats who. Where are they in your ranking?
Also undefeatedWhat? What's that? Going undefeated in I-AA or D-III is not the same as D-1? Well, going undefeated in the WAC isn't as good as 2 losses in the Pac-10 or SEC. Concede that Mount Union and Grand Valley State belong on your ballot or acknowledge you can't look at a record without considering the schedule.
If the General had any real power, you'd be voting in the women's basketball top 25 poll so you could vote for all your happy stories and give out sportsmanship awards. But since I don't I'll just have to wait for Georgia to prove that a 2 loss SEC team is superior to your number 1.
Edit: The offending Coaches poll voter is Hal Mumme, coach of New Mexico State. Here is the ballot matrix. Mumme also had Georgia ranked #9 in his poll. Given his ballot, look for Mumme to take Hawaii and the money line and retire a wealthy man. Anyone with more time can sort through the AP voters that release their ballots, here.
3 comments:
The teams most abused by the BCS system this season were Arizona State and Missouri , but owing to all the entanglements in the system, neither comes as a great shock.
Both schools finished ahead of Illinois and Kansas in every poll, but the Rose Bowl wanted to secure its Pac Ten-Big Ten matchup with Illinois (playing USC) the Rose Bowl. The Orange Bowl went with Kansas against Virginia Tech, even though Kansas lost to Missouri. The Jayhawks ranked below Missouri in both human polls and four of the six computers. The computers also liked Arizona State, but with Hawaii an automatic BCS bowl qualifier after its win Saturday night over Washington, ASU was snubbed for the Illini.
come on hawaii, I don't see UGa standing a chance against that passing game. Hawaii will beat down the dawg's secondary.
Hawaii deserves to be number 1 because they beat everyone they played, and more importantly, they TRIED to play a tougher schedule.
(Unlike, say Kansas, who purposely scheduled the lamest non-conference schedule they could manage, just to ensure they would be bowl-eligible).
Hawaii tried to play Michigan State, Michigan, and USC and couldn't schedule any of them. (To be fair to USC, it was Idaho that stopped that game).
Hawaii won some close games to be sure, but isn't that what winners do? They play through injury, they come from behind, and they win. USC barely hung on against Fresno St. a few years ago, and they were still ranked number 1.
Teams from the BCS conferences refuse to play anyone good from the non-BCS conferences, and then justify their lack of inclusion in the "BCS National Championship Game" by citing their weak schedules. It's crap.
Hawaii deserves to play for the National Championship more than LSU and Ohio State do.
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