JIM LEAVITT'S BALLOT FEARS NOT EVEN LOGIC

echo…echo…echo…

I’m sure Leavitt’s choice for #1 has nothing to do with the fact that him and Stoops are very good friends and coached together at Kansas State in the early to mid-90’s. Nope, nothing whatsoever…

Sure this makes no sense whatsoever but neither does ANY poll. The whole idea of using surveys to determine sporting events is utterly ridiculous. Coaches should all put their team # 1 and then randomly assign the rest of the teams; journalists should refuse to participate or do the same. Everyone complains about the system — so ignore it. Maybe it’ll help force their hand into a playoff if nobody is playing their silly little popularity ranking contest.

Leavitt’s meaningless list is no more ridiculous than any other meaningless list of teams imagined before a single ball has been snapped. The whole thing is nuts and the least sporting thing in all of sports.

Oklahoma over Florida is illogical? Incomprehensible? Because its inconceivable that they have the type of program that just plugs in new OL and won’t miss a beat? That’s it? I think I’d have left that part out- the Big East votes prove the point, but singling out the OU vote is lame.

Call me an SEC homer—go ahead, get it over with.

Anyone not voting Florida number one at this point is an idiot, a meth addict, Hugo Chavez or all three.

Behold the glory of the the BCS “system.”

It’s a preseason poll. USF returns a senior QB who will have every Big East record imaginable after one week in the season. Their DLine and LB corp are stacked with All American George Selvie pushing the ends. Their running backs and wide receivers are well tested. If their OLine gels early, USF will be sitting a lot higher than 18. With respect to UF being #2… Well… they’re instate… I wouldn’t vote them #1 either. Screw’em!

And beef, seriously—try just a tincture of objectivity. January wasn’t that long ago and OU’s previous OL sure wasn’t the difference. ALL those Florida defensive guys are back by the way.

Next.

The polls themselves aren’t the problem – using them to determine the two teams that make the title game is the problem. Especially when the coaches get a vote.

@ 6, to be fair, Groethe won’t own every Big East record outright. He’ll be tied with many starting Qb’s for fewest conference championships.

Beef, I understand your point, and I don’t think Oklahoma’s mention has anything to do with Oklahoma as a program or as a team, since it’s probably one of the 5 or so programs in the country that can lose such a large piece of such an important personnel unit and still content for a shot at the title. Who knows, maybe Leavitt will be looked back up as prescient for being one of the few to correctly predict the ultimate winner.

That being said, think about that particular vote in another context: In the last college footballs game of the year that anyone paid attention to, Florida beat Oklahoma on a neutral field. Take that with the fact that all other polls had voters either virtually unanimously voting Florida as #1 or, if not Florida, then Texas, and then I think it becomes pretty fair to point out the outlier-quality vote as what it was: an outlier-quality vote.

Since when was the AP poll the pillar of unbiased and accurate rankings? When it comes to the Big East not receiving any pre-season rankings, that’s just ridiculous. What occurs on the field and what occurs in these pre-season polls are mutually exclusive and defy any logic whatsoever. Take Cincinnati’s situation or West Virginia’s and apply it to some of these other teams that didn’t make the final poll last year that are now suddenly in the top-25 and you have hypocrisy at its finest. And where have BYU and TCU proved their mettle over the Big East teams that were in the polls last year? They have the ultimate deal: play a few decent teams (Utah, TCU/BYU, Oregon), get a couple wins, clean up in the rest of your non-challenging conference and bam… top 15. The same could be said for the Penn States, Ball States and Ohio States and Hawaii’s of this world who have shown that it doesn’t matter who you play – just win and you’ll be hyped to hell despite not being tested or failing those tests. Saragin and other computer-based rankings are more telling than human polls.

I think the fact that any poll takes place before week 4 or 5 is ridiculous in its own right. There hasn’t been a single game, so there is really no telling who will be good. Anybody thinking Florida HAS to be number 1 is illogical to begin with because if that was the case, what’s the point of playing any games or having the poll? That is like saying Florida is already national champs. And Counter Trap…you my friend are the idiot, meth addict, and hugo chavez just for saying that…get a life.

This commentary is just as biased and hocus pocus as the rest of the BCS system. Your opinion is that “Jim Leavitt is barking madness in a visor and Dockers.” So… What you have to say about him or his picks is tainted by your obvious dislike or distrust of him.

A poll is just an opinion. That’s why the system is stupid. And it IS the “most unsporting thing in sports.” The BCS system is a beauty contest and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Why do you pretend that it has legitimacy? Why do you assume that Leavitt is biased but others are not? He’s obviously not ashamed, or he wouldn’t have been the second coach to release his ballot. In fact, he appears proud of what he thinks.

As ridiculous as it may seem to you, Florida has done just as much this season as everyone else. That is NOTHING. Sure, there are reasons to believe that they will be the best team. But, by what rationale can you determine that they ARE the best team? As far as Stoops and Leavitt being friends, you assume this must be friendly bias. Has it occurred to you that Leavitt being friends with Stoops might give him insight that other coaches and media writers don’t have?

As far as USF being ranked at 18, what if Leavitt is wrong? What if they win a national championship this year? Will you write equally ignorant pieces discrediting each of the voters who got their ballots wrong? Ho, ho, ho, you laugh. That’s just ridiculous. USF stinks. They could never win a championship. The truth is that polls seldom get the answers right. All they do is demonstrate how weak the BCS system is and how weak minded voters and the media are. The idea that consensus opinion equals reality is beyond absurd.

All the votes in all the polls should be published each time a BCS poll takes place. That way when every single one of them GUESSES wrong, we could all write childish stories about how stupid and biased they must be to guess wrong. We could smear all of their characters together in one self serving cesspool of stupidity. Opinions may vary. Most are wrong.

Alternate LOLCoaches caption:

“One Coach, Invisible Cup”

Tyler—we are in this world, not in the one where the sky is tartan plaid, Jonathan Crompton looks off the safety and no one votes until Thanksgiving.

Since pollsters vote now, Florida is the only logical choice in this world based on current information.

Prove me wrong.

Oregon’s spread offense shouldn’t have taken it to USF so hard two years ago with their fifth string QB (at the time).

That sort of thing gets you a lifetime ban from his ballot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykhQIzChUR4&feature=fvsr

I don’t think Orson is criticizing Levitt as crazy or nutty for his choices on the ballot. Orson has made it abundantly clear that he thinks Levitt is a loon all the time. Marked difference.

Being a Gator alum that currently lives in Tampa, I feel entitled to let everyone know one thing:

USF fans, players, and coaches know absolutely nothing about college football. Thanks for trying, though.

I got a giggle when I tried to find the most ridiculous major UF offers (since there’s no way someone who actualy graduated from a good school like UF would say something as ridiculous as #18). Turns out they have an undergrad program in Golf and Sports Turf Management. Seriously.