Paul Roach, the venerable former Wyoming football coach and athletic director, listened to a list of some of the 114 voters in a new poll that has tweaked the embattled Bowl Championship Series rankings formula.
Eddie Crowder, former Colorado football coach and AD. George Perles, former Michigan State coach. Peter Dalis, retired UCLA AD. Jim Sweeney, retired coach at Fresno State.
Summed up Roach, 77: “They’ve all got some time.”
That is one plus of the Harris Poll, which makes its debut today as the new third element in the BCS rankings. It replaces The Associated Press media poll after AP decided last year to pull from the BCS formula over conflict-of-interest issues.
The Harris Poll joins the USA Today coaches poll and computer ratings to form the BCS rankings, which determine the top two teams for the national title game. The first BCS rankings come out Oct. 17.
The Harris panel has no issues with conflict of interest. And with so much time on their retired hands, they’re putting it to good use.
“Once I was invited, there was a sense of responsibility to be conscientious about it,” said Crowder, Colorado’s coach from 1963-73 and AD from 1965-84. “I bought all the preseason magazines and boned up on it pretty extensively. And I’d say I’ve spent Saturday evening and Sunday for at least four hours going through the results of the games.”
So does Roach. At the beginning of the year, he did his own top 25, and as September rolled on, he has studied the weekly Sagarin ratings.
“I certainly have more time than coaches involved in the coaches poll,” said Roach, Wyoming’s coach from 1987-90 and AD from 1987-96. “They usually have someone on their staff helping them.”
Harris sought voters from coaching, administration and media, and it has a nice mix. Besides the above, voters include ex-players Terry Bradshaw, Rocket Ismail and Boomer Esiason, ex-administrators in Roy Kramer (Southeastern Conference commissioner), Dick Schultz (NCAA executive director) and David Housel (Auburn AD), and ex-coaches in Earle Bruce (CSU, Ohio State), John Mackovic (Texas, Arizona) and Spike Dykes (Texas Tech).
Not all of the voters are retired, however. There is a sprinkling of current media members whose organizations don’t find it a conflict of interest. Blair Kerkhoff, the college football writer for The Kansas City Star, won’t let his newspaper duties get in the way of participation.
“I’m taking it as seriously as any poll I’ve taken part of,” he said. “When I was doing the AP and I-AA and high school polls, I definitely took it seriously.”
Kerkhoff has a set routine during the week. Every day he studies 10 to 15 college football websites, keeps a notebook on ranked and contending teams and finds a TV after games to follow scores and watch replays.
The panel went through a trial run Sunday. While they weren’t told the results, they all have their own independent take on the ratings. Crowder said it’s hard to evaluate Louisiana State, No. 3 in the AP poll, “because they haven’t proved anything yet.” He’s more impressed with Virginia Tech, AP’s No. 4.
Roach, meanwhile, had Oklahoma ranked all the way down at 20th in his preseason poll. Since then, Oklahoma has gone from No. 9 in preseason to off the AP chart with two losses.
People may try to influence voters. Former Tulsa and Seattle Seahawks star Steve Largent, now a U.S. representative from Oklahoma, said he has received 20 calls from people trying to influence his first vote, many from Oklahoma fans.
“But not since the season started,” Largent said. “That’s for sure.”
John Henderson can be reached at 303-820-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
