Integrity and preseason football polls are not statements that are usually associated together. Well, I suppose that could be simplified to integrity and football polls as not commonly associated words. Especially not the USA Today Preseason Coaches' Poll. Coaches will happily puff a team in their ballot the week before facing them, push teams from their conference at the end of the year. All sorts of biases come into play. But I digress.When the preseason poll came out, I simply assumed that Duke didn't receive a vote simply because South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier was not a voter in the coaches' poll this season. Turns out out he was. So why didn't he list Duke at #25 on his ballot out of loyalty and tradition to the first program to give him a shot at coaching in 1-A, as he always does? Just because he was asked (hat tip to EDSBS).
The University of South Carolina head coach said Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, asked him not to put Duke in the poll.That's all it took? Just asking him nicely? Has Spurrier mellowed at this point or is it simply that in all these years, it never dawned on anyone else in the AFCA to just ask Spurrier not to do it?
"He just said I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't vote for Duke to keep the integrity of the poll alive," Spurrier said. "So I went with him."
Now if someone could just explain how teams like Virginia, Oklahoma State, Arizona and Tulsa got votes I'd appreciate it.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Yeah, I can't imagine why a 10-win team from last season that has 9 starters returning from the #1 offense in the country would ever receive votes. Don't lump Tulsa in with Virginia, osu, and Arizona.
hey steve spurrier my name is dre howard i attend easley high school in easley south carolina the reason why i am emailing you is because i am looking forward to playing for you so that you can teach me so many thing thats why im trying my best on the field on the track and on the basketball court and in the books because i know as an african american we have to excced the barrier to be succesful in life and i just want the oppertunity to play for you because my great grandmother told me before she died she had said' dre i want you to be an succesful person" and i am not going to let her down well i got to go ill talk later dre