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Florida Atlantic coach Howard Schnellenberger voted USC 12th in this coaches' ballot. Kent State Doug Martin voted USC 10th. Florida State Bobby Bowden and Colorado coach Dan Hawkins voted the Trojans 9th.
Baylor coach Art Briles, Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville and UCLA job candidate Mike Leach voted USC eighth. Oregon coach Mike Bellotti and Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis voted USC seventh.
None of these seem all that unreasonable. Schnellenberger's is a little low but they still managed to finish 6th which means plenty of voters thought they were better than 12th. They also finished 9th in the BCS computer average, so maybe Bubba Bowden knows what he's doing.
The other side of the story is that many big names also voted us #3 or #4, even a few at #2. In the Harris Poll, which I think is the most accurate of all, as it uses a smaller pool of highly qualified retired coaches, players and administrators, voted us #5, which I think is the most accurate ranking for our season given the Stanford loss. USC does seem to have one of the widest variations in voter rankings, anywhere from #2 to #12. Beat the Illini! What the heck is an Illini?
Lots of crack smoking among coaches across the country.
Perhaps there's a reason they're coaching powerhouses like Florida Atlantic and Kent State.
And Butch Davis voted us #2!
Schnellenberger has the worst ballot by far. Kansas at #2? Thats almost as bad as your WVU and Texas love affiliation Scott!
Obviously the nation's coaches could not get that 41 point Stanford underdog out of their craw. It got so much press, that it might even hurt SC next year in pre-season polls.
DFWTrojan said: What the heck is an Illini?
The name "Fighting Illini" pre-dates the Chief Illiniwek symbol and was bestowed upon the team in honor of Illinoisans who fought in World War I.
Illini is pronounced "ih-LIE-nee," and Illinois is pronounced "ih-lih-NOY" (like the state, which is named after the tribe.) They are both European adaptations of the Illinois Indians' original word for themselves, Illiniwek (pronounced "ih-lih-new-eck,") which means "the best people."
The Illini were original inhabitants of modern-day Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and Iowa. The Illini tribe was nearly wiped out by war in the 1700's, and the survivors had to move to Kansas and Oklahoma. The Peoria Tribe of Oklahoma is made up of original Illinois Indians.
Since Charlie thinks there are six teams better than the SC team that beat him 38-0, I wonder what score he'd predict if he played the "better" teams.
Oklahoma: 47
Notre Dame: 0
LSU: 72
Notre Dame: 0
Ohio State: 84
Notre Dame: -14
Coaches have no business voting for National Champions (of course, looking at Scotty's ballot, neither does he). The NCAA needs to do what they did at every other level of football and in every other sport and institute a playoff system. The academic excuses hold absolutely no water and the financial reasons are bogus as well. You think the NFL doesn't make a boatload of money on their playoff system? There is money to be made and legitimate champions to be crowned. Get with the program NCAA and get a dogone playoff system now!
Sureshot, I agree with what you have to say. However, the NCAA does not have jurisdiction over the BCS bowl system or potential D-I playoffs. This is from Wikipedia:
The NCAA, the governing organization of all collegiate sports, has no official process for determining its FBS (Div. 1-A) champion. Instead, FBS champions are chosen by what the NCAA calls in its official list of champions "selecting organizations".
In 1997, pursuant to a legally-binding contract, all 119 FBS universities chose the BCS as its sanctioned selecting organization. The BCS: "...is managed by the commissioners of the 11 NCAA Division I-A conferences, the director of athletics at the University of Notre Dame, and representatives of the bowl organizations. "...is a five-game arrangement for post-season college football that is designed to match the two top-rated teams in a national championship game and to create exciting and competitive matchups between eight other highly regarded teams in four other games"....
The BCS format system is currently scheduled to end after the 2010 season. However, there has been one extension from the 2006 season for four years, so the system could be extended again.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowl_Championship_Series
While I agree that a playoff system is the only logical choice to determine a true national champion, it is very difficult to get the 11 conference commissioner, Notre Dame, the bowl games, and, I might add, the university presidents, all on the same page. Aplayoff model is already in place at the lower divisions of college football.
oops...commissioners
oops...A playoff model
Jeez, I'm slipping....