August 5, 2005

AP sends out poll voting suggestions

Did you ever wonder how the Associated Press prepares it's AP College Football poll voters? Here's an excerpt from the email distributed to AP poll voters:

Some voting guidelines:

* Base your vote on performance, not reputation or preseason speculation.

* Avoid regional bias, for or against. Your local team does not deserve any special handling when it comes to your ballot.

* Pay attention to head-to-head results and

* Don’t hesitate to make significant changes in your ballot from week to week. There’s no rule against jumping the 16th-ranked team over the eighth-ranked team, if No. 16 is coming off a big victory and No. 8 just lost 52-6 to a so-so team.

* Teams on NCAA probation ARE eligible for the AP poll.

Some ethics guidelines:

* Voters should have no professional or booster connection to the schools they cover. This could pose a conflict of interest.

* Voters cannot write for team media guides or even independent fan magazines associated with certain schools. This has the potential of compromising a reporter’s objectivity.

* Adhere to APME and APSE standards of conduct: We do not accept free tickets, deals, discounts or gifts, etc.

* Please be advised: "Homerism" will be challenged and could lead to dismissal from the poll board.

Just to demonstrate how insane the AP Poll is - how exactly do you "vote on performance" for a pre-season poll?

Note: The full email was forwarded to me by an newspaper writer who works with but is not himself an AP voter.