September 6, 2006
USA Today to Jim Tressel: Liar Liar Pants on Fire
Looks like the staff at the USA Today caught Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel in a bit of a fib.
Ohio State coach Jim Tressel told reporters at his weekly media luncheon he voted Saturday opponent Texas No. 1 in the USA TODAY Coaches' Poll. However, Tressel's official ballot on record at USA TODAY shows he did not vote for the Longhorns as No. 1.USA TODAY's policy is that when a vote is made public and the paper knows it to be inaccurate, then USA TODAY, in its oversight role as administrator of the poll, will set the record straight to protect the integrity of the poll, according to Jim Welch, deputy managing editor for sports. The newspaper's policy is to not reveal coaches' ballots, except in the final regular-season poll under an agreement with the American Football Coaches Association.
USA TODAY editors became aware of the quotes when a story appeared on Gannett News Service by The (Mansfield, Ohio) News Journal quoting Tressel at the luncheon saying he voted the Longhorns No. 1 because "I think they deserve that." A transcript on the Ohio State athletics website confirmed Tressel's words, including him saying, "I've got them ranked No. 1 on our ballot." Ohio State is No. 1 with 41 first-place votes, Texas No. 2 with 14.
Stan Jefferson, OSU director of player development, told The News Journal the Texas vote was a case of miscommunication between Tressel and him: "When it came time to vote on the preseason poll, we voted Texas No. 1 and us No. 3 after talking about it as a staff. When I called in his poll (Tuesday), he did not tell me to put Ohio State No. 1. I put that down because we were No. 1 in the preseason poll. ... I did not have time to get with him (Tuesday) before the press conference. It was an honest mistake on our part. It was not meant as a psychological ploy."
Looks like Jefferson was quick to fall on the Grenade for Tressel, but this shouldn't be shocking in the slightest. It's just a small peek behind the curtain at how voting is done across America every week.
I'd be willing to be the number of USA Today Voter/Coaches that actually cast the votes themselves could be counted on two hands.
Comments:
txMaize said:
posted on September 7, 2006 1:57 PM — 209.213.198.25 — link — abuse?
no doubt that very few coaches actually fill out their own ballots. then again, the rest of the coaches don't make false claims to the media to look good.
the point isn't twhether he filled out his ballot, or whether there was confusion between him and the AD. at the bottom line, he had no idea how the ballot was filled out, but was fine with claiming he did know how it was filled out. making the claim made him look good, so to hell with the truth, it's irrelevant to him.
BUCKEYE MARK said:
posted on September 8, 2006 2:25 PM — 65.24.61.71 — link — abuse?
Tomcat
it will be great hope a few fans won't ruin the experiance like we did last year
at least we are still better fans than Wisconsin
Go Bucks
Rankings don't matter for a nother 2 months
I'd vote Texas #1 until after Saturday
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FSU0897 said:
posted on September 6, 2006 11:33 PM — 12.227.149.133 — link — abuse?Ooops...