USA Today Coaches Poll: Which Coaches Vote?

After the release of the Preseason Top 25 by USA Today, or as they like to call it “The Coach’s Poll” I started to wonder how much bias comes into play. Not only in terms of which coaches get to participate, but how many representatives from each conference they allow to vote.
Here is the Preseason Top 25:


1. Georgia (22) 0-0 1,438
2. USC (14) 0-0 1,430
3. Ohio State (14) 0-0 1,392
4. Oklahoma (3) 0-0 1,329
5. Florida (5) 0-0 1,293
6. LSU (3) 0-0 1,163
7. Missouri 0-0 1,143
8. West Virginia 0-0 1,008
9. Clemson 0-0 999
10. Texas 0-0 979
11. Auburn 0-0 888
12. Wisconsin 0-0 747
13. Kansas 0-0 714
14. Texas Tech 0-0 644
15. Virginia Tech 0-0 568
16. Arizona State 0-0 560
17. Brigham Young 0-0 547
18. Tennessee 0-0 506
19. Illinois 0-0 422
20. Oregon 0-0 399
21. South Florida 0-0 350
22. Penn State 0-0 313
23. Wake Forest 0-0 203
24. Michigan 0-0 112
25. Fresno State 0-0 91


Here is the break down of the number of coaches voting from each of the BCS conferences:
7 ACC 5 PAC-10
7 BIG TEN 8 BIG 12
5 SEC 5 C-USA
3 SUN BELT 7 MAC
6 WAC 2 MOUNTAIN WEST
1 INDEPENDENT 4 BIG EAST

Here is the list of coaches that will be participating:


1. Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech
2. Mike Bellotti, Oregon
3. Bret Bielema, Wisconsin
4. Bobby Bowden, Florida State
5. Tommy Bowden, Clemson
6. Art Briles, Baylor
7. Mack Brown, Texas
8. Neil Callaway, Alabama-Birmingham
9. Gene Chizik, Iowa State
10. Mario Cristobal, Florida International
11. Sylvester Croom, Mississippi State
12. Mark Dantonio, Michigan State
13. Butch Davis, North Carolina
14. Todd Dodge, North Texas
15. Randy Edsall, Connecticut
16. Phillip Fulmer, Tennessee
17. Jeff Genyk, Eastern Michigan
18. Turner Gill, Buffalo
19. Joe Glenn, Wyoming
20. Todd Graham, Tulsa
21. Jim Grobe, Wake Forest
22. Dan Hawkins, Colorado
23. Pat Hill, Fresno State
24. Butch Jones, Central Michigan
25. Steve Kragthorpe, Louisville
26. Mike Leach, Texas Tech
27. Jim Leavitt, South Florida
28. Rocky Long, New Mexico
29. Bill Lynch, Indiana
30. Doug Martin, Kent State
31. Urban Meyer, Florida
32. Les Miles, LSU
33. Shane Montgomery, Miami (Ohio)
34. Hal Mumme, New Mexico State
35. Rick Neuheisel, UCLA
36. Tom O'Brien, North Carolina State
37. George O'Leary, Central Florida
38. Gary Patterson, TCU
39. Bo Pelini, Nebraska
40. Chris Petersen, Boise State
41. Gary Pinkel, Missouri
42. Mike Price, Texas-El Paso
43. Mark Richt, Georgia
44. Mike Riley, Oregon State
45. Rich Rodriguez, Michigan
46. Greg Schiano, Rutgers
47. Howard Schnellenberger, Florida Atlantic
48. Mark Snyder, Marshall
49. Frank Solich, Ohio
50. Steve Spurrier, South Carolina
51. Rick Stockstill, Middle Tennessee
52. Jeff Tedford, California
53. Joe Tiller, Purdue
54. Bob Toledo, Tulane
55. Dick Tomey, San Jose State
56. Jim Tressel, Ohio State
57. Tommy Tuberville, Auburn
58. Charlie Weis, Notre Dame
59. Kyle Whittingham, Utah
60. Tyrone Willingham, Washington
61. Ron Zook, Illinois.


I have a number of observations and frustrations about this system, and I will be going over them in future articles because I feel otherwise this will turn into a long winded unorganized rant….until then….

4Real Out….