AP Voters Are A Joke

[WaynesAUworld 179]

On 12/1/2019 at 3:14 PM, ToraGirl said:

But they're OOOOOOUUUUUUTTTTT! That's the only important ranking to them. The college football world says thank you to Auburn...

Need to add the SNL buh bye one to this. 

[SumterAubie 3,031]

Hell, I like the polls. They add flavor to the season. We would not have this thread if the AP poll was ignored. Or did not resist.

[Mikey 16,566]

8 hours ago, Brad_ATX said:

Except the bowl committees don't use this poll or the coaches poll.  They use the CFP poll.  Why people get their panties in a wad over irrelevant polls is beyond me.

Because people who make bowl decisions read the polls. Polls other than the CFP poll may not matter as much, but they do help form opinions.

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

1 hour ago, Mikey said:

Because people who make bowl decisions read the polls. Polls other than the CFP poll may not matter as much, but they do help form opinions.

They literally don't. The bowls themselves don't really make the decisions anymore.  Has much more to do with the conferences making those calls based on contracts.  Take the SEC for example.  The bowl pecking order goes like this based on the record and conference standings:

1) Playoff

2) Sugar/NY6 Bowl

3) Citrus

4-8) Some arrangement of Outback, Gator, Belk, Texas, Music City, and Liberty.

9) Bham

10) Shreveport

Now, if more than one team is selected for New Year's Six Bowls by the CFP committee, then everyone else moves up a slot.  For example, this year there is a real chance that 4 SEC teams make NY6 bowls.  In that scenario, the 5th SEC team then goes to the Citrus.  Also, in that scenario, the CFP committee decides who gets into the NY6 Bowls based on their rankings, not the AP or Coaches.

The grouped up bowls (4-8 on the above list) all have the same weight according to the conference.  Each team eligible for those gives a couple of preferred slots and then the conference works with the bowls to make the best matchups and attendance.  If I'm not mistaken, last year we actually asked the conference to place us in the Music City if possible since we were in that group of bowls.  AU hadn't been there in a while and our fans would travel to Nashville.  Easy sell.

Thus even though you may think the Outback should go to the 4th team, if that same team was there the year before, they likely won't go back no matter the rankings.  The Big 10 has a similar policy of not repeating bowl landing spots too often for teams outside of the NY6.

It's why Penn State, if left out of the NY6, will probably be in the Outback instead of the Citrus since they went to Orlando just last year.  This year you won't see Texas A&M in Jacksonville because they were there last season.  Thus the many projections for them to go to either the Texas or Outback Bowls.

[Mikey 16,566]

Nice post, @Brad_ATX. I still think personal opinions, formed partly by the polls, can come in to play in many cases. Not the determining factor, but they do have some influence and that's human nature that cannot be avoided.

[auburn4ever 1,266]

It wouldn't be a joke if Auburn was #1 or #2 in the AP & other polls.

[keesler 5,924]

On 12/1/2019 at 3:49 PM, Gowebb11 said:

Winning 5 National Championships in 10 years earns you a lot of credit and special privileges. 

It damn well should, what other college football team has ever done it?

At the end of the day, what the hell does the AP poll contribute to the CFP Committee?  What do they contribute to anything other that some meaningless poll they put out ranking teams that there's not way they watch every week?