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New faces highlight list of Harris Poll voters
By, David Fox
Among the six computer rankings, the dozens of coaches who vote in the USA Today top 25 and the more than 100 voters in the Harris poll, the components used in the BCS standings have one more voice than a year ago.
The Harris poll added one voter and now has 115, with the additional voter to account for BYU's newly independent status.
Former Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr is one of the new Harris Poll voters for this season.
Harris Interactive randomly selects 10 voters from a pool of candidates presented by each of the 11 FBS conferences, which comes to 110 voters. From 2006-08, the poll had one additional voter for each of the four independents. In 2009-10, when Army, Navy and Notre Dame were the only independents, the poll still had four "independent" votes.
"Last year, there were still four for the [three] independents," said Eric Stone, a senior researcher for Harris Interactive. "It's not necessarily a one-to-one relationship."
Obviously, the presence of one additional voter isn't likely to have great impact on a poll of 115 members. Moreover, a changing panel isn't unique in the BCS. Since 2005, the coaches' poll has had as many as 63 voters (in 2006) and as few as 59 (each of the past three seasons).
The Harris discrepancy, first noted by PollSpeak.com, a blog that examines the various polls in college football, appears to stem from Western Kentucky moving from independent status to the Sun Belt Conference in 2009. The Harris poll had 114 voters in 2009-10, but a one-to-one ratio for independents in those seasons would have yielded 113 voters.
That said, the voters are not intended to carry their affiliations with the conferences (or independents) that nominated them into the voting process. Voters are not formally told which conferences nominated them to the panel.
"This is important to us: Once they become panelists, they don't have any conference affiliation," BCS coordinator Bill Hancock told Rivals.com in 2008. "They're nominated by conference so we have equal geographic representation."
The Harris poll replaced The Associated Press poll in the BCS formula in 2005, when the AP chose to have its poll removed from consideration.
The switch to the Harris poll has not had any real impact on the teams selected for the BCS championship game. In six seasons, the top four teams in the Harris poll have been identical to the top four teams in the AP's final regular-season poll. And in 2005, '08 and '10, each of the top 10 teams in the Harris and the AP were identical.
That trend has not ended this season. The AP and Harris top 10s were identical last week, and in the first Harris poll, on Oct. 9, the top nine teams in both polls matched exactly.
This season, though, the Harris voters and the coaches don't agree. The top three in both Harris polls has been LSU, followed by Alabama and Oklahoma. The coaches' poll has had Oklahoma No. 1 in each of the past two weeks, followed by LSU and Alabama.
As with the coaches' poll, the Harris does not release individual ballots on a weekly basis, though both polls release individual ballots for the final regular-season poll in December.
Unlike the coaches' poll, figuring out the exact makeup of the Harris poll requires doing some legwork. Since its inception, Harris poll voters have been identified only by name. Harris does not reveal the voters' connection to college sports or the conference that nominated them in the first place.
But as Rivals.com has done in each of the past four seasons, we have identified the voters; this season's group has 20 new voters, including former Michigan coach Lloyd Carr and former Clemson coach Tommy Bowden. Thirty Harris voters have been on the panel since its inception in 2005.
The makeup remains similar: The panel includes former coaches, players and administrators and current and former members of college football media. Here's the list:
New voters in bold. *
By, David Fox
Among the six computer rankings, the dozens of coaches who vote in the USA Today top 25 and the more than 100 voters in the Harris poll, the components used in the BCS standings have one more voice than a year ago.
The Harris poll added one voter and now has 115, with the additional voter to account for BYU's newly independent status.
Former Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr is one of the new Harris Poll voters for this season.
Harris Interactive randomly selects 10 voters from a pool of candidates presented by each of the 11 FBS conferences, which comes to 110 voters. From 2006-08, the poll had one additional voter for each of the four independents. In 2009-10, when Army, Navy and Notre Dame were the only independents, the poll still had four "independent" votes.
"Last year, there were still four for the [three] independents," said Eric Stone, a senior researcher for Harris Interactive. "It's not necessarily a one-to-one relationship."
Obviously, the presence of one additional voter isn't likely to have great impact on a poll of 115 members. Moreover, a changing panel isn't unique in the BCS. Since 2005, the coaches' poll has had as many as 63 voters (in 2006) and as few as 59 (each of the past three seasons).
The Harris discrepancy, first noted by PollSpeak.com, a blog that examines the various polls in college football, appears to stem from Western Kentucky moving from independent status to the Sun Belt Conference in 2009. The Harris poll had 114 voters in 2009-10, but a one-to-one ratio for independents in those seasons would have yielded 113 voters.
That said, the voters are not intended to carry their affiliations with the conferences (or independents) that nominated them into the voting process. Voters are not formally told which conferences nominated them to the panel.
"This is important to us: Once they become panelists, they don't have any conference affiliation," BCS coordinator Bill Hancock told Rivals.com in 2008. "They're nominated by conference so we have equal geographic representation."
The Harris poll replaced The Associated Press poll in the BCS formula in 2005, when the AP chose to have its poll removed from consideration.
The switch to the Harris poll has not had any real impact on the teams selected for the BCS championship game. In six seasons, the top four teams in the Harris poll have been identical to the top four teams in the AP's final regular-season poll. And in 2005, '08 and '10, each of the top 10 teams in the Harris and the AP were identical.
That trend has not ended this season. The AP and Harris top 10s were identical last week, and in the first Harris poll, on Oct. 9, the top nine teams in both polls matched exactly.
This season, though, the Harris voters and the coaches don't agree. The top three in both Harris polls has been LSU, followed by Alabama and Oklahoma. The coaches' poll has had Oklahoma No. 1 in each of the past two weeks, followed by LSU and Alabama.
As with the coaches' poll, the Harris does not release individual ballots on a weekly basis, though both polls release individual ballots for the final regular-season poll in December.
Unlike the coaches' poll, figuring out the exact makeup of the Harris poll requires doing some legwork. Since its inception, Harris poll voters have been identified only by name. Harris does not reveal the voters' connection to college sports or the conference that nominated them in the first place.
But as Rivals.com has done in each of the past four seasons, we have identified the voters; this season's group has 20 new voters, including former Michigan coach Lloyd Carr and former Clemson coach Tommy Bowden. Thirty Harris voters have been on the panel since its inception in 2005.
The makeup remains similar: The panel includes former coaches, players and administrators and current and former members of college football media. Here's the list:
New voters in bold. *
