Columnist Ron Kantowski: New college football poll has same old problem

Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2005 | 9:39 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

I see where Louisville got one No. 1 vote in the Associated Press preseason college football poll, which should make Tom Jackson, Mark Clayton and the late John Unitas proud.

However, it does little for the credibility of preseason college football polls.

Nothing against Louisville, a heretofore consistently good mid-major program that should do even better, now that it is stepping down from Conference USA into the Big Least -- I mean, East. But how anybody could rank the Cardinals ahead of two-time defending national champion Southern Cal based on what is known so far is perhaps the best argument yet against using polls to decide national football championships.

Fortunately, the AP has decided to withdraw from its partnership with the Bowl Championship Series. The AP popularity contest -- er, poll -- and the one sponsored by/named for ESPN won't be considered for this year's BCS standings. It was their choice, as the AP and even ESPN, for once, took a look in the mirror and determined that their polls and the roles they play in who wins the championship -- and who takes home the most money in the process -- could be construed as a conflict of interest.

So at least the AP was not compelled to defend itself when one of its esteemed panelists -- er, sports writers -- had a brain cramp at the polling place. Although, to its credit, the news agency did ask Jim Giglio of the News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., if he had suffered any blows to the head on the way to the picture show in Mount Pilot.

Opinions, I suppose, are like obnoxious alumni -- everybody has a few. So while I don't begrudge guys like Giglio their opinion, I do begrudge, or at least question, the logic he used in forming it.

Giglio told the AP he voted Louisville No. 1 based on its schedule.

"Louisville was the only one that I came up with as going undefeated," he said.

And here I thought the idea behind the poll was to honor the best team, not the one with the easiest schedule.

Actually, the idea behind the poll when it was created by then AP sports editor Alan J. Gould in 1935 was simply to create interest in college football between games. Gould's so-called poll was nothing more than an informal list of what he believed were the nation's top 10 teams, based on his knowledge of them and the feedback he received from co-workers and friends.

Which made Gould's research far more extensive than that of most college coaches who vote in the ESPN poll.

The only thing crazier than ranking college football teams, which annually have more turnover in personnel than the nearest McDonald's, before they even play a game is that it also sets the table for the rest of the season.

It's difficult for a team ranked outside of the top 10 or 15 in August to position itself for a shot at the national championship in January. So at least I thought the new Harris Interactive College Football Poll, which will replace the AP one in determining which school gets its logo on a commemorative hard-bound issue of Sports Illustrated at season's end, was a step in the right direction. Its first poll won't be released until the teams have played four games.

But then on Monday I saw the list of voters who will comprise its panel.

Hopefully, one can only hope that guys like Pete Dawkins and Don Maynard and Craig Morton have kept abreast of the college game since the time they left it oh, some 45 or 50 years ago. And that others such as Gene Bartow, the former UAB and UCLA basketball coach, won't feel inclined to vote for Duke or DePaul.

But about all I'm going to say about Terry Bradshaw, who also will vote in the Harris poll, is that somebody had better introduce him to Jim Giglio before it's too late.