This evening, Andy Furman and Lincoln Kennedy were offering their take on the AP poll, and polls in general, in the context of Lane Kiffin’s vote getting outed in the coaches’ poll. Now, I have heard a lot of stupid shit on the radio in my life. Hell, I’ve heard Andy Furman say a lot of stupid shit on the radio.
I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a sequence as stupid and incomprehensible as this.
Before I start: Kennedy was mostly an innocent bystander in all of this, whose only purpose ended up being to get shouted down by an increasingly agitated and non-sensical Furman. I just wanna get that out, because while Kennedy’s often wrong about stuff, he’s at least conscientiously wrong. (By that, I suppose I mean “he’s usually wrong because he’s not seeing the forest for the trees, being a former player.”)
So, the conversation started innocuously enough, with Furman pointing out that USA Today had an obligation to report that Kiffen’s vote did not jibe with his public statements. Remember this, it will be important later. Then the pair started jawing about the integrity of the polls, pointing out the following important facts which I have been trying to get across to everyone for some time: coaches don’t fill out their polls, and even when they do, they only pay attention to one game a week; writers are busy doing their writing thing, and don’t get to see anything close to every game or even every relevant game; east-coast voters have no freakin’ idea what happens in west-coast night games. They didn’t touch on my pet bugaboo, which is that ESPN actually drives who they do vote for thanks to Rece Davis, Mark May, and Lou Holtz, but that’s okay. They got to the root of the problem.
Then it all went off the rails. Kennedy asked who should vote, and Furman then started losing his mind. His suggestion? Broadcasters. Not guys like Rece Davis, mind you; Furman was referring to the guys who do play-by-play and/or color for FBS school broadcasts. Yes, that’s right. The guy who just pointed out that coaches and writers don’t have time or access suggested that guys who have just as much spare time decidedly not on their hands should take up the mantle. He even brushed aside a hint from Kennedy that might have led to a suggestion that bloggers might be the answer by making it clear that he felt you need to be a professional with years of experience to be entrusted with such a momentous task.
And then, all of a sudden… the coaches’ poll has no integrity not for the reasons stated already here, but because USA Today ruined it forever by releasing Kiffin’s vote for USC. The coaches’ poll can’t be trusted now, and it’s all USA Today’s fault, and it needs to be taken away from them.
No, seriously. Out of nowhere, he started ranting about this… after starting the segment by pointing out that journalistic integrity required them to do it.
Andy Furman: gainfully employed. Me: not so much. What a world.
