More BCS poll problems

[Eagle1855]

Harris poll suffers embarrassing Rash

Son-in-law of Troy football coach quits after identity discovered.

By Randy Riggs

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Thursday, August 25, 2005

The newest component in the Bowl Championship Series rankings had to deal with a Rash on Wednesday.

That would be Jason Rash. He's the president of a masonry company in Atlanta who for about 48 hours was one of the 114 voters in the Harris Interactive Poll that will count a third of the 2005 BCS formula.

Rash's qualifications? He's the son-in-law of Troy football Coach Larry Blakeney, who nominated him for the poll.

"I might be wrong to do what I did," Blakeney told CBS SportsLine.com. "(But) I did it because I knew he'd be credible and accountable."

Although it had nothing to do with Harris' random selection of voters nominated by the 11 conferences and Notre Dame, the BCS's credibility took a hit Wednesday when Rash was one of four voters who will not serve.

Rash quit. "Obviously, it was causing more of a stir than it was worth," he told SportsLine.com. Also, ESPN informed both the BCS and Harris that former coaches Lou Holtz and Gerry DiNardo will be prohibited from voting, as will former Pittsburgh quarterback John Congemi, because they all do college football announcing for the cable network, which prohibits its on-air personalities from voting in the BCS-affiliated polls.

"Like in any process, there's a learning curve," BCS spokesman Bob Burda said Wednesday night. "This just reaffirms that due diligence should be done in putting forth nominees to participate."

Burda said the four vacancies will be filled randomly by Harris from a list of nominees supplied by the leagues that submitted the names. Rash was nominated through the Sun Belt Conference. Burda said he believes Congemi's name was submitted by the Big East since he played at league school Pittsburgh and does color announcing on Big East games for ESPN regional outlets. Burda was uncertain which conferences nominated Holtz and DiNardo.

The Harris Poll also came under fire Wednesday from women sportswriters since none were picked for any of the 23 media slots among the 114-member electorate. By comparison, the Associated Press has three women among the 67 voters in its football poll. The AP told the BCS after last season that it would no longer be part of its ranking formula.

The lack of women in the Harris Poll "is totally unacceptable," Joanne Gerstner, president of the Association for Women in Sports Media, told the Boston Globe.

"I'm not happy," added Gerstner, who works for the Detroit News. "The same result keeps happening with different processes. Maybe the process is flawed. This is not the good old days."

And Wednesday didn't qualify as a good day for the BCS. Burda, though, didn't believe the Harris Poll's selection procedure was an indirect black eye — or even a Rash — for the BCS.

"I think the fact that the situation was addressed and ultimately corrected will prove to be beneficial in the long run," he said.

[GreenBat]

The lack of women in the Harris Poll "is totally unacceptable," Joanne Gerstner, president of the Association for Women in Sports Media, told the Boston Globe.

Women don't know about college football?

Just Kidding!!!!!