Welcome to a revealing edition of the Friday Feedback. First off, the coaches’ poll came out today and it’s maybe the one time that poll deserves legitimate attention. The coaches rarely vote, if at all, but I’ve always heard they make a collective attempt to feign interest in the first one. Probably to get their team up somewhere noticeable.
There really weren’t any surprises — apart from Spurrier not giving Duke a vote — and the top 10, and certainly the top five, is about what you may have expected. So, then again, does it really mean anything this time?
If you’re the Mountain West — TCU No. 17, Utah No. 18, BYU No. 24 — you better believe it does. If you’re the Big East — Cincinnati No. 29, Pitt No. 3o, WVU No. 31, Rutgers No. 32 — it matters not. Irregardless, it’s a tad askew so early in the year.
“That’s a piece of credibility I think we lose,” says the Big 12’s Dan Beebe, who oversees the Bowl Championship Series with 10 other major-conference commissioners and Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick. “Because I don’t think you can know now — no matter how much you know about who’s coming back and how teams looked at the end of last year, any of that stuff — how strong those teams are until you see them play. Or at least see the results of them playing.”
Secondly, the WVU Sports Blog is now on Facebook. What’s this mean? Difficult to say, aside from I’m way behind the wave here. It’s not going to be for everyone, I know. For example, you have to have an account to follow. It’s also something of an imposition to ask you to follow that and this. But it probably won’t be exclusively WVU and, fear not, you won’t find anything relevant to WVU sports there that you won’t find here.
However, it occurs to me slightly more people are on Facebook than this old blog. So, in essence, it’s another avenue for access and publicity for the blog, but also another way to way to provide immediate information and amusement. I hope.
Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, you can have it your way.
Birch said:
So we’re going to strong arm the Gator Bowl now? That plan should work brilliantly. So basically that will leave us with: Toronto and the cold, Charlotte and its 11 AM kickoff, or El Paso and the drug cartels. Bowl Mania! Catch It!
I’m very curious to see how far the Big East will take this tactic. They always make the right decisions and use the right approach, but this one just seems potentially dangerous. It’s not new, either, which means it hasn’t produced anything yet. Plus, the alternatives in the Big East’s pocket aren’t great and with the MWC teams and a few other mid-majors making a push, there is greater competition for the spots and a greater appeal for old friends to look for new faces. It’s risky, for sure, but I can’t believe it’s being done haphazardly.
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