How the Selections Committee View the Any Given Saturday Poll

Hi guys,

I was under the impression that the Any Given Saturday poll has at least some weight when the Playoffs Selections Committee decides who gets the at-large berths. However, to the best of my limited knowledge, I can’t see where that is true.

According to this link:

http://www.championshipsubdivisionne...le-2009?blog=5

The NCAA Division I Football Championship Committee for the first time named outside tools as a selection criteria in 2008 using the GPI, the Sports Network Poll, and the FCS Coaches Poll. All three are used only for evaluating the champion of a conference that does not receive automatic qualification into the championship on an at-large basis. In addition to other criteria, the specified conference champion must average in the top 16 in each ranking to be considered.

According to this link:

http://www.championshipsubdivisionne...w-and-i?blog=5

Question #2: I wanted to make sure that what they did each week was to come up with their own national ranking and here was his reply; “The national committee will take the regional advisory lists from their area and each national committee member kind of puts them together in a national ranking and we discuss that in the Tuesday call.” This thereby confirms that they do have their own “secret” ranking if you will, which is great news considering the insanity of the current polls, but more about that later.

Question #9: I asked him if he would consider the rankings the committee does to be significantly different then the current rankings that are out. He replied with; “I think our ranking at times vary from some of the polls that are out there just like some of the polls will vary from each other depending on how they are done. Some polls are weighted to just won lost records and don’t have the ability to look at strength of schedule [Really? Imagine that!] Others [people who vote] are on regional committees and some of the people who are voting may not have a good handle on what is going on in the other regions of the country because of the lack of inter-conference play for the most part. That is why we think the way we do it, having input from people from various regions who get to see some of those teams play is the best way for us to go.”

According to the 2009 handbook:

http://web1.ncaa.org/web_files/champ...A_Football.pdf

6. For those conferences that qualify for automatic qualification but do not receive it, a guaranteed at-large position shall be awarded in any year in which its conference champion team meets all of the following conditions:

c. Team finishes the season ranked 16 or higher in an average of the last regular-season media, coaches and/or computer polls (which will be determined by the committee on an annual basis). For 2009, the media poll will be the Sports Network Poll, the coaches poll will be the FCS Coaches poll and the computer poll will be a variation of the Gridiron Power Index – using only the following computer rankings: The Massey Ratings, Wolfe Rankings, Ashburn Rankings, Self Rankings and the Laz Index.

So here are my comments:

1. The Any Given Saturday poll seems to have no weight whatsoever.
2. The national committee compiles their own national rankings based on their own regional lists.
3. I don’t understand the statement “conferences that qualify for automatic qualification but do not receive it.” I was under the impression that if you’re in a conference with an automatic qualifier, the conference automatically receives it.
4. The Wolfe Rankings are not used in the publicized Gridiron Power Index but is used in the variation of the Gridiron Power Index to determine guaranteed at-large positions in conferences that qualify for automatic qualification.

What’s your perspective?