How I vote

There are plenty of things wrong with The Sports Network’s I-AA poll. Too many Sports Information Directors vote in it, so conflicts of interest abound. There aren’t enough games on television, so often you’re evaluating teams on record and reputation as much as anything. And, also, I’m not sure people take their voting responsibilities all that seriously. Back east, No. 13 James Madison drilled No. 1 New Hampshire in Durham, N.H. last week. But in this week’s poll, New Hampshire was still ahead of James Madison. What’s up with that?

So in the interest of full disclosure, here's how I vote. Some voters I know simply make their changes against the previous week's poll. I don't. I keep my own Top-25 in an Excel spreadsheet. So the first thing I do on Sunday morning is enter in the weekend's results. If there’s something that seems strange or surprising to me, I’ll go up on the Internet and try to find out more. For instance, in the above-referenced game, it turns out that James Madison shut down New Hampshire’s offense from the middle of the second quarter well into the fourth. I've seen that New Hampshire offense, and know more than a little about that personnel. So it was a solid beating, not a fluke.

After I know who won and who lost, I start ranking the teams. When I vote I’m trying to balance four questions: 1. Who beat whom?; 2. How good is their schedule really? 3. Who deserves to be rewarded? 4. Who deserves to be punished? And usually that get me my list.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that you can’t trust records.

Take Hampton, which is 7-0 this year. Last year I totally overvalued the Pirates, voting them No. 1 for much of the year because they were 11-0. But I didn’t take into account their strength of their schedule. So I bet Jeff Kolpack, who covers North Dakota State for the Fargo Forum, that Hampton would win a round in the I-AA postseason. The Pirates were blown out at home. So when Kolpack hits town in three weeks, the first round of drinks is on me. Hampton may have a perfect record. But I don’t trust the Pirates’ conference; and I have seen them on television win an overtime game against less-than-impressive Grambling. That’s why I have Hampton 12th.

The whole process takes about 45 minutes.

Here is my full ballot in this week’s poll:

1. Appalachian State; 2. Cal Poly; 3. Illinois State; 4. Montana; 5. Youngstown St.; 6. North Dakota State; 7. UMass; 8. James Madison; 9. New Hampshire; 10. Northern Iowa; 11. Richmond; 12. Hampton; 13. Furman; 14. Eastern Illinois; 15. Southern Illinois; 16. Tennessee-Martin; 17. Harvard; 18. Alabama A&M; 19. UCD; 20. Portland State; 21. Maine; 22. Jackson State. 23. Coastal Carolina; 24. Jacksonville State; 25. San Diego.

Kolpack, also votes. To see his ballot, you can check out http://www.areavoices.com/bisonmedia/”?> his blog.