Posts like this, you could argue, suggest I have too much time on my hands. I prefer to think of it as being thorough ... diligent ... detail-oriented. In all, the research took a mere 15 minutes.
I went through all 65 ballots in the Associated Press Top 25, and as I expected, found a wide spectrum of opinions as to where USF should be ranked after losing back-to-back games. You find the Bulls ranked in every position from 11th to 25th, with at least two votes in every position from 14th down. There are seven voters who did not have the Bulls in their top 25; I won't name them, but will point out they're from Alabama, Arizona, Michigan, Oregon, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming, suggesting no perceptible geographic bias.
Most common ranking? Eighteenth, with nine ballots. The highest three ballots are from consistent USF believers -- Joe Giglio of the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer has USF 11th, Rich Kaipust of the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald has the Bulls 12th, and SI.com's Stewart Mandel has USF ranked 13th.
Famous-people ballots? The Times' Brian Landman has USF 18th, and there's a poetry in the head-to-head, A-greater-than-B accuracy of this run: 17. Connecticut; 18. USF; 19. Auburn; 20. Florida. Mandel has the same run on his ballot, only from 12th to 15th. ESPN folks? Chris Fowler is one of five voters who have USF 25th; Kirk Herbstreit and Craig James are among six who have the Bulls 22nd.
Ah, if only the coaches' ballots were public during the season. Or even the Harris voters -- with 120 of them, I'd never get sleep.
Times sportswriter Greg Auman, who covers USF, will post news and thoughts on the Bulletin and we invite your participation in the comments area.
hey Buck, thanks for the link to that website .... what a GREAT message board ... one guy talking to himself for about a month and a half! LOL
Posted by: JeanShorts Gator | October 29, 2007 at 01:30 PM
Who cares what a bunch of sports writers think.
Posted by: AL | October 29, 2007 at 12:22 PM
Bulls should not be rated in top 25. They obviously can't put a full game together now that teams are ready for them. Plus they are losing in the BIG LEAST.
Posted by: | October 29, 2007 at 11:33 AM
This guy did NOT vote for USF ... He's from Wyoming....
http://www.gatoralert.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,35/topic,141.0/
Posted by: Buck | October 29, 2007 at 09:29 AM
Ari,
Cedrick was on the play side. The same side Ford scored the touchdown on.
Posted by: DELdaBULL | October 29, 2007 at 07:34 AM
ari can u read my post cuz u said almost the same exact thing as i did, i cant ever tell if my posts go through or not... just wondering
Posted by: | October 29, 2007 at 12:18 AM
To give Cedric a bit of a breather.... Dude had his hand right in front of Cedric's face. I honestly don't think he saw the ball. His holding penalty was STUPID. He wasn't even in the play. On the clear other side of the stupid line.
He did have some solid catches in the game. I think our lineup of Bogan, Jessie Hester and Carlton Mitchell is far and away better than Amari jackson being on the field. The guy is terrible.
Posted by: Ari | October 29, 2007 at 12:12 AM
man hester, bogan, carlton mitchell, they all catch very well, and carlton hill (9) had a good game except for that one catch in the endzone he missed, when taurus is back we will have a good line of recievers, and the same line next year if not better... our recievers are fine, its the play calling thats bad i think
Posted by: | October 28, 2007 at 11:27 PM
is it just me or USF's receivers are really bad. Matt threw a pass on the number.. hitting the big O in No. 9's jersey last night. I thought since Jackson was out with injury maybe someone else would stand up. Nope. I imagine the Bulls would be undefeated right now and probably No. 1 in the nation if they caught a big pass thrown right to them in back to back games. err.
Posted by: matt | October 28, 2007 at 10:56 PM