Unverified Voracity Rips The Vote

Manningham update @ AOL.

Vote Smackdown! The irritating nubbin that is the AP poll's two first-place votes for West Virginia draws fire from The MZone in the form of an open letter to the two outliers. An excellent theory as to why these goofballs vote they way they do is proffered in the comments by "beast in bama" (Andre Smith?):

What these gentlemen have is what I call the "Corky Frost Syndrome." Corky's the guy from Arizona who, back in 1992, voted Alabama #1 all season. When the Tide beat Miami in the Sugar Bowl to claim the MNC that year, old Corky looked like a freakin' genius!

His voting record was made public and he gained slight notoriety nationally (and major celebrity status down here) as the "prophet of college football." He was even grand marshall of the parade they had for the team in Tuscaloosa.

Every year since, the AP has some other crackpot attempting to do the same thing. And no, slight notoriety does not equal fame and fortune; it equates with EGO, something that sports writers have in abundance.

SMQB also has a beef:

So SMQ does not get worked up about polls, because it's mostly run of the mill disagreement. The only real issue he has before the ranking system inevitably robs a team of its official, corporately-designated mythical championship opportunity is the mass movement of number one votes towards Ohio State, and the perception - enforced for several weeks now in various outlets - that OSU is the "clear number one." SMQ has had Ohio State on top since the Buckeyes beat Texas, and, because its impressive wins over UT and Iowa and competent handling of the remaining rabble, will probably keep them there this week. But this year was regarded by nearly everyone as a wide open season on the polls, dominated by no one team, and that should still be the case: Michigan, for one, has been particularly impressive, and should be considered basically an equal of OSU; ditto Florida, which has knocked out otherwise very impressive Tennessee and LSU and Alabama, and also handled the rabble with ease.

I've also wondered thusly: if Michigan had gone 9-3 or 10-2 last season and the dates of the OSU-Texas and Michigan-ND games were reversed, would Michigan be number #1? And would they be regarded as the no-doubt best team in the nation? Ohio State grabbed everyone's attention with the big win over #2 Texas and by the time Michigan -- adrift in the teens because of last year's 7-5 -- finished its BEAT DOWN of, yup, #2 Notre Dame it was too late. My main problem with the polls is what appears to be an appalling lack of thought put into a lot of the ballots. Win, no matter how tightly and against who, and stay in the same spot. Lose and drop a poll-approved amount, often staying in front of the team that just beat you.

Meanwhile: Dan Shanoff laid into AP voters for bias -- though I'm still not sure what's so ridiculous about Michigan at #2 that requires excoriation; Dan Steinberg goes over the ballots with a fine-toothed comb and finds precious little evidence thereof. Smackdown ensues!!!

...or not so much. Reasonable discussion? Don't these guys know they're writing blogs? Appalling.

Etc.: Google News digs deep to find this article on Andrew Ebbett's new AHL career. Sounds like he narrowly missed the NHL.