November 18, 2009

David Fox
Rivals.com College Football Staff Writer

MORE: A look at the BCS components | 2009 Harris Poll Voters | 2009 Coaches Poll Voters

The computer rankings used in the BCS standings draw fans' and coaches' ire. The coaches' poll puts names and faces to part of the BCS rankings. But it's the third component for the BCS - the Harris Interactive Poll - that's the least publicized.

The Harris poll is a hodgepodge of 114 panelists involved in college football in some capacity, past or present.

The panel includes former head coaches and assistants and former players of varying degrees of notoriety and from different eras. It includes voters from behind the scenes, including former conference officials, former university officials, former sports information directors and one former university president. Voters also include media members in print, radio, television and online journalism. (Disclosure: Chip Brown, a writer for Orangebloods.com, an affiliate of the Rivals.com network, is new to the panel this season.)

When the poll began in 2005, Harris Interactive, a New York-based market research company, randomly selected its panel from a pool of more than 300 nominees. Each of the FBS conferences nominated 30 potential voters, Notre Dame nominated nine, and Army and Navy combined to nominate three. Harris randomly selected 10 from each set of conference nominees, three from the Notre Dame pool and one from Army and Navy.

The Harris poll functions similar to the coaches' poll in several ways. Panelists send their ballots to Harris on Sundays. Harris then compiles the top-25 ballots and double-checks any "suspicious" choices with the individual voters. Unlike the coaches' poll, there is no preseason ranking. Harris Interactive waits until four weeks have passed; this season, the first Harris top 25 came out Sept. 27.

The Harris poll has nearly twice as many voters as the coaches' poll. It's a number Harris Interactive feels limits the impact of any outliers. And unlike the coaches' poll, the vast majority of voters are able to watch the entire slate of games on Saturdays.

Although coaches who vote in the USA Today coaches' poll have been accused of delegating the ballot to someone else in the program, former Northern Illinois coach Joe Novak - who is a Harris voter - said coaches typically do pay more attention to their ballots. He also acknowledges he has kept a more watchful eye on the national picture now that he is retired.

"I'm a more knowledgeable voter [now] than when I was coaching," Novak said. "If I wasn't doing this, I'd be doing it anyway."

A year ago, though, at least three Harris voters admitted that they hadn't seen undefeated Utah play a game during the season. Two of the three -- former Auburn athletic director David Housel and former SMU player Lance McIlhenny -- returned to the panel this season.

The Harris poll experiences a turnover of roughly 20 voters per year for various reasons; this season, the Harris poll had 29 new voters. Harris releases only the names of voters, but not the conferences that nominated them or the voters' connections to college football.

For the third season, Rivals.com has completed the list of Harris voters by identifying their connections, both past and present, to the sport.

The panel includes a few voters of interest:

Roy Kramer served as SEC commissioner from 1990-2002 and is one of those who helped form the BCS.

Loren Matthews is a former senior vice president of programming for ABC Sports.

At least two voters are involved in scouting college players. Gil Brandt is a draft analyst for NFL.com and former vice president of player personnel for the Dallas Cowboys. John Dorsey is the Green Bay Packers' director of college scouting.

Dr. Harvey Schiller, Kramer's predecessor with the SEC, has a lengthy resume that includes serving as the executive director/secretary general of the United States Olympic Committee. He also served as vice president of sports programming for TBS. He now is the CEO of GlobalOptions Group in New York.

Two panelists are from academia: Joe Crowley is a former president of Nevada-Reno and served as NCAA president for two years. Mark Dienhart is the executive vice president of the University of St. Thomas and a former Minnesota athletic director.

Among notable former players are 1958 Heisman winner Pete Dawkins (Army), Outland Trophy winners Zach Wiegert (Nebraska) and Chad Hennings (Air Force) and All-America quarterback Tommie Frazier (Nebraska).

Among notable former coaches on the panel: Glen Mason (Kent State, Kansas, Minnesota), Jackie Sherrill (Washington State, Pittsburgh, Texas A&M, Mississippi State), Fran Curci (Miami and Kentucky) and Sonny Lubick (Colorado State).

Among the 15 radio professionals in the panel, seven are on the "official" broadcast team for a particular school, though they may not be paid directly by a college program.

Mason now is an analyst for the Big Ten Network.

George Perles is a former Michigan State coach and founder of the Motor City Bowl. He is a member of the Michigan State board of trustees and intends to run for governor of Michigan in 2010.

MORE: A look at the BCS components | 2009 Harris Poll Voters | 2009 Coaches Poll Voters

David Fox is a national writer for Rivals.com. He can be reached at dfox@rivals.com.