Harris Interactive Poll Already On Its Death Bed

Leitch|published: Mon 26th September, 16:45 2005

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The Chicago Sun-Times noticed something that we found rather peculiar in college football's new "Harris Poll," designed to replace the Associated Press poll in the so-hated-by-everyone-you-almost-want-it-to-survive BCS standings: The 2-2 Illinois Fighting Illini, a team that lost 61-14 and gave up more than 700 yards of offense at home on Saturday, somehow received 13 votes in the poll. That's more than former top-10 team Iowa, Nebraska, Syracuse and those athlete morality raters at Idaho.

How did this happen? Did someone put Illinois at No. 13, or did 13 different people put them at No. 25? Are they releasing who did each part of the voting? Does anyone buy this anymore, like, at all? And the real question: When do we get our ballot?

We find it telling of how seriously the poll is taken that it's not listed on any of the major sports sites. We had to go to Harris Interactive itself to find it. Always fun.

Huh? Routed Illini Get Votes In Harris Poll [Chicago Sun-Times] BCS Harris Interactive Poll [Harris Interactive] (PDF)