WHAT IS THE CRITERIA?
by Bob Marlin,
Sam Houston State and voter on the Mid-Major Top
25 voting panel
December
8, 2008
The chairman of
the voting panel, Kermit Davis asked me if I would share
my thoughts and answer questions, concerning the Mid-Major
Top 25…
As a long time voter and former chairman of the voting
panel, I have been associated with the Mid-Major Top 25
for the past eight years. During that time I have seen a
lot of shifts in power, but I have never seen the type of
movement we have witnessed through the first few weeks of
the season. In the past there have been weeks were six to
eight ranked teams have tough weeks, but nothing to the
extent of what we have seen thus far.
The first Top 25 of December had six new teams. This was
due in large part to the fact that about 15 ranked teams
had tough weeks. Gonzaga, Davidson, St. Mary’s, Butler and
Illinois State have created a little separation at the
top. While those teams have consistently won, there have
been a lot of losses among the teams ranked 6-25.
For years you have heard coaches talk about the great
parity in College Basketball. Outside of the handful of
elite programs, there is not a lot separating the middle
of the pack in the power conferences, from a great number
of mid-major programs.
Now we can take that a step further.
Outside of a very small group of teams, there is not a lot
of difference between a team ranked in the Top 10 (in the
Mid-Major Top 25) and a team ranked No. 50 (counting
other’s receiving votes).
Talk to a coach in any mid-major conference and he will
tell you there is more quality, from top to bottom, in his
given league than ever before.
Take a look at some of the early results…
Western Kentucky goes into Louisville and wins
convincingly. A week earlier WKU was beaten convincingly
by Murray State.
Arkansas-Little Rock knocks off Creighton and is then on
the wrong end of a one-side result against Missouri State.
Lehigh goes on the road and wins at Rutgers and then loses
by 21 at Stony Brook.
Mercer wins at Alabama and at Auburn and then loses by 20
at home to East Tennessee State.
That doesn’t mean that we should be shocked that ETSU or
Stony Brook posted wins. It does however illustrate that
we can expect just about anything to happen on a given
night in college basketball.
In the final analysis it has made voting both interesting
and challenging, through the first few weeks of the
season.
QUESTIONS
Mercer was ranked No. 10 in the Mid-Major Top 25. After
getting hammered by East Tennessee State, shouldn’t the
Bears drop and shouldn’t the Bucs jump into the rankings?
Kevin, Johnson City TN
I already touched on this a little. All of the 31 voters
share the same general approach when casting a weekly
vote. The differences lie how each individual weighs a
specific criteria. Take Oakland for example. Greg Kampe’s
team is 5-5. They played at Oregon, Syracuse, Iowa and
Kansas State, winning at Oregon. They played their first
nine games on the road and have played all ten games
without Derick Nelson who was a preseason Player of the
Year candidate in the Summit League. As is evident from
the number of votes they have received, some coaches have
voted for the Grizzlies and some have not. I would say the
same applies to East Tennessee State.
Last week Coach Davis wrote that voters could vote
for teams with losing records up until the end of
December. What would happen if a coach votes for a team
with a losing record in January or beyond?
- Erin, Charleston SC
That is a great question. Each week we submit our votes to
CollegeInsider.com. The first thing they do is to check
and make sure someone did not accidentally vote for the
same team twice. That happens. Then they check the make
sure a team with a losing record has not received a vote
(beginning in January). In both cases CollegeInsider.com
contacts the coach to point out the error and have him
make the necessary changes. In the rare occasion where the
coach cannot be reached, that vote is thrown out that week
and the chairman’s vote counts twice. I can tell you that
it’s rare if a coach’s vote has be thrown out, but it’s
one of the responsibilities of the chairman, should that
situation arise.
I remember one coach saying that voting for the
Mid-Major Top 25 is much more difficult than voting on the
AP or the USA Today Coaches Polls? Is that really the
case?
- Marcus, Tulsa, OK
Marcus I would agree with that 100%. There is a lot of
readily available information regarding teams from the
power conferences. All you have to do, on any given day,
is watch ESPN News and you will get a full recap of all
the major happenings in college basketball. But finding
that one of Oakland’s top players is out with injury or
that Middle Tennessee has been slowed by injuries is quite
as easy. In addition the great majority of those games are
not available on television so it can be that much more
challenging to get a feel for just how good a team really
is. Speaking for myself, my staff provides me assistance,
gathering information, for with my weekly vote.
There is no exact science to selecting the Top 25 teams in
the AP Poll and it’s even less of a science for the
Mid-Major Top 25. Ensuring that each member of the panel
does a good job with his weekly vote is another
responsibility of the chairman of the panel. While not
very common, there have been cases where voters have been
addressed for voting issues and, on one occasion, replaced
in the middle of the season.
The West Coast Conference has two votes, while the
Big Sky only has one. What determines the number of
coaches per conference that cast a weekly vote?
- Ed, Portland OR
There are a total of 21 conferences designated as
mid-major and it has always been top priority to make sure
each league has at least one representative on the panel.
With a total of 31 voters that leaves 10 additional
voters. Conferences that have traditionally been strong,
like the Missouri Valley, Colonial and West Coast
Conference, have had more than one vote. At one point
those leagues had as many as three voters. In recent years
the 10 additional votes have gone to coaches that do an
excellent job of voting. A great example of this would be
the America East Conference. Will Brown (Albany) and Mike
Lonergan (Vermont) put in a lot of time and effort with
their weekly votes. Another league may not like the fact
that America East has two voters, but it’s better to have
good voters than to appease other leagues. In the end it’s
about the coming up with the best 25 mid-majors in a given
week.
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