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SME NETWORK TOP 25 BROADCASTERS POLL UNVEILED
Appalachian State Receives All 20 First Place Votes

http://www.smebroadcasting.com

Melville, NY –Sports Media Entertainment Network has unveiled their first ever national Football Championship Subdivision Poll. Twenty broadcasters from around the FCS have voted and Appalachian State University, the two-time defending champions, have received all twenty first place votes.

The top five are represented by five different conferences. The Gateway Conference and the Colonial Athletic Association both have four teams placed in the Top 25. The Southern, Big Sky and Great West Conferences were represented by three teams each. The Great West Conference, which proved last season to be one of the best in country, placed three of its five teams in the poll. San Diego was the only non-scholarship conference school to crack the poll as they came in at the number 22 spot.

Our voters consist of Radio and TV broadcasters from around the FCS. The following is a list of voters that will be participating each week with the school or affiliation that they broadcast for in parenthesis. Ray Alexander (Stony Brook / SME Network); Tom Barket (Cal Poly); Ralph Bednarczyk (SME Network); Bob Behler (Massachusetts); Ken Berthelot (Nicholls St); Chris Blair (Georgia Southern); Mike Corey (Delaware); Brant Freeman (Texas St); Art Haines (Missouri St); Bob Hannon (Youngstown State); Mick Holien (Montana); Matt Hogue (Coastal Carolina); Keith Irizarry (Princeton/SME Network); Eric Malanowski (Colgate); Keith Miles (Florida A&M); Jerry Oster (South Dakota St); Gary Rima (Northern Iowa); Jim Reynolds (Chattanooga); Robby Robinson (The Citadel); Mitch Strohman (Northern Arizona).

Other Notes
Along with our Top 25, we will also have projected conference rankings for each of the FCS Conferences. We will display 1-2 conferences projections each day between July 17 and July 28. Our website has a listing of dates that each conference will be published.

Our first broadcast will take place on Wednesday, August 29th at 5:00PM. We will announce a list of guests as the show date approaches.

Good looking poll!

Won't argue with the top 25 but some of the teams receiving votes raised eyebrows. Villanova getting votes & more than Towson???

bluehenbillk wrote:Won't argue with the top 25 but some of the teams receiving votes raised eyebrows. Villanova getting votes & more than Towson???

it's the gpi, bill....

Lets also not forget that the preseason polls usually have more "Others receiving Votes" because there are no games yet. Once we get into the season that number will go down.

NICEEE, a new poll!

Good Looking Poll!

4 GATEWAY TEAMS IN THE TOP 11
3 CAA Teams in top 10
2 SOCON Teams in the top 10

GO GATEWAY

I like everything about this poll but one thing. How did Monmouth get 3 votes? I don't want to be a homer and cry for votes here, but SBU is better than Monmouth. So is Albany and Central Conn. How did Monmouth get votes over them?

I think the regionality of the voters plays into their feelings about teams lower than 15 or so.

There are too many voters in that poll from New England/Mid Atlantic schools, IMO... that might reveal the reason for the affinity for schools in that region with less than 10 votes for example.

My question is "does SIU really belong at #10?" I thought the Salukis were more of a BB school.

WAAAAYYYY too much love for Hampton and San Diego.

And UMass is ranked to high, Cal Poly too low. Other than that, not bad.

guinzone wrote:Good Looking Poll!

4 GATEWAY TEAMS IN THE TOP 11
3 CAA Teams in top 10
2 SOCON Teams in the top 10

GO GATEWAY

Blatant ECB.

SuperHornet wrote:

guinzone wrote:Good Looking Poll!

4 GATEWAY TEAMS IN THE TOP 11
3 CAA Teams in top 10
2 SOCON Teams in the top 10

GO GATEWAY

Blatant ECB.

CAA is the most overrated conference in America, just as Montana is the most overrated team (they're actually the reason the Big Sky doesn't have NDSU, SDSU and eventually UND and USD, not Sacramento and PSU Our championships will eventually become the Gateway National Championship.

MSUGrad wrote:Our championships will eventually become the Gateway National Championship.

Except for those pesky SoCon schools that keep winning the NCs.

SuperHornet wrote:Blatant ECB.

You say east coast bias, and you see 4 Gateway teams there. I will give you Youngstown St. as an east coast team:

But:
Northern Iowa
Illinois State
Southern Illinois

Are 3 schools that are clearly in the midwest........ There may be an ECB on the other 2 conferences, but not on the Gateway, it's a midwest Conference!

BigApp wrote:

bluehenbillk wrote:Won't argue with the top 25 but some of the teams receiving votes raised eyebrows. Villanova getting votes & more than Towson???

it's the gpi, bill....

I missed you Big App, let's agree not to bring that 3-letter crap up over here.

UMass is ranked high. But I think it's pretty good. Hopefully, Whales Vagina University will drop off.

SuperHornet wrote: Blatant ECB.

We designed the poll to aviod any bias. Out of our 20 voters, 9 are from someplace other than the east coast. Plus there are more conferences on the East Coast than the West Coast. Theres nothing we can do about that. Here is a breakdown:

3 SoCon
3 Gateway (midwest)
2 Great West (Midwest/West)
2 Big Sky (West)
2 CAA
2 Southland (Texas/La isn't east coast)
1 Patriot
1 MEAC
1 IVY
1 Big South
1 Indy
1 FCS Reporter

We did everything we could to aviod anyone saying the poll was bias. What would you have done differently? Please share your thought and feedback.

Given your cast of voters, SME, it's probably about as good as it's going to get given the dearth of FCS teams West of the Mississippi. (In my book, anything East of the Mississippi is East.) ECB is a bigger problem in FBS as there are more teams in the West that are ignored. [The Pac-10 is the only FBS conference West of the Mississippi in the B(C)$.] However, I have a hard time with the talent and potential of PSU getting shafted like they did. I'd probably drop YSU or Furman to get PSU in the Top 5. I realize that USD's new coaching staff has a lot to do with their low ranking. The perennial talent (it pains me to say this, BTW) at the Manure Pile getting only an "also ran" ranking? That over all just flabberghasts me.

That's my ECB issue with this poll. Sure, it's not as bad as at FBS. But it's still there to some extent. Unfortunately, I just can't see how it can be improved without overrepresenting the West. That would be just as bad.

SHSU is too low and San Diego should not even be included in the top 25.

SuperHornet wrote:Given your cast of voters, SME, it's probably about as good as it's going to get given the dearth of FCS teams West of the Mississippi. (In my book, anything East of the Mississippi is East.) ECB is a bigger problem in FBS as there are more teams in the West that are ignored. [The Pac-10 is the only FBS conference West of the Mississippi in the B(C)$.] However, I have a hard time with the talent and potential of PSU getting shafted like they did. I'd probably drop YSU or Furman to get PSU in the Top 5. I realize that USD's new coaching staff has a lot to do with their low ranking. The perennial talent (it pains me to say this, BTW) at the Manure Pile getting only an "also ran" ranking? That over all just flabberghasts me.

That's my ECB issue with this poll. Sure, it's not as bad as at FBS. But it's still there to some extent. Unfortunately, I just can't see how it can be improved without overrepresenting the West. That would be just as bad.

While I'm sure the PSU posters appreciate the love, there probably ain't a one of them that'd say that PSU belongs in the top 5 (at least right now). I just feel that Hampton and USD's votes are a wasted vote.....Living proof that SOS don't mean sh*t when it comes to voters.

AZ, there might be some truth to that. What does SOS really mean before the season starts? Every team has a winning percent of .000. I feel that as the season goes on the SOS has a lot more influence than it does in the preseason rankings.

The difference between our voters and voters in other publications is that our voters see many teams each year live and in person. There are so many polls out there that is done by ranking stats, just looking at box scores, etc. Fan polls tend to show favoritism and it is biased.

By using voters from 11 of the 15 conferences, we can get a true read on all of the schools. These voters are people that watch game films on many teams, they talk to many coaches around the country, and they broadcast these games. It is also a true national poll as 18 different states are represented with all four time zones included. It is a true judgment of the FCS. We tried to spread it out and we feel we did the best job we could when we invited the voters.

Please let us know if you feel differently. We would love to discuss this with anyone here. I know is sounds corny, but we are here for you. Fans make our shows better and we understand that concept.

SMEnetwork wrote:

SuperHornet wrote: Blatant ECB.

We designed the poll to aviod any bias. Out of our 20 voters, 9 are from someplace other than the east coast. Plus there are more conferences on the East Coast than the West Coast. Theres nothing we can do about that. Here is a breakdown:

3 SoCon
3 Gateway (midwest)
2 Great West (Midwest/West)
2 Big Sky (West)
2 CAA
2 Southland (Texas/La isn't east coast)
1 Patriot
1 MEAC
1 IVY
1 Big South
1 Indy
1 FCS Reporter

We did everything we could to aviod anyone saying the poll was bias. What would you have done differently? Please share your thought and feedback.

Yeah, I noticed no OVC rep. That a good way to avoid bias.

gemofthehills wrote:

SMEnetwork wrote: We designed the poll to aviod any bias. Out of our 20 voters, 9 are from someplace other than the east coast. Plus there are more conferences on the East Coast than the West Coast. Theres nothing we can do about that. Here is a breakdown:

3 SoCon
3 Gateway (midwest)
2 Great West (Midwest/West)
2 Big Sky (West)
2 CAA
2 Southland (Texas/La isn't east coast)
1 Patriot
1 MEAC
1 IVY
1 Big South
1 Indy
1 FCS Reporter

We did everything we could to aviod anyone saying the poll was bias. What would you have done differently? Please share your thought and feedback.

Yeah, I noticed no OVC rep. That a good way to avoid bias.

Given the fact that SME went to SOME effort to get a majority of conferences represented, I suspect that he at least TRIED to get someone from the OVC and the OTHER unrepresented conferences. If that is true, then it is the conference FANS that are to blame, not SME. He can't do anything about a lack of interest on the part of OVC fans.

gemofthehills wrote:
Yeah, I noticed no OVC rep. That a good way to avoid bias.

We did make an effort to contact a few of the OVC Broadcasters. However, the problem was that we could get in touch with some of them because they are not around over the summer. Some were on vacation, and 1 other felt he did not have the time to keep up with it every week. An effort was made.

Plus the OVC has two schools on the list. Do you feel there should be more?

SMEnetwork wrote:

gemofthehills wrote:
Yeah, I noticed no OVC rep. That a good way to avoid bias.

We did make an effort to contact a few of the OVC Broadcasters. However, the problem was that we could get in touch with some of them because they are not around over the summer. Some were on vacation, and 1 other felt he did not have the time to keep up with it every week. An effort was made.

Plus the OVC has two schools on the list. Do you feel there should be more?

I just believe to have a fair poll you should have a OVC rep or maybe two or three as you have other conferences. Do you feel the OVC will get fairly represented by other conference voters? I also find it odd that only the OVC announcers were out during the summer but not any other playoff conference.