Anyone up for a AP voter - email campaign?

[Don Toro]

Did anybody get any replies yet? If you do don't forget to post them here!

[Metro_Retro_Bull]

Dave Goren WXII-TV in North Carolina had App. State 13th! No USF or Auburn for him. Is that homerism? Statement making? Flat out wrong?

[windbane]

Guys, good luck with your email campaign.  But I'm telling you these 3 rankings are all that matters in our quest for a BCS bowl and NC:

BCS Computer Rankings (USF currently #10)

http://www.tellshowbcs.com/CP.htm

USA Today Coaches Poll (USF currently #27)

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/usatpoll.htm?loc=interstitialskip

Harris Interactive Poll (First poll comes out in 3 weeks)

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/harris.htm

Okay, I've said my peace once again.

1) There are two National Championships at stake every season. Ask any member of the 2003 LSU squad. I think most find the AP championship to be at least as credible as the BCS one, if not more so.

2) Acknowledgment from the media will bring respect from the coaches, or at least contribute towards it.

3) There is more at stake than just a possible national title, such as name recognition that might help land a better bowl should we not win the Big East BCS bid. It also would probably serve to get more on-the-fence fans excited about the upcoming games.

ESPN all week reported Auburn as ranked 17th.  That was the AP poll.  It still matters.

[___ Eats It]

--

Neal McCready

Mobile Press-Register

13

Jay G. Tate

Montgomery Advertiser

--

John Moredich

Tucson Citizen

22

Alex Abrams

The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas

--

Kevin Pearson

Riverside Press-Enterprise

20

Ray Ratto

San Francisco Chronicle

--

Scott Wolf

Los Angeles Daily News

10

Jon Wilner

San Jose Mercury News

22

B.G. Brooks

Rocky Mountain News

20

Chuck Banning

The Day of New London

18

Israel Gutierrez

The Miami Herald

24

David Jones

Florida Today

20

Brian Landman

St. Petersburg Times

??

Adam Van Brimmer

Savannah Morning News-Augusta

--

Paul Arnett

Honolulu Star-Bulletin

--

Mike Prater

Idaho Statesman

--

Herb Gould

Chicago Sun-Times

--

Mark Tupper

Decatur Herald and Review

--

Eric Hansen

The South Bend Tribune

25

Pete DiPrimio

The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel

--

Steve Batterson

Quad City Times

19

Tom Keegan

Lawrence Journal World

23

Chip Cosby

Lexington Herald-Leader

--

Glenn Guilbeau

Gannett Louisiana

24

Scott Rabalais

The Baton Rouge Advocate

25

Barker Davis

Washington Times

18

Steve Conroy

Boston Herald

21

David Birkett

The Oakland Press

18

John Heuser

The Ann Arbor News

--

Chip Scoggins

Star Tribune of Minneapolis

--

Parrish Alford

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

--

Mike DeArmond

Kansas City Star

25

Rich Kaipust

Omaha World-Herald

21

Joe Hawk

Las Vegas Review-Journal

16

Aditi Kinkhabwala

The Bergen Record

--

Tommy Trujillo

The New Mexican

--

Rodney McKissic

The Buffalo News

--

Dave Goren

WXII-TV

14

Joe Giglio

The News & Observer

19

Jim Young

The News & Record of Greensboro

18

Kirk Herbstreit

WBNS-AM/ESPN

25

Doug Lesmerises

The Plain Dealer

--

Matt McCoy

WTVN-AM

--

Myron Patton

KOKH-TV

25

Mike Strain

Tulsa World

--

John Hunt

The Oregonian

21

Ray Fittipaldo

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

19

Anthony SanFilippo

Delaware County Daily Times

22

Joe Person

The State

--

Wayne Phillips

The Greeneville Sun

22

Eric Yutzy

WTVF-TV

22

Bret Bloomquist

El Paso Times

--

Joseph Duarte

Houston Chronicle

21

Jimmy Burch

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

19

Kirk Bohls

Austin American-Statesman

--

Jason Franchuk

Provo Daily Herald

25

Doug Doughty

The Roanoke Times

--

Molly Yanity

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

13

Dave Morrison

The Register-Herald

--

Tom Mulhern

Wisconsin State Journal

--

Austin Ward

Casper Star-Tribune

--

Chris Fowler

ESPN

19

Craig James

ABC

21

Stewart Mandel

SI.com

19

Tom Hart

College Sports Television

[gobulls83]

??

Adam Van Brimmer

Savannah Morning News-Augusta

This guy had us 20th, if my math is correct.

[Sunil]

Aright folks....sent emails out yesterday and have begun getting responses from AP voters. Thought about making a separate thread for them...but I'll just use this one. Here's the first...my exchange with Rodney McKissic of Buffalo news. I thought the guy was nice enough about it...although I don't agree. The whole point for me was to at least get these guys thinking about us....I think that was accomplished:

From: Sunil Kurian

Sent: Wed 9/12/2007 11:22 PM

To: McKissic, Rodney

Subject: Omission of USF from your AP ballot

Dear Mr. McKissic,

 

  Please know that I'm not part of your normal readership. In fact, there is a good chance that I would not even know who you were except that we have one tie that binds us. Namely, that I'm a member of the alumni from a major div. 1-a school and that you are a voter in the AP poll which ranks football programs such as mine.

 

  I'm not writing to blast or insult you, please do not misunderstand. What I'm looking for is an honest answer to a question that many of us are asking: In regards to the ballot you cast last week, could you please explain your rationale in omitting the University of South Florida from the list altogether?

 

  If the argument is that we don't have talent, please be advised that our players are almost exculsively from the extremely talent-rich Tampa area. Players who have transferred into our program have come from other more established major programs such as Auburn, Alabama, and Iowa State. We have players in the NFL including Kawika Mitchell (LB- Kansas City), Stephen Nicholas (LB - Atlanta), Anthony Henry (CB-Dallas), Andre Hall (RB- Denver) as well as former pros such as Frank Davis, Bill Gramatica and JR Reed. Two of our alumni earned Super Bowl rings with the Patriots: Scott McCready and Kenyatta Jones

 

  If the argument is that we don't play against strong competition, please remember that we are within the Big East....which has slowly earned a reputation as a solid if not stacked conference. At last check, there were 3 teams from our conference within the top 15 with USF and Cincinatti receiving a significant amount of votes to join them in the top 25. Moreover, the past 3 years has seen us go to 2 bowl games, defeat a top 10 Louisville team at home, as well as a top 10 West Virginia team on the road.

 

  I'm not saying that I expected to be ranked before the season began. However, your omission of our school from your ballot after this last week was extremely dissapointing. We were able to take a young squad featuring a sophmore quarterback into tradition rich Auburn Alabama, and defeat a solid team from the toughest conference (SEC) at night. This is the same stadium where last year's national champion Florida received their only defeat. Despite this victory, you still managed to keep us off the ballot as well as ranked a one-loss Florida State team which struggled. What was the thinking behind that decision?

 

  I look forward to your response.

 

  Sincerely,

 

  Sunil Kurian

  Bradenton, Florida

Subject: RE: Omission of USF from your AP ballot

Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 09:42:45 -0400

From: "McKissic, Rodney"

To: "Sunil Kurian"

    First off thanks for your e-mail.

I have nothing against South Florida, its athletes or Big East football. South Florida was one of the teams I considered putting into the Top 25 along with Washington and Cincinnati, which is also in the Big East. It's still early in the season so South Florida has plenty of time to change my mind.

I'm not one of those voters who looks at a team that struggles and drops them in the poll. It's all subjective but if you win the game, that's good enough for me. Florida State won and they're only loss was to a tough Clemson team that was playing at home. If you noticed in my poll, Clemson is ranks higher than Florida State.

I'm sorry you're disappointed that South Florida isn't in my Top 25, but as I said before it's a very young season with plenty of football to go around.

Take care 

Subject: RE: Omission of USF from your AP ballot

Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 09:49:40 -0400

From: "McKissic, Rodney"

To: "Sunil Kurian"

    Just curious, am I the only voter you sent an e-mail to?

I'm not the only one who didn't vote for South Florida.

Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 07:23:30 -0700 (PDT)

From: "Sunil Kurian"

Subject: RE: Omission of USF from your AP ballot

To: "McKissic, Rodney"

   

Rodney,

thanks so much for the response. I know that you probably receive many emails from "blood-thirsty" alumni, so I appreciate it.

I'm well aware that you aren't the only person who did not vote for USF. By no means was I picking on you because all the other pollsters received emails from me as well. If that seems overzealous, you're probably right..it is...but I'm part of a very young alumni base who was really puzzled at last week's poll. As you know, our game lasted until early in the morning...so I guess our major concerns were that pollsters 1) cast their votes before the game was over or 2) lacked a general awareness of our young program. If either of those were the case, you can see how we thought it was somewhat egregious. Now... obviously I don't "agree" with your rationale (I'm an alum...it's a no-win proposition! ) , but I respect that there was thought that went behind it.

thanks again for your time.

Regards,

Sunil Kurian

Subject: RE: Omission of USF from your AP ballot

Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 10:54:49 -0400

From: "McKissic, Rodney" 

To: "Sunil Kurian"

    You don't know the half of it with the blood thirsty alums!

That said, your e-mail was one of the few that was NOT overzealous. It's nice to know I can have some civil give and take with fans like you.

In regards to the polls, I take this job very seriously. I know exactly who won what game and who lost. It takes me about an hour to sort everything out before I send in my poll to the AP.  The bottom of the poll is tough. You have to ask yourself questions like: Is Cincinnati better than TCU? Is Washington better than Clemson? Is South Florida better than Florida State and so on. Sometimes, you have to go with your gut.

And keep this in mind: I'm a Cincy alum and I didn't even vote for my alma mater!

Take care 

[Don Toro]

That said, your e-mail was one of the few that was NOT overzealous.

  If you are going to send emails please be polite and nice about it! Being an a-hole is not going to help us. Please avoid saying "Watch for USF upsetting L'ville, WVU, Rutgers, blah blah blah." Just sticking to the facts should be enough.  Three of our last 4 wins dating to last year, wins in Morgantown, Auburn, and a Bowl game.

[Sunil]

Mark Tupper from the Decatur Herald Review.....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Sunil Kurian

Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 10:17 PM

To: Mark Tupper

Subject: Exclusion of USF from your AP ballot

Dear Mr. Tupper,

Please know that I'm not part of your normal readership. In fact, there is a good chance that I would not even know who you were except that we have one tie that binds us. Namely, that I'm a member of the alumni from a major div. 1-a school and that you are a voter in the AP poll which ranks football programs such as mine.

I'm not writing to blast or insult you, please do not misunderstand. What I'm looking for is an honest answer to a question that many of us are asking: In regards to the ballot you cast last week, could you please explain your rationale in omitting the University of South Florida from the list altogether?

If the argument is that we don't have talent, please be advised that our players are almost exculsively from the extremely talent-rich Tampa area. Players who have transferred into our program have come from other more established major programs such as Auburn , Alabama , and Iowa State . We have players in the NFL including Kawika Mitchell (LB- Kansas City), Stephen Nicholas (LB - Atlanta), Anthony Henry (CB-Dallas), Andre Hall (RB- Denver) as well as former pros such as Frank Davis, Bill Gramatica and JR Reed. Two of our alumni earned Super Bowl rings with the Patriots: Scott McCready and Kenyatta Jones

If the argument is that we don't play against strong competition, please remember that we are within the Big East....which has slowly earned a reputation as a solid if not stacked conference. At last check, there were 3 teams from our conference within the top 15 with USF and Cincinatti receiving a significant amount of votes to join them in the top 25. Moreover, the past 3 years has seen us go to 2 bowl games, defeat a top 10 Louisville team at home, as well as a top 10 West Virginia team on the road.

I'm not saying that I expected to be ranked before the season began. However, your omission of our school from your ballot after this last week was extremely dissapointing. We were able to take a young squad featuring a freshman quarterback into tradition rich Auburn Alabama , and defeat a solid team from the toughest conference (SEC) at night. This is the same stadium where last year's national champion Florida received their only defeat. Despite this victory, you still managed to keep us off the ballot. What was the thinking behind that decision?

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Sunil Kurian

Bradenton, Florida____________________________

From: "Mark Tupper"

To: "'Sunil Kurian'"

Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 11:51:09 -0500

Subject: RE: Exclusion of USF from your AP ballot

   

My argument is simply that South Florida was very close to being "in" on my list and may be soon. Just not yet. There are a number of very good teams in the top 35 or so.

By the way, although I live in Illinois, my son attends South Florida. So I'm very aware of the Bulls.

Thanks for your note.

Mark Tupper

_______________________

Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 10:24:14 -0700 (PDT)

From: "Sunil Kurian"

Subject: RE: Exclusion of USF from your AP ballot

To: "Mark Tupper"

Winning solves everything, so I hope we make the issue moot soon enough. Thanks so much for taking the time to reply, hope you get a chance to catch a game in person

regards,

Sunil Kurian

[gobulls83]

Awesome, keep posting your responses! I also got a response from Mark Tupper. I got a couple others as well, I'll post them later tonight or this weekend...

[Don Toro]

Hey blade, Grothe is no longer a freshman! You may want to edit that.