USA Today "Player of the Week" poll not fair to fans

Before I begin, let me reiterate that the arguments contained within this blog are not due to the fact that my school's Quarterback(Dan LeFevour) did not win the award. There are no sore losers at Central Michigan University. Okay, that feels better.

USA Today SHAME ON YOU!

"America's Newspaper" has turned its back on the diehard fans of America's game, College Football. Every week the publication has a "Player of the Week" award, in which five players are in the running for the accolade. USA Today then allows an online vote (the fan's vote) as well as two College Football expert's votes, Erick Smith and Mike Lopresti respectively, to be combined into an equation to form the "Player of the Week".

Problem: This week, like the BCS, the voting is flawed and not fair to fans who have voted online. Running Back Kevin Smith from Central Florida rushed his way to 284 yards and four touchdowns. He also received a staggering 91% of the online vote. The winner of this week's award: Hawaii Quarterback Colt Brennan. Despite having great stats: 442 yards and 5 touchdowns, Brennan only received 1% of the online vote. Essentially USA Today is allowing two so called experts to have a larger voice than the 82732 fans who voted online.

Solution: Unlike the BCS, it feels like there is a logical way of fixing this issue. USA Today needs to conduct two different weekly awards. The first award is simple: an online award. The second: put together a panel of College Football experts (more than 2, some number like 10 seems fair) and have those experts vote amongst themselves for an "experts pick" award. In addition the players voted on would be the same list to preserve integrity.

Ah, the smell of Democracy...

'Til next time

Phil Byrne

Tonight on News Central 34, 11/1/2007

Tonight on News Central 34...

• Mount Pleasant voters will vote on whether to establish more parks in the city...
• A Central Michigan University dean is absolved of any wrong-doing in the accused assault of a student...
• The search continues for a missing Leelenau County man as police re-question persons of interest...
• And Chrysler begins another round of layoffs...

All that plus your weather, sports, and state/national news tonight at 5:00 PM on News Central 34 (channel 34 on campus, channel 23 on cable).