ESPN Employees, Coach’s Son-In-Law Pulled From Harris Poll

DiNardo Among ESPN Analysts Removed From Harris Poll

Three ESPN college football analysts who were selected to vote for the new Harris Interactive College Football Poll — former coaches Lou Holtz and Gerry DiNardo and former Univ. of Pittsburgh QB John Congemi — withdrew from the panel because ESPN “won’t permit any employee relationship with the BCS,” according to Wieberg & O’Toole of USA TODAY. ESPN Dir of Media Relations Josh Krulewitz said, “The Harris poll has a direct connection to the BCS standings. We’ve said all along we wouldn’t have our commentators participate in the Harris poll, and it is consistent with our decision to pull out of the coaches’ poll.” Wieberg & O’Toole note ESPN this year ended its co-sponsorship of the USA Today coaches’ poll following a “second consecutive season of controversy over voting swings and the BCS selection process.” Also taken off the list of Harris Poll voters was Jason Rash, the son-in-law of Troy Univ. coach Larry Blakeney. Rash, one of ten panelists representing the Sun Belt Conference, was found “not to fit the requirements” of a voter, who must be either a former administrator, player or coach or media member (USA TODAY, 8/25).

NO WOMAN, NO CRY? No women are on the list of voters, though Harris Poll spokesperson Nancy Wong said that some "were nominated.” The 114 voters were “randomly picked” from a group of 300 (USA TODAY, 8/25). Detroit News writer and Association of Women in Sports Media President Joanne Gerstner said, “I think this is totally unacceptable.” USA Today columnist Christine Brennan said, “It floors me that these kind of things can still happen” (BOSTON GLOBE, 8/25).

REAX: ESPN.com’s Ray Ratto wrote the Harris Poll “presumes, typically erroneously, that the voter is actually watching the games involving the teams he may be voting for. ... Their work has to stand up to some form of scrutiny, if only to show that its members are actually taking it seriously.” Ratto wrote voters “should either be clean or at the very least transparent” when it concerns potential conflicts of interest (ESPN.com, 8/23). In Birmingham, Kevin Scarbinsky noted former Univ. of Alabama-Birmingham basketball coach & AD Gene Bartow is among the voters. Bartow, on the “perceived contradiction of a former basketball coach who took two schools to the Final Four voting” in the poll: “I’m not sure it takes a rocket scientist to vote in a football poll.” More Bartow: “They probably don’t realize I have criticized the BCS for years. Common sense says there should be a playoff like there is in every other NCAA sport” (BIRMINGHAM NEWS, 8/24). In Orlando, David Whitley notes voter Charles Davis played at Tennessee and works Pac-10 and Big 12 games for TBS. Whitley: “Davis is not a perfect voter. Find someone who is, and you’ll have met a Martian” (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 8/25).