Craig James, who may or may not be leaving the broadcast booth at the end of the season for a political run, came under fire last week for his mind-boggling AP ballot.  Most notably was his selection of 10-1 Boise State as the 24th best team in the country amongst other irregularities.  This week, we have his full ballot from the folks at PollSpeak, and it appears Craig James must have heard everyone lambasting his ballot.  He moved Boise State up this week… to 23rd.  Here’s the full Craig James ballot…

Rank Team Agree Higher Lower
1 LSU 0 – HIGHEST 0 – LOWEST
2 Alabama 0 – HIGHEST
3 Oklahoma State
4 Arkansas 0 – HIGHEST
5 USC
6 Kansas State 0 – HIGHEST
7 Oregon
8 Stanford 0 – LOWEST
9 Wisconsin
10 Michigan 0 0 – HIGHEST
11 South Carolina
12 Georgia
13 Michigan State
14 Baylor
15 Clemson
16 Virginia Tech
17 Penn State 0 0 – HIGHEST
18 TCU
19 Oklahoma
20 Nebraska
21 Southern Miss
22 Houston
23 Boise State 0 0 – LOWEST
24 Missouri 0 – HIGHEST
25 Florida State

Those votes in red are highilgihted as “extreme votes” of which Craig James has the most of any voter.  So far, he is the “Bad Voter” of Week 14.  How appropriate.  Elsewhere in the ballot of Craig James…

*In the Alabama vs Oklahoma State debate for #2, James rates Alabama behind their SEC counterparts ahead LSU and ahead of the Pokes.  I was pretty well settled in the Oklahoma State camp, but seeing Craig James vote Alabama #2 cements that feeling.

*James has two loss Arkansas as the 4th ranked team in the country and two loss USC 5th.  11-1 Stanford, who beat USC and is ranked 4th in the AP Poll, is ranked 8th by James.

*James is only one of four voters to have Big East champion West Virginia unranked and only one of three voters to rank the Missouri Tigers.  Just two of seven teams that James has ranked higher or lower than any other AP voter.  One or two may be understandable, but seven?  At least he maintained some sort of objectivity, SMU isn’t in his Top 25 after all.

*But certainly the biggest discrepancy in the ballot of Craig James is the Boise State Broncos.  He ranks the Broncos a full six spots behind any other voter (Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ranks them 17th, the next lowest ranking is 14th).  James ranks Boise State behind teams like 9-3 Baylor, 9-3 Penn State, 9-3 Nebraska, and two teams from Conference USA – Southern Miss and Houston.  

Nobody with a working brain who has watched one second of college football this season would argue Boise State, who lost one game to TCU on a field goal in the final seconds, who defeated SEC East champion Georgia, is only the 23rd best team in the country.  And this is an “expert” “analyst” ESPN employs?  This man is paid to watch and analyze college football!  What vendetta does he hold against the good people of Boise?  Did they not offer his son a scholarship?  Does he not enjoy trick plays?  Does he hate the color blue???  Maybe it will be a good thing if James leaves college football behind for politics, at least he won’t be running in Idaho. 

One thing is for certain though.  It’s a good thing the AP ballot counts for nothing in determining a national champion.

Comments are closed.