Posted: Sunday, November 8, 2009, 8:47 PM | 15 comments |
 

Temple football gets more votes in AP poll
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(With a correction from the original version.)

Every once in a while I wonder whether anyone actually reads this blog. This weekend really made me think about it.

First, I was out Saturday night and some guy came up to me and said he recognized me and really likes the blog. I don't remember his name, but whoever you were, thanks.

Second, I wonder if my interview with Mike Hlas had some strange effect on college football karma. Iowa lost at home to Northwestern, and Temple went from one vote in last week's AP poll to seven in the ranking that came out tonight.

The Owls also got eight votes in the coaches' poll and 24 in the Harris poll. It's worth noting, though, that the Harris poll has 114 voters compared to the AP poll's 60 voters and the coaches' poll's 59 voters.

Mike Kern of the Daily News is a voter in the Harris poll. The Philadelphia area has no representatives in the AP poll, and as I mentioned last week Temple coach Al Golden votes in the coaches' poll.

There is a bug in the website that lists AP voters' ballots, so I was only able to confirm five of the writers who voted for Temple. But since there were only two missing, I think we can infer that those two also included the Owls.

The writers were:

- Scott Wolf, Los Angeles Daily News
- Ray Ratto, San Francisco Chronicle
- Mike Hlas, Cedar Rapids Gazette (Iowa)
- Keith Sargeant, Home News Tribune (Middlesex County, N.J., and other Gannett papers in the state)
- Ray Fittipaldo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Wolf and Sargeant ranked the Owls 24th; all the others ranked them 25th. The two 24th-place votes are worth two points each and the three 25th-place votes are worth one point, which is how Temple got seven points total.

(CORRECTION: I had originally written that I couldn't figure out how the Owls got to seven points. Commenter joeags pointed out where I screwed up, and I thank him for that.)

I found it quite interesting that 11 voters put Navy on their ballots, but not Temple. That surely has something to do with the Midshipmen's win at Notre Dame yesterday.

But as was noted by a bunch of people, the transitive theory is very much in play for Temple right now. The Owls beat Navy, which beat Notre Dame, which beat Washington, which beat USC.

Well, you can dream.

These are the voters who had Navy but not Temple on their ballots. Be polite to them, okay?

- Jay G. Tate, Montgomery Advertiser (Alabama)
- Jon Wilner, San Jose Mercury-News
- Jake Schaller, Colorado Springs Gazette
- Brett McMurphy, AOL Fanhouse (based in Tampa, Florida)
- John Davis, Oxford Eagle (Mississippi)
- Dave Matter, Columbia Daily Tribune (Missouri)
- Sal Interdonato, Times Herald-Record (Middletown, N.Y.)
- Jeff Gravley, WRAL-TV (Raleigh, N.C.)
- Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN and WBNS-AM (Columbus, Ohio)
- Mike Finger, San Antonio Express-News
- Bob Condotta, Seattle Times
Posted by Jonathan Tannenwald @ 8:47 PM  Permalink | File Under: Football | | Temple | 15 comments
15
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:56 PM, 11/08/2009
    And Villanova beat Temple... ;)
    — vuhoops.com
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:59 PM, 11/08/2009
    Sometimes I wonder if anyone reads this blog, too.
    — The Devon
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:24 PM, 11/08/2009
    Actually, there were only 5 that voted for the owls. Two ranked them 24th, which is 2 points each, or 4 total. That left 3 points, so 3 voters listed Temple 25th for 1 point each.
    — joeags
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:20 AM, 11/09/2009
    Weak blog. Wasting time and internet space
    — StorminNorman
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:36 AM, 11/09/2009
    joeags, you're totally right. I hadn't done the math. Thanks.
    — Jonathan Tannenwald
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:28 AM, 11/09/2009
    We should get behind this team. Finally a good D-1 football team. Next year we get PSU at home. Time to shake up the world!
    — avoidpitt
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:49 AM, 11/09/2009
    avoid, next year's PSU-Temple game is at Happy Valley. Temple probably sold away another home game for $$$. Just like they did this year with Navy.
    — Leron
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:06 PM, 11/09/2009
    The 2011 Penn State game will be in Philly.
    — ameadie
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:58 PM, 11/09/2009
    You shouldn't play the transitive game, we beat Navy and Navy beat Notre Dame and therefore we're better than Navy or Notre Dame...does that make Nova better than all 3? I'm happy with the 7 votes, let's face it TU has a long historical record of being abysmal, Navy does not, at least recent history. It'll take a lot more than one winning season to turn opinions around or remove old prejudices.
    — RIRedinPA
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:07 PM, 11/09/2009
    Leron, Temple got screwed by Navy this year. We signed a 4 year home and home deal with them, last year we played at Navy as the final away part of our commitment, this year Navy was suppose to come to Philly. For some reason Navy decided they would not honor their part of the contract and play the final game here and were going to pay TU $200,000 to get out of it. That put Bradshaw in a fix as we couldn't line another team up on short notice so we offered to play at their field. One could look at that and think that maybe Navy had no desire, after the scare TU gave them last year, to risk their record by traveling and giving TU a home field advantage. Granted the gate at Navy was bigger (28,000) than what Temple probably would have put in the Linc, 18-22,000, including Navy fans, but I can't see that zeroing out the cost of sending the team, cheerleaders, band and associated staff down there for the game. Sign up for a game at PSU for the gate, sure I can see that. Navy, not so much.
    — RIRedinPA
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:08 PM, 11/09/2009
    RIRedinPA - Actually, yes, Villanova is better: (based on the Sagarin ELO_CHESS, which is what the BCS uses and is in parentheses): 1. Villanova (27) 2. Navy (33) 3. Notre Dame (41) 4. Temple (44)
    — ABL
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:17 PM, 11/09/2009
    ABL, if you think Villanova is the 27th best football team in the nation, you have completely lost your mind. All of those teams are far better than Villanova. Jess Sagarin is a mathematician. He knows nothing about football. Can't wait until Temple has Pierce on the field next year and beats Nova by 4 touchdowns. GO TU.
    — TU_NY
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:49 PM, 11/09/2009
    Let's see . . . Villanova football beat Temple on the field. Villanova football is also beating Temple in the computers. Where else exactly would you like Villanova to beat Temple? Perhaps you forget that Villanova has 65 scholarships of its own? Or that FCS/I-AA teams send numerous players to the NFL every year? The list of FCS/I-AA teams that ousted FBS/I-A teams this year is lengthy, as usual. This year's Villanova team would put a beat down on Navy. By the way, I am actually a big fan of Temple (seriously) and I'm so happy for the program to be returning to a bowl game after so many years of frustration (you should have seen my vigorous arguments in support of Temple and against the Big East and its member schools when that whole thing went down a few years ago).
    — ABL
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:51 PM, 11/12/2009
    covering Penn Football games = FAIL.
    — dpcoz


15 comments
About Jonathan Tannenwald
I fell in love with the Big 5 at first sight upon moving to Philadelphia in 2002. At various points in my journalistic career, I've covered all six of the region's Division I teams. During that time, I've eaten many soft pretzels from the Palestra's concession stands, which is how this blog got its name.

I write primarily about the University of Pennsylvania and the Ivy League, but I also cover the other basketball and football teams across the city from time to time. In the spring, you'll find coverage of the Penn Relays here.

In addition to all of that, I write Philly.com's soccer blog, The Goalkeeper.

You can contact me by email by clicking here.

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