He and Scott Wolf of the LA Daily News are the only writers in the west to put Ohio State in number 2. I guess they are doing it to preserve their Journalistic Integrity. What a load of crap. How can you put Ohio State in number 2 - they have beaten NO ONE of note. Cal has beaten at least two top 25 teams (including a top 10 team on the road). Oh year, the guy from the Oregonian put us #3 as well - he must be a Oregon State homer. I guess we can change his mind this weekend.
At least the guy from North Carolina who put South Florida in number 2 had the intelligence to put Cal 3 and Ohio State 4.
The guy from El Paso who had the Bears 13 last week corrected his ballot, and put us in #2. He also made up for his error by moving Ohio State to #4, after South Florida.
As you can imagine, Ohio State received most of their second votes from the mid-west and the north-east. The interesting thing is, not a single of the three votes from the state of Ohio went with the Buckeyes. It must be that they are trying to make up for Ratto's silliness.
3 comments:
Scott Wolf doesn't have ASU in his top 25 either so he must just be an idiot.
Here's my email dialog with Mr. Ratto:
Me---
Hey traitor,
Ranking Cal behind THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY?
Last I checked, you lived in the Bay Area and are expected to be at least fair and not the anti-homer. If this same situation came up anywhere else in the country (say.. Texas), you would be swinging from a tree right about now...
Go Bears!
Ratto-san---
1. I don't work for Cal.
2. I don't work for a geographical part of the country.
3. As far as voting in the AP poll goes, I work for AP.
4. I had Ohio State ranked ahead of Cal last week, and would not put Cal ahead of Ohio State in a week in which Cal did not play.
5. That's why I don't live it Texas
It's cool that he responded. I don't agree with his OSU view but at least now we know where he's coming from. I should have blasted him last week for the position that he now cannot back down from. (traitor then, traitor now is not a defense).
In the meantime, I'm rooting for our Golden Bears (of course) and Kentucky. Go Wildcats -- see blue in everything you do!
Hey - great post. Well, I can't wait to move up when we beat OSU then.
Take a look at his ballot - Oregon at 17, Arizona State at 21. He has USC at 13, which I guess is probably about where I would have them. But that is reflects a pretty poor assessment of where the Pac 10 is in relation to the rest of football.
I know that ranking is a pretty tough business. But it is interesting that the National press have a much different view of the football landscape than the local guys - and I do not mean just our local guys. The National Press have cal strongly at 2, with Oregon at 5 and Arizona State much higher. I think it is because they can see the speed and the schemes better - I know that Ratto is not dealing with this every day like a Stewart Mandel or Kirk Herbstreit. But those guys will start to set the pace and others will follow along.
Frankly, once the ESPN folks start to realize how much nicer it is to come to Berkeley for a game than Knoxville (believe me, I went and I know), I think they are going to drum up the west coast thing. They would love to be able to play the California rivalry between Cal and SC, for their annual trip out west (not to impugn their journalistic integrity).
In fact, the Bears do get more respect around the country than we do from our own major sports outlets (TV, Radio or Newspapers). That is fine. But when it becomes more than benign neglect - when the votes actually matter - that becomes a bigger issue.
Anyway, it is only week six. We have plenty of time to hunt for conspiracy theories. But, lets face it - the Bears outdraw the 49ers and the Raiders on a weekly basis. Hopefully someone will notice on the local press.
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