New polling system still showing flaws, needs improvement

Who's No. 1?

And who determines who No. 1 is?

In the world of Illinois basketball, the Associated Press polls have long been the benchmark of determining who the best teams are across the state. The AP poll is voted on by sports writers and broadcasters across the state.

For the past several years, the AP basketball polls have been compiled and coordinated by three people -- myself for girls basketball, the Daily Herald's Marty Maciaszek for Class AA boys and Lonnie Schwindenhammer of the Peoria Journal Star for Class A boys.

During the time AP has entrusted the polls to us, we built what we felt was a strong network of voters from across the state. No poll or ranking is an exact science and there were always questions about our polls but we did what we felt was a fair job of getting as many media types from around the state involved as possible.

This year, AP has taken the polls back, so to speak. Instead of Marty, Lonnie and myself coordinating and tabulating the polls, as well as writing stories to go with the listings AP releases, AP has come up with a new electronic system for voting and tabulating the weekly polls.

With any new system comes flaws, and the new AP system has had a few of them. To its credit AP, and specifically Dave Zelio, has been listening to the concerns and doing what it can to address them.

But that said, for those of you who live each week to see the statewide polls (and I know there are many of you who do), please take them with a grain of salt for a while, especially in girls basketball.

I say that because under AP's new system, no media member who is not an AP member can vote. That takes two guys from downstate -- Keith Yex and Tim Tarter -- out of the mix just because the small radio stations they work for don't pay AP dues. Without Yex and Tarter the last several years, the girls Class A poll would not have existed.

The first polls of the regular season were released earlier this week and the e-mail banter between the people voting -- both in boys and girls -- has been endless since concerning where certain teams are ranked, teams left out, etc. What it has proven is that while technology is a good thing, and the rapid advances in media technology are knocking our "old ways" doors down, it sometimes eliminates the personal approach to things. That's what I feel it's done with the high school basketball polls in Illinois and to me that's sad.

Another tough part of the new system is our new four-class system in Illinois.

"Considering this is the first year of four classes, the timing of going to a new system was definitely not ideal," Maciaszek said, summing up the feeling of the large majority of voters. "I think it can work in the long run but the key is having people diligent enough on AP's end to make sure people are voting consistently."

That was one problem under the old system that the new system can't solve. If Marty, Lonnie or myself had voters who weren't in touch with us by Monday noon, we were on the horn to rattle their cage. Under the new system, 20 people might vote this week and only 12 next week.

It's a system we have to live with and try to make better as we go. And I know we're all dedicated to doing that, especially Maciaszek, Schwindenhammer and myself who, by the way, will still coordinate the selection of the AP All-State teams.

The AP polls, of course, are not to be confused with the Daily Herald Top 20, which is a ranking and not a poll. Don't know the difference? Poll order is determined by a tabulated point system while rankings are not.

In the end, I guess the question is do people really care about polls? I contend readers enjoy seeing them because we get e-mails and calls if we don't run them. Athletes love polls and rankings. Coaches? Well, some go a little overboard at times. I remember the girls coach who started yelling at Mike Trueblood of the Galesburg Register-Mail at the state tournament one year about his team's place in the AP poll. Trueblood coordinated the girls poll prior to me. It was an embarrassing scene for the coach and Trueblood, and that was the last year Trueblood did the poll.

"It's nice to be recognized in polls and rankings, but really it makes you feel good and that's about it," said longtime Dundee-Crown girls coach Joe Komaromy. "Other than the satisfaction of seeing it it really doesn't mean much. A lot of it's judgmental and it depends on who is doing it."

Finally, the unfortunate part of the polls is that with the new four-class system, when it comes time for the state tournament, the top 10 teams in each class won't get downstate, or even out of a sectional in some cases. One example: In Class 3A girls, Chicago Hope and Montini -- both ranked in the top 10 -- are in the same sectional.

So while we debate the credibility of polls and polling systems, my only other thought is that I'm glad the IHSA hasn't joined into a corporate partnership with AP to present the state's version of the BCS.

Shhhhh -- let's not give anyone any ideas.