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Every single one of us is a junkie when it comes to polls.
Now that football season is here, we see them all the time. College football polls. Prep football polls. Before we know it, there'll be Pop Warner and middle school football polls.
Volleyball polls. Soccer polls. Cross country polls. Band polls. Cheerleading polls.
OK, so those last two don't exist yet. But they might as well with all of the other polls that are out. Could you imagine the debate?
"There's no way South Umpqua's ranked No. 1 in the cheer poll! They've only got one guy on their squad! Wilsonville has six, and they can do handsprings and cartwheels, too! Do these people know a freaking thing about cheerleading?"
Sound familiar?
Who hasn't heard someone spew something like that off when their school hasn't gotten all of the much-deserved votes they should have? It's funny how some people will cry bloody murder if their team didn't get its rightful spot in the rankings.
Then there's the newer fan polls, which I thoroughly enjoy. OregonLive.com has some on its forums and OregonPrepSports.net has one on its site. Fans chime in and give their takes on who will beat who, which teams are better and, you guessed it, which team is No. 1.
The latter Web site includes all six of Oregon's classes, giving the small schools a chance to chime in on how highly ranked their teams should be. And it's all determined by fans, giving everyone a chance to voice their biased opinion on how good a team is.
Some votes are based more on emotion than reality. Sorry, North Douglas. You've got some great kids who are working their tails off, but they didn't deserve 21 votes in the OregonPrepSports.net preseason football fan poll.
Honestly, how accurate are these things anyway? This isn't college football where there's a television camera at every football game. Some stat keepers for volleyball, soccer and even football are yanked out of the school hallways at a moment's notice. And in prep sports, about the only statistic you can really rely on from everybody is a win-loss record.
So why bother with this? What's the point in relying on a poll that isn't always accurate?
Why? Because it's fun.
Like it or not, we live in a culture of controversy and complaints, and we jump on the bandwagon at the first chance we get. When that controversy involves sports and a team that we're already emotionally involved with, it adds more incentive for fans to speak up.
And speak up they do. Just ask one person on OregonLive.com's 4A football forum this past week.
"It's been this way forever. The AP voters for that poll are ... misinformed, biased, and ... well, clueless. They were born in the dark and the lights have yet to come on."
Hey, I have an idea (insert big bright lightbulb here, plus a dinging sound).
How about we have no polls. How about when a team does well, we never rank them for fear of upsetting someone who may, or may not, deserve the attention more. How about we do that to make sure that EVERYONE, even the losing teams, are treated fairly.
That work?
Didn't think so.
That said, for all of whose who find something to complain about, quit and quit now. Leave well enough alone.
WEEKEND'S BEST
Football -- Prospect at Elkton. The Elks won two -- TWO! -- games in a single day last week. One of them was by forfeit over Paisley and another was a big win over Crow. They'll play another playoff team from a year ago in Prospect and could raise some eyebrows in the Skyline League with a win.
Soccer -- South Umpqua at Sutherlin girls, 4:30 p.m. today. Last year's second-place finishers in the Far West League meet a Bulldogs team that could contend for a state playoff spot this year.
* You can reach sports reporter Jon Mitchell by e-mail at jmitchell@newsreview.info, or by phone at (541) 957-4219.
Now that football season is here, we see them all the time. College football polls. Prep football polls. Before we know it, there'll be Pop Warner and middle school football polls.
Volleyball polls. Soccer polls. Cross country polls. Band polls. Cheerleading polls.
OK, so those last two don't exist yet. But they might as well with all of the other polls that are out. Could you imagine the debate?
"There's no way South Umpqua's ranked No. 1 in the cheer poll! They've only got one guy on their squad! Wilsonville has six, and they can do handsprings and cartwheels, too! Do these people know a freaking thing about cheerleading?"
Sound familiar?
Who hasn't heard someone spew something like that off when their school hasn't gotten all of the much-deserved votes they should have? It's funny how some people will cry bloody murder if their team didn't get its rightful spot in the rankings.
Then there's the newer fan polls, which I thoroughly enjoy. OregonLive.com has some on its forums and OregonPrepSports.net has one on its site. Fans chime in and give their takes on who will beat who, which teams are better and, you guessed it, which team is No. 1.
The latter Web site includes all six of Oregon's classes, giving the small schools a chance to chime in on how highly ranked their teams should be. And it's all determined by fans, giving everyone a chance to voice their biased opinion on how good a team is.
Some votes are based more on emotion than reality. Sorry, North Douglas. You've got some great kids who are working their tails off, but they didn't deserve 21 votes in the OregonPrepSports.net preseason football fan poll.
Honestly, how accurate are these things anyway? This isn't college football where there's a television camera at every football game. Some stat keepers for volleyball, soccer and even football are yanked out of the school hallways at a moment's notice. And in prep sports, about the only statistic you can really rely on from everybody is a win-loss record.
So why bother with this? What's the point in relying on a poll that isn't always accurate?
Why? Because it's fun.
Like it or not, we live in a culture of controversy and complaints, and we jump on the bandwagon at the first chance we get. When that controversy involves sports and a team that we're already emotionally involved with, it adds more incentive for fans to speak up.
And speak up they do. Just ask one person on OregonLive.com's 4A football forum this past week.
"It's been this way forever. The AP voters for that poll are ... misinformed, biased, and ... well, clueless. They were born in the dark and the lights have yet to come on."
Hey, I have an idea (insert big bright lightbulb here, plus a dinging sound).
How about we have no polls. How about when a team does well, we never rank them for fear of upsetting someone who may, or may not, deserve the attention more. How about we do that to make sure that EVERYONE, even the losing teams, are treated fairly.
That work?
Didn't think so.
That said, for all of whose who find something to complain about, quit and quit now. Leave well enough alone.
WEEKEND'S BEST
Football -- Prospect at Elkton. The Elks won two -- TWO! -- games in a single day last week. One of them was by forfeit over Paisley and another was a big win over Crow. They'll play another playoff team from a year ago in Prospect and could raise some eyebrows in the Skyline League with a win.
Soccer -- South Umpqua at Sutherlin girls, 4:30 p.m. today. Last year's second-place finishers in the Far West League meet a Bulldogs team that could contend for a state playoff spot this year.
* You can reach sports reporter Jon Mitchell by e-mail at jmitchell@newsreview.info, or by phone at (541) 957-4219.
