I read it the same way G did. I thought you were saying "Ryan is 'dead' on BGP" instead of "Ryan is dead-on". :lol:

 

 

Leave me alone. it's been a long week...

 

:creepy:

A couple of years ago the local media here in Pulaski Co. went all out and voted like 6 or 7 players from this area onto the All-State team. Granted that was a good year for this area but not that good. This year Josh Minton deserved all the accolades he has gotten all year but the local paper today says he has 44 tackles on the season. I am sorry but that is not all state credentials,especially first team. He got voted on name recognition and more deserving players were left off.

Which media outlets have a vote in these awards?

Small town press does get overwhelmed by the "big boys"...you can see it in places like UK football when a local western KY paper sends someone to cover the Cats' game...the small town reporters (usually younger) are in awe...

 

Actually, if a "small town" paper can get credentials to a UK game they should consider themselves lucky.

 

It's been my experience that, more often than not, small town sports guys know more about what's going on on the high school scene than the bigger papers. Prep sports is the meat and potatoes of their sports sections, where in most larger dailies they run more national stuff.

 

On the other hand, all local papers are "homers" to some degree. When Caldwell played Danville in the state football championship game in 1998, a certain well-known Danville writer/reporter was on the sideline wearing a Danville Admirals t-shirt.

 

I think the main solution to the AP dilemma is just to get more people to vote, small newspaper, large newspaper, whatever. I know there are enough AP members in the state that just about every team gets seen at least once or twice.

 

On the other hand, all local papers are "homers" to some degree. When Caldwell played Danville in the state football championship game in 1998, a certain well-known Danville writer/reporter was on the sideline wearing a Danville Admirals t-shirt.

 

Was his son on the team?

Isn't the process itself flawed? How can voter in the Ashland or Pulaski County area see players from Ft. Campbell or Louisville to compare to the kids they cover weekly. If you go by stats, can you accurately compare players that play for a coach that may run the score up versus a player that plays for a coach who keeps the score more respectable? For that matter, where does strength of schedule fit in? Would a running back with impressive numbers from Eastern Kentucky put the same numbers up if here were playing in Lexington or Louisville?

Was his son on the team?

 

I've heard at one time his son was on the team. But not sure if he was in ’98 or not.

So we're saying small town reporters are not competent to vote on All-State team? Will the larger newspapers inside The Golden Triangle then send someone to watch the teams out in the rest of the state? Or shall we just assume there is no one at the smaller schools worth seeing anyway?

Isn't the process itself flawed? How can voter in the Ashland or Pulaski County area see players from Ft. Campbell or Louisville to compare to the kids they cover weekly. If you go by stats, can you accurately compare players that play for a coach that may run the score up versus a player that plays for a coach who keeps the score more respectable? For that matter, where does strength of schedule fit in? Would a running back with impressive numbers from Eastern Kentucky put the same numbers up if here were playing in Lexington or Louisville?

I can agree with this because some coaches leave starters in longer when blowing out another team, some stats get padded by doing this. A lot of extra yards as well as tackles. On the stat topic I have seen some teams taking stats on paper or no stats at all. Others award more tackles than actual offensive plays run, do not subtract plays or yardage on plays that were penalized, etc. What I am saying is that stats do not always tell the accurate story either way.

Isn't the process itself flawed? How can voter in the Ashland or Pulaski County area see players from Ft. Campbell or Louisville to compare to the kids they cover weekly. If you go by stats, can you accurately compare players that play for a coach that may run the score up versus a player that plays for a coach who keeps the score more respectable? For that matter, where does strength of schedule fit in? Would a running back with impressive numbers from Eastern Kentucky put the same numbers up if here were playing in Lexington or Louisville?

 

I know where you are heading with this comment and my answer is yes. IF YOU didnt see Ron Blume play this year then you have no right to comment on whether or not he is a deserving first team All Stater or not. Ask any coach that faced JC this year and i will gaurantee you they think Blume is a first teamer.

I think that a daily AP newspaper should be required to vote for the various all-state teams or lose their ability to get high school stories from the AP wire. Too many times, if it weren't for the small weekly and biweekly papers voting, they would have 4-5 ballots returned and that would be it. To me, this is a problem the AP needs to crack down on of they expect to keep any level of respectability with their polls and all-state teams.

 

A) There are few HS-related stories that come across the wire, so about the only thing that would be lost (in terms of publication) is the weekly poll and all-state/year-end awards.

 

B) I'm not aware of more than a couple non-daily papers that subscribe to the AP service, so this concern is unfounded. It's pretty much small-town dailies and a handful of radio/TV stations that vote, in addition to the obvious major papers (C-J, H-L, BGDNews, etc).

 

C) There will be no "crackdown" forthcoming. The polls and year-end awards are just an extra feature the AP provides to its subscribers. They (AP) could care less if one person voted; they'd still publish the polls.

 

Bottom line: Take the AP for what it is -- a poll that reflects the state's population centers, generally towns 10,000 and larger.

I know where you are heading with this comment and my answer is yes. IF YOU didnt see Ron Blume play this year then you have no right to comment on whether or not he is a deserving first team All Stater or not. Ask any coach that faced JC this year and i will gaurantee you they think Blume is a first teamer.

 

I no longer have a vote, but if I did, he would have been on my ballot somewhere. And the game I saw him in was nowhere near one of his best.

From the blog:

 

"The problem, as I see it, is that the AP allows some of the wrong voters to vote. Many of the voters come from small papers and act more as cheerleaders than journalists. Trust me, I've seen it in the press box. Many of those voters feel it's their role to vote for "their kids" and not the best players. Therefore, many deserving kids are left off the all-state team."

 

Here is the link to the blog/article.

 

To a degree, he's right. Some of the people I run into at games have no business working in journalism, and they make the profession, and the degree I worked hard to get, look cheap.

To a degree, he's right. Some of the people I run into at games have no business working in journalism, and they make the profession, and the degree I worked hard to get, look cheap.

Ouch, Jim, no need to air that in public... I thought we were friends... :cry:

Ouch, Jim, no need to air that in public... I thought we were friends... :cry:

 

I've seen your writing, and it puts the clowns I'm referring to to shame.