Texas Girls Coaches Association Poll - Science or Fiction?

[93players]

On and off, for the last couple of years, I have checked this poll. It certain inflates alot of egos of the players on teams rated highly. But how can one person - or even several - pretend to rank hundreds of teams across thousands of miles every couple of weeks. Vista Ridge was not even in the poll last year until they started to mow down opposition in the playoffs. Coaches pad their win statistics by playing alot of easy teams and they pad the stats of players. There are alot of teams winning games by low scores with 3 players batting in the high 400s. Does not add up. Butch Hart is running a popularity contest. I have been to some of the more high profile games in the state in my travels this and last season and I have never seen him there. Personally, if you can't have some organized process for doing this - like votes of sports writers or coaches or a committee, I wouldn't do it on a nonprofit organization site devoted to Texas Coaches for Girls Sports.

A better way to do this would be to have Tiers within each division. Maybe list 5 teams per Tier I, II, and III. List them alphabetically. I bet you could get more concensus for Tiers than this joke of a list.

http://www.austintgca.com/softball/polls.html

[al-e-do]

Butch bases his information on input for people around the state. If you do not send him the info on how your team is doing he does not know.

example # 1 2008 Aledo was not ranked until they were 14-0 because no one sent in information to Butch. Went from being not ranked to #1 go figure
example # 2 2010 Birdville keeps Butch updated on how they are doing. They lose to Azle 4-0
this weeks poll Azle # 21 and Birdville # 25, only issues is Azle loses to Aledo 4-1 last week before the poll comes out. If Butch has information about Azless lose to Aledo they most likely would not be ranked.

in other words do not get your panties in a wad over this it is not the BCS we play until only one is left standing.

6-4A game of the week is tonight Birdville(4-1) vs Boswell(5-0) for 1st place winner will be ranked next week

[riseball]

Regaurdless of how ernestly someone works to gather info. polls are still just someones opinion. Look at NCAA D1 football. The playoff system is the only way to decide the best teams. Even then there are upsets, but at least it has been determined on the field of play.

[Rootingforsis]

Instead of posting your rant on heybucket, maybe you (or your high school coach) should be sending in a summary of what you know to Butch. You certainly post on heybucket enough, so presumably you have something to add to equation.

The fact is that this poll is unscientific, and largely driven by information provided by high school coaches (it is their association afterall), travel ball coaches, sports writers, area local newspaper rankings, etc. I disagree with some of the rankings, but you can't argue with it anymore than any other AP, USAToday, ESPN, etc. poll.

I am a regular contributor of information to Butch on a wide array of teams around the state, letting him know what I know about team wins/losses, breakout stars, injuries, etc. It is just my opinion and Butch ultimately does with it what he wants, but he gets an AMAZING amount of his polls right.

And ultimately a weekly, regular season poll is not supposed to be a predictor of who wins the state tournament. It is a snapshot of who is the best at that moment in time. Just watch a little basketball with your Kansas and Syracuse friends to know that the best teams don't always win national championships.

[youknow23]

Amen !!!!!!!