Legends Poll

The Legends Poll is a college football poll that rates the Top 25 teams weekly during the college football season. Its aim is to identify the two best teams in its opinion by the end of the season to compete in the BCS national championship game. The group is currently made up of 17 retired football coaches, most of whom are members of the College Football Hall of Fame. The Legends Poll was founded by Andy Curtin in 2005 as the Master Coaches Survey, but changed its name in 2008 to better reflect the make-up of its voting members. Curtin and his partner, Pete Wolek implemented the original plan and have operated the Legends Poll since its inception. The Legends Poll appears in the Sporting News each week and is published by other media web sites such as ESPN.com.

Legends Poll Members

History
The Legends Poll started in July 2005 when Andy Curtin and four partners convened a three-day conference in Thomasville, Georgia that was attended by fifteen retired college football coaches, all with impressive career records as head coaches. These coaches were introduced to a polling system that was quite different than any previous poll. The main differences in the proposed poll were threefold. The voters in the new poll would be provided game DVDs to watch each week, the voters would discuss the recent games on an hour-long conference call each week, and there would be no pre-season poll. The first poll wouldn’t take place until after the voters had seen three weeks’ worth of games.

After unanimously approving this new polling idea, the coaches agreed to become the Master Coaches Survey and began voting in the 2005 college football season. They have continued to faithfully vote for four consecutive seasons. Prior to the 2008 season, the poll name was changed to the Legends Poll to reflect the legendary status of the famous coaches involved, and to replace the word “Survey” with “Poll” to reduce confusion with the fans as to what was actually taking place.

The basic idea of the poll was that one would get the best poll results by utilizing the most expert talent to vote, especially when they had no current ties to college football programs, and they had the time to watch all the relevant games played each week. The weekly conference call allowed the coaches to point out to each other the strengths and weaknesses of the various teams. Each coach was assigned one or two teams to follow and become an expert on. During the conference call each coach would present his synopsis on his assigned team, and the other coaches would comment on or question what had been presented. This system thus allows all of its voters the shared expertise of the entire group. As the season progressed and more teams dropped from contention for the top spots in the poll, coaches who lost teams from that process would be assigned new teams to follow, which allowed the Legends Poll to have multiple experts looking at the top teams as the season wound down.

The ultimate goal of the Legends Poll is not to get the exact 25 teams in exactly correct numerical order each week, but to get the correct two teams listed as # 1 & 2 at the conclusion of the season, after watching the entire body of work of all the contending teams throughout that season. No other poll operates like the Legends Poll.

The original 16 members of the poll in 2005 were: John Cooper, Vince Dooley, Pat Dye, LaVell Edwards, Hayden Fry, Don James, Frank Kush, Dick MacPherson, Bill Mallory, Don Nehlen, John Ralston, John Robinson, Bo Schembechler, R. C. Slocum, Gene Stallings and George Welsh.

Bo Schembechler died in November 2006. He was replaced by Tom Osborne in the 2007 season. Due to prior commitments, Terry Donahue, an original invitee, was unable to join the group until 2006. When Tom Osborne became the Nebraska Athletics Director after the 2007 season, he was replaced by Bill Snyder in 2008. Hayden Fry asked to be relieved of his voting duties in 2008 and he was replaced by Frank Broyles. Fisher DeBerry was also added to the group in 2008. Bill Snyder left the group after returning to coaching in 2008. In March 2010, Bobby Ross became the group's newest member. Bobby Bowden was added to the group in April 2010, mere months after coaching his final game at Florida State.

The Legends Poll and its predecessor have received publicity through being published on the group’s website www.legendschannel.com along with picking up more newspaper distribution each season. Also ESPN.com runs the Legends Poll weekly on its web site, and Sporting News Today publishes the Legends Poll along with coach commentary each Monday during the season.