Harris Interactive College Football Poll

The Harris Interactive College Football Poll is a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football teams. The rankings are compiled by Harris Interactive, a market research company that specializes in Internet research.

The poll was created in the summer of 2005 to replace the AP Poll which decided it no longer wanted to be a part of the formula used by the BCS rankings to determine who plays in the BCS National Championship Game. [cite press release | publisher=Bowl Championship Series | date=July 11, 2005 | url=http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/newsletters/clientnews/BCS_2005.pdf | title=BCS Announces Standings Formula | accessdate=2006-07-27 ] Unlike the other two seasonal polls, the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll, the Harris Poll does not release a preseason poll; in fact, it does not come out until the last half of September, several weeks into the season.

The Harris Interactive Poll is comprised of former players, coaches, administrators, and current and former media who submit votes for the top 25 teams each week. The panel has been designed to be a statistically valid representation of all 11 FBS Conferences and independent institutions. [cite press release | publisher=Bowl Championship Series | date=September 25, 2005 | url=http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/newsletters/bcsnews/BCS_Sept_25_2005.pdf | title=USC Ranked No. One in Top 25 Harris Interactive College Football Poll | accessdate=2006-07-27 ]

Polling methodology

First, Division I-Bowl Subdivision college football conferences and independent institutions nominate prospective panelists. Then Harris randomly selects 114 members from the nominees to participate in the actual panel. From each week in September to the end of the regular college football season these 114 panelists vote on the particular ranking of teams. These rankings are then published and are used to determine 1/3 of the BCS standings.Fact|date=March 2007

Notable members

2005

:"See full list at": [http://www.pollg.com/g/w24546/w24546gateway.htm List of 2005 Panelists]

2006

:"See full list at": [http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/newsletters/bcsnews/BCS_Sept_13_2006.pdf List of 2006 Panelists]

2007

:"See full list at": [http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/newsletters/bcsnews/BCS_Sept_21_2007.pdf List of 2007 Panelists]

2008

:"See full list at": [http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/newsletters/bcsnews/BCS_Sept_17_2008.pdf List of 2008 Panelists]

Year-by-year No. 1 and Final Rankings

2005 USC "See results at": [http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/newsletters/bcsnews/BCS_Dec_04_2005.pdf Final 2005 Harris Poll]
2006 Ohio State "See results at": [http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/newsletters/bcsnews/HICFP_Individual_Rankings_Dec_3_2006.pdf Final 2006 Harris Poll]
2007 Ohio State "See results at": [http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/newsletters/bcsnews/HICFP_Individual_Rankings_Dec_2_2007.pdf Final 2007 Harris Poll]

ee also

*NCAA Division I-A national football championship
*List of college bowl games
*AP Poll
*Coaches Poll
*Bowl Championship Series
*Grantland Rice Award
*Mythical National Championship
*Dickinson System

External links

* [http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/bcspoll.asp Harris Interactive College Football Poll]
* [http://www.math.tulane.edu/~mnicholas/College%20Football/harris.html 2007 Harris Voter Affiliation]

References