Steve Spurrier Goes Soft

Integrity and preseason football polls are not statements that are usually associated together. Well, I suppose that could be simplified to integrity and football polls as not commonly associated words. Especially not the USA Today Preseason Coaches' Poll. Coaches will happily puff a team in their ballot the week before facing them, push teams from their conference at the end of the year. All sorts of biases come into play. But I digress.

When the preseason poll came out, I simply assumed that Duke didn't receive a vote simply because South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier was not a voter in the coaches' poll this season. Turns out out he was. So why didn't he list Duke at #25 on his ballot out of loyalty and tradition to the first program to give him a shot at coaching in 1-A, as he always does? Just because he was asked (hat tip to EDSBS).

The University of South Carolina head coach said Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, asked him not to put Duke in the poll.

"He just said I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't vote for Duke to keep the integrity of the poll alive," Spurrier said. "So I went with him."

That's all it took? Just asking him nicely? Has Spurrier mellowed at this point or is it simply that in all these years, it never dawned on anyone else in the AFCA to just ask Spurrier not to do it?

Now if someone could just explain how teams like Virginia, Oklahoma State, Arizona and Tulsa got votes I'd appreciate it.