Wow you're thick. Yes, it's stupid. That doesn't mean it's biased. What part of "mathematical formula" eludes your skills of comprehension? If they adjusted the model to be contrary to the mathematically-derived outcome, THEN it would be biased. But that's exactly what you want them to do to manually remove those teams to which you object.
There's something called the ESPN "car wash" when coaches, athletes, and celebrities come to Bristol and appear in a bunch of different programs. Several SEC coaches physically came here after their media days, which is why you saw them on CFL. These aren't planned things and are often set up at the request of agents when there's something they're trying to plug. If Gronk calls ESPN wanting to promote his book, you'll see him in a bunch of different studio shows all in one day. There was a LOT of time devoted to live press conferences on SportsCenter today. I can't speak to Monday because everything centered on The Open.
If the voters ARE swayed by preseason rankings, then THEY are nuts. Isn't that the miracle of "the committee" and all that bullshit everyone was spewing when they tried to convince me that the playoff was the greatest thing to ever come to college sports? That's where you guys should be focusing your energy. If there's an area where ESPN-is-corrupting-college-sports, it's in the idiocy of the playoff system. #WhosIn
Don't forget Tebow, Tiger, and Cuban.
Not a poll.
Let's wait for Mr. Bayless to say such a thing before we throw him under the bus for having said it. When Finebaum is on the record saying ZERO SEC teams will make the playoff, it'll take some cajones for anyone out there to predict two or three.
None of what you're saying has anything to do with ESPN. It's the nature of the beast when schools make their own schedules with minimal NCAA regulations and rankings are based on the whims of sportswriters, many of whom carry their own biases to the ballot with them.
Not just specific to ESPN. They're saying it's specific to ESPN and deliberately skewed in favor of the SEC due to ESPN's relationship with the conference.
I'm curious, how do you think this functions, logistically? John Skipper calls up David Pollack and tells him to make sure he talks up how great Georgia's ground game is going to be this year (or else)? And then the sportswriters, rather than using their own brains and eyeballs, doing the thing that is literally their job, dump their integrity out the window and blindly parrot what Pollack says on air?