[Be that as it may ...] Chris Fowler sees the light
December 1st, 2008 by Will O'HarganWhat a difference a week, a nationally syndicated column, and a drubbing on a radio show will do for someone’s ability to see Ball State as a quality football team.
For those of you who don’t remember, last week I wrote this blog post about Chris Fowler leaving the (then) 11-0 Ball State Cardinals off of his AP Poll top 25 ballot. I, of course, was not the only person to attack Fowler.
Jason Whitlock
Thankfully, someone with a bit more pull that myself, FoxSports.com’s Jason Whitlock, a BSU alum wrote this column that discussed, among other things, how ESPN is ruining sports and how Chris Fowler is an idiot.
What Fowler has done is ridiculous and reeks of the kind of simple-minded arrogance that permeates ESPN. Fowler has had his ass kissed for too many years. He travels around the country during football season and everywhere he goes, there’s an Army of BCS sports information directors waiting to kiss his ass and tell him how great “GameDay” is.
Whitlock also appeared on several talk shows in the days following Ball State’s win, including the Jim Rome show, to talk about his column and how much of an idiot egotist Chris Fowler is.
So, what does Fowler have to say this week, after the Cardinals defeated bowl-bound Western Michigan 45-22? Well, first off his new AP Ballot has us listed at No. 19. He also talked briefly of College Football Gameday about how great the Cardinals were, and how he’d like to see a BSU/BSU bowl game (more on that tomorrow). Video after the jump. Sure, No. 19 is not exactly great, but better than his ABC/ESPN cohort Craig James who has us at No. 24 or Glenn Guilbeau of the Gannett Louisiana News Service, who has us No. 25. I’m not going to talk about how awful it is to have Oregon State ranked ahead of us, I’ll just let that sit.
Kirk Herbstreit (Chris Fowler's voting buddy)
But the most confusing move of the week belongs Kirk Herbstreit. After having the Cardinals ranked No. 15 two weeks ago, Herbstreit moved Ball State down to No. 16 after beating two time defending Mid-American Conference champion Central Michigan and then lowered us to No. 19 in this week’s ballot. That’s right, after beating the second best team in the MAC by 23 points Herbstreit lowered Ball State in his rankings three positions, despite a plethra of upsets near the Cardinals in the rankings.
How putrid is that? He was one of two voters, the other being Jeff White of the Richmond Times who lowered us from No. 15 to No. 16, to lower us in his ranking in a week where, of the 65 voters, only 14 didn’t move Ball State up at least a spot.
And yet, it doesn’t exactly surprize me.
Herbstreit, while voting for WBNS in Columbus, Ohio, is also a member of the College Gameday crew. Maybe Chris Fowler was afraid that No. 19 would be too low and wanted a little support, so he asked his friend Kirk to help him out? Doesn’t it seem odd that both voting members of the College Gameday team would have Ball State ranked exactly the same? More so when you consider that one had them No. 16 and the other didn’t have them ranked the previous week? Isn’t this exactly what Jason Whitlock’s column was talking about?
For now, let’s just enjoy this video of Chris Fowler, who did not have Ball State on his ballot while saying this, hypeing up the Ball State Cardinals.
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