The final Coaches Poll top 25 makes ballots public. Here are 2016’s funny coach votes

Ranking teams is a tough exercise. It’s easy to argue about who should be at one specific spot, but it’s legitimately annoying to rank 25 teams every week. The top 10 usually takes care of itself, but the closer to No. 25 you get, the harder it becomes to not just give up on the whole thing and order teams randomly, for the hell of it.

Typically the post-championship week Coaches Poll is the only one in which we see how the coaches voted in full (you can do that for yourself here). We’ll pretend that the coaches actually do it themselves and that they don’t simply pass the buck to their media relations guys, because I am an optimist by nature.

Let’s look at a few of the interesting votes.

The Playoff fours

Sure, these rankings don’t have any bearing on the actual Playoff, but it’s illuminating to see who’s in coaches’ top fours.

James Franklin obviously ranked Big Ten champ Penn State at No. 3 and Playoff team Ohio State at No. 4, but Franklin was a rare bird.

Urban Meyer put his Buckeyes at No. 2, then Clemson at No. 3, Penn State at No. 4, Michigan at No. 5, and Playoff team Washington way down at No. 6.

Washington’s Chris Petersen put his Huskies at No. 2. And Boise State’s Bryan Harsin joined his mentor and brother in the Northwest by putting the Huskies at No. 2 as well, proving Heisman voting isn’t the only thing in college football that enjoys a little regional bias.

Also Nick Saban’s ballot is SEC-biased, or something.

Speaking of four, at least Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly (who went 4-8 this season) didn’t have any oddities in his poll.

Bob Stoops raised an exquisite middle finger to everyone, with the Sooners at No. 4 ahead of Washington, Michigan, and Penn State.

David Cutcliffe (in lovely #goacc fashion) put Miami at No. 18. Hello, recency bias, as the Canes whomped Duke on the final week of the regular season. (However, the computers do think Miami is being underrated by the Playoff committee and other pollsters.)

Don’t worry Houston, Tom Herman still loves you. You’ll always be close to his heart, and you’re No. 25 in his final poll. (Yes, we’re ignoring the fact that someone actually at Houston surely voted in the new Texas coach’s name.) I wonder if he wrote his poll notes down in the Houston notebook he brought to Austin.

Gus Malzahn ranked Tennessee down at No. 22, a continued tough fall from the grace for the champions of life. Speaking of SEC BIAS, Dan Mullen is the only coach who had Auburn higher than Malzahn did.

In addition to ranking his Cougars No. 14, Mike Leach had Washington at No. 2.

Points to Marshall’s Doc Holliday for similarly playing nice.

Points to Central Michigan’s John Bonamego for not doing so at all.

Bonamego also ranked Navy No. 19, which was interesting after the Midshipmen got thrashed in the AAC Championship. Before that loss, Navy was WMU’s primary competition for the Cotton Bowl.

As far as Matt Campbell’s concerned, the only reason it’s noteworthy that he didn’t rank Iowa is because he’s the coach of Iowa State. The Hawkeyes barely scraped into the actual poll at No. 25 anyway.

Bielema ranked Kentucky No. 25, and I demand an apology for that.

It shouldn’t be too hard, given the fact that the school already had to apologize for someone Bielema omitted. He didn’t rank Virginia Tech in his ballot. Probably wouldn’t have been a big deal until Arkansas got selected to play the Hokies in a bowl game. That forced the school to make a statement about the whole thing. They also kinda admitted Bielema doesn’t fill the ballot out, too.

It proves the Coaches Poll doesn’t matter until it does matter. And even that requires the off-chance you play a bowl against the team you inadvertently threw shade at.