Why a Big Ten coach did not have Georgia football on his top 25 ballot
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Georgia football picked up votes from every coach who cast ballots in the US LBM Coaches Poll except one.
Wisconsin’s Luke Fickell didn’t have the Bulldogs anywhere in his top 25.
He wasn’t sending a message to coach Kirby Smart or his SEC championship team, according to Wisconsin assistant athletic director Patrick Herb who called it “just an oversight somehow,” in an email to the Athens Banner-Herald on Thursday, Jan. 22.
Fickell meant to have Georgia at No. 6 on his ballot, Herb said.
“You can go back and look at Coach Fickell’s weekly ballots and UGA has been near the top the entire season, so there it no intentional slight,” Herb said.
The final coaches poll is the only one all season where the ballots are made public.
The 62 voters, including Smart, had a Tuesday late morning deadline to cast their votes after Indiana’s national championship win over Miami on Monday night.
Fickell’s ballot without Georgia was called in via voicemail from a Wisconsin staff member, according to Erick Smith, the editor who oversees the poll for USA TODAY.
Georgia finished No. 5 in the coaches poll and Fickell’s omission would not have affected that ranking, Smith said.
Ohio State, which finished No. 6, did not get a vote either on one coach’s ballot. Delaware’s Ryan Carty did not have him in his top 25. A staff member also said that was an oversight,
Georgia and Ohio State were four points apart in the poll. The Bulldogs finished 12-2 after losing to Ole Miss in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal in the Sugar Bowl.
Top 25 vote for Georgia’s Kirby Smart
- Indiana
- Miami (Fla.)
- Mississippi
- Oregon
- Georgia
- Ohio State
- Texas Tech
- Alabama
- Texas A&M
- Oklahoma
- Texas
- Notre Dame
- Vanderbilt
- Brigham Young
- Utah
- Southern California
- Michigan
- Virginia
- Tulane
- Navy
- Iowa
- Illinois
- James Madison
- Tennessee
- Houston
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Why Wisconsin’s Luke Fickell didn’t have Georgia in top 25 poll vote
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